A Washington Post editorial today calls for an end to the prosecution of the Duke Lacrosse players.

It recalls the words of U.S. Attorney General Robert Jackson in 1940:

"THE PROSECUTOR has more control over life, liberty and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous. He can have citizens investigated, and, if he is that kind of person, he can have this done to the tune of public statements and veiled or unveiled intimations."

....The prosecutor, as Robert Jackson said so many years ago, "can have no better asset than to have his profession recognize that his attitude toward those who feel his power has been dispassionate, reasonable and just."

Bump and Update: The North Carolina Bar has filed an ethics complaint against DA Mike Nifong for his improper extra-judicial comments in the Duke Lacrosse players alleged rape case. Professor KC Johnson has reviewed it and provides analysis.

The filing focuses solely on his procedurally improper public statements, which the Bar (correctly) contends violated Rule 3.8(f) of the Code of Professional Responsibility. That provision requires prosecutors to “refrain from making extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused.”

The text of the complaint is here (pdf).

While one of DA Mike Nifong's investigators was interviewing the accuser Thursday, he was giving a three hour interview to the New York Times.

Shorter version: If the accuser cannot with certainty identify the players she claims sexually assaulted her at the lineup hearing in February, he'll drop the case against those not identified.

Mr. Nifong declined interview requests Friday, but said in an e-mail message that his decision to dismiss the rape charges showed he was “willing to go in whatever direction the evidence takes me.” And in a three-hour interview on Thursday, Mr. Nifong said he would not hesitate to drop all the charges if the accuser expressed doubt about the identity of the men she has accused when she sees all three defendants at a pretrial hearing set for February.

“If she came in and said she could not identify her assailants, then we don’t have a case,” Mr. Nifong said. On the other hand, he continued, “If she says, yes it’s them, or one or two of them, I have an obligation to put that to a jury.”

Embattled DA Mike Nifong has dropped the rape charges against the Duke lacrosse players.

But he's leaving the sexual assault and kidnapping charges.

Nifong said he plans to proceed with kidnapping and sexual assault charges against the three players....

Nifong's investigator interviewed the woman Thursday, and she told the investigator that she couldn't testify "with certainty" that she was raped. Prosecutors said they couldn't proceed without her testimony, so they decided to dismiss the rape charges in the case.

Nifong's motion states she is no longer sure it was a p*nis that was inserted into her, as opposed to an object.

The number one cash crop in America is now marijuana.

The report, "Marijuana Production in the United States," by marijuana policy researcher Jon Gettman, concludes that despite massive eradication efforts at the hands of the federal government, "marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the national economy."

Priceless.

Update: The accuser is not due until February. Paternity tests have been ordered at the request of the defense. Nifong says he has no reason to believe any of the players are the father.

[Added: The following appears to be incorrect]

The accuser in the Duke Lacrosse alleged rape case gave birth on Thursday.

The 29-year-old gave birth nine months after she alleges she was raped by three Duke University lacrosse players at a March 13 team party.

Added: The following still seems valid:

....A defense attorney tells WRAL that a test taken at the hospital showed that she was not pregnant at the time of the party and that she was given emergency contraception commonly referred to as the morning-after pill.

While no semen from any of those accused as found in her body, male DNA from multiple other sources was.

In other Duke case news, the defense filed a great motion to suppress the accuser's eyewitness identification of the players today. It's 46 pages and available here.

There are more internal inconsistencies in this case than in any other rape case I can remember reading about. A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.

There's a lot of discussion about today's developments going on at the TalkLeft Duke Forums.

For months, the Duke lacrosse players alleged rape case has been a train wreck waiting to happen. I hope with this news, it finally derails for good.

A private laboratory hired by the prosecution in the Duke lacrosse case failed to report that it found DNA from multiple males in the accuser's body and underwear, according to a defense motion filed today.

The lab, DNA Security of Burlington, found that the DNA did not match the three defendants, their lacrosse teammates or anyone else who submitted their DNA to police, including the accuser's boyfriend.

You can read the motion filed by the defense today here.

Go directly to jail, do not pass Go, and forget about collecting $200. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals took one day after yesterday's stay order to deliver that message to Enron's Jeffrey Skilling today.

Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in his two-page order that "Skilling raises no substantial question that is likely to result in the reversal of his convictions on all of the charged counts."

As a result, Higginbotham denied Skilling's request for bail pending his appeal and vacated an earlier order staying his prison report date.

Skilling must now report to the low security level federal prison at Waseca, MN to begin serving his 24 year sentence. Ouch. But the Judge gave Skilling a glimmer of hope for his appeal:

Enron's Jeff Skilling caught a last minute break from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Monday. He won't have to report to his designated prison at Waseca, MN today.

Skilling has a motion for bail pending appeal under consideration and the Court ruled he can stay out until it is decided.

Skilling has been sentenced to 24 years.

The Second Circuit affirmed on Thursday the conviction of former law enforcement officers convicted of civil rights violations under 18 U.S.C. §§ 241 & 242 for falsifying information to get search warrants, fictitious informant payments, and stealing property from targets of their search warrants.  They were also convicted of using a firearm during a "crime of violence," that is, the drawing of their weapons during the execution of a search warrant which is inherently violent. United States v. Acosta, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 29607 (2d Cir. November 30, 2006) (unpublished). This is an unpublished opinion, and the facts are abbreviated, but it is interesting still sheerly because of the fact a police officer was convicted for something that many narcs do without a second thought:

It doesn't pay to party in Macomb County, Georgia Michigan.

In what her father called "outrageous" and her attorney called "ridiculous," a 23-year-old Eastpointe woman was sentenced to 30 days in jail and highly restrictive probation conditions after being given a misdemeanor ticket for excessive noise at her house.

Some neighborhood residents signed a petition complaining about Carmen Granata's parties, but Granata says her immediate neighbors support her, and her father notes that the person who circulated the petition has a pattern of complaining about his neighbors. Whatever Granata's neighbors may think, jail is an obscene response to a loud party. Granata thought the charge wasn't a big deal, and she should have been right.

The sentence, tougher than many defendants in Macomb County receive for a first felony conviction, came after Granata pleaded guilty to violating the ordinance. Granata, who did not have an attorney, had been told by a city attorney that she likely would be fined a minimal amount if she pleaded guilty, according to her father, Joe Granata.