Lesson to be learned from the Duke rape case

With their pending rape charges recently dropped, David Evans, Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty are living examples of the slogan, “No Justice, No Peace.”

For 395 days, the three accused former Duke University lacrosse players lived a nightmare because justice for them was denied. But with one spoken statement, “We believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges,” the accused were no longer out on bail, and for the first time in more than a year were able to experience a piece of peace.

For many African American men, living a nightmare as a result of “rogue prosecutors” and polluted police officials are as commonplace as reading a daily newspaper. However, for many white men the thought of justice denied is foreign.

In the press conference following the announcement of their innocence, Seligmann revealed his ignorance of America’s unjust judicial system.

"This entire experience has opened my eyes up to a tragic world of injustice I never knew existed,” said Seligmann. “If police officers and a district attorney can systematically railroad us with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, I can’t imagine what they’d do to people who don’t have the resources to defend themselves.”

What they would do Mr. Seligmann is “systematically” convict those people without as much as a minimal care.

Darryl Hunt, a Winston Salem native was wrongly convicted and sentenced in 1984 to life in prison for the rape and murder of a white woman. Convicted at 19, Hunt served almost 20 years in prison before being exonerated by DNA evidence. According to the Winston Salem Journal newspaper [they conducted a six month investigation] the evidence proved that questionable police tactics and witnesses were used to twice convict Hunt.

Marvin Anderson also convicted at 19 for alleging raping a white woman in New Hanover County, Va., (Richmond suburbs) was sentenced to 210 years in 1982. He served 15 years before DNA evidence proved his innocence. Like Hunt, poor police work solely based on race combined with an incompetent lawyer help put Anderson behind bars.

Hunt and Anderson represent just two of hundreds of African American men who are falsely accused of rape – usually by women of different ethnicities. These innocent victims spend large portions of their lives imprisoned despite no forensic proof, medical evidence or reliable eyewitness account to justify their convictions. Often times these convictions are based on racial intolerance by a community or officers of the court using those innocence men as political stepping stones.

Acknowledging that stereotypes and personal political agenda impeded justice, Seligmann continued with his press conference comments by saying, “So rather than relying on disparaging stereotypes and creating political and racial conflicts all of us need to take a step back from this case and learn from it. The Duke lacrosse case has shown that our society has lost sight of the most fundamental principle of our legal system – the presumption of innocence.”

If presumption of innocence does exist and justice is truly blind as is indicated in every American courtroom with the presence of that lady wearing the blindfold, then a nation must do as Seligmann suggested and learn from the Duke debacle; so that no other offspring of America suffers from unjust neglect. Unfortunately the lady peaks sometimes.

If white folks are wondering why a black woman would falsely accused three innocent white men of rape then wonders why a community of black folks would be in such a uproar before any guilt was established, white folks must first understand that black folks have been on the opposite side of this nightmare for centuries. Lies and hate planted means lies and hate harvested.

History reminds us that in 1925 the community of Rosewood Fla., was invaded and burned by an angry mob of white men who believed Fannie Taylor, a white woman, had been raped by a black man. After burning down the community and killing several African Americans it was established that Taylor had never been rape, but beaten by a white man. Then in 1931 nine black youth, called the Scottsboro Boys, were charged with raping two white women. Despite one woman recanting her story, the boys where still convicted and sentenced to death. They were eventually acquitted after serving several years in prison. And in 1955 Emmett Till wasn’t accused of rape, but was brutally murdered by a mob of white men. Allegedly he whistled at a white woman.

The more thing change the more they remain the same!

If it be the desire of America to live in harmony the constituents of this society must understand that forming alliances along racial lines when a crime or alleged crime is committed opposed to bonding based on what the authentic evidence reveals does nothing to foster harmony, it facilitates hate.

History’s blueprint reveals that it is reasonable to believe that a woman of one ethnicity will again accuse a man or group of men of another ethnicity of rape. But that blueprint also exposes the destruction that will occur as a result of those accusations when a society loses sight of the most fundamental principle of America’s legal system – the presumption of innocence.

If a society plants injustice, then injustice is what that society will harvest.

George Wilhelm Hegel, a 19th century philosopher of history said, “What experience and history teaches is this; that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles.” How sad it would be if America proved Hegel’s assertion correct.

Evans, Seligmann and Finnerty, by many accounts, represents the best the country has to offer. They are products of well-to-do families; educated at one of America’s most prestigious universities, and their potential is limitless, in part because of their hue. With their press conference remarks, three of America's assumed best placed America on notice; informing her that she must mead out justice for all -- in all situations. If not, America should engage in a conversation with the three former Duke students who were almost duked. They clearly can share their reality that there is “no peace when there is no justice.”