Not Very Bold Prediction: Nifong *Will* Be Disbarred

* UNC law professor Joseph Kennedy: “If these allegations are true and if they don’t justify disbarment, then I’m not sure what does. It’s hard for me to imagine a more serious set of allegations against a prosecutor.”

* Duke law professor Thomas Metzloff: The new charges “have significantly increased the chances for a serious sanction, possibly including suspension or disbarment.”

Another thing I'd meant to get to yesterday. If the bar is now charging five -- five! -- deliberate lies by Nifong made to the court, plus a conspiracy to hide evidence, then they're quite serious about booting Nifong. They're not trying to get Al Capone on tax evasion anymore; they're going for murder and racketeering charges.

Of course, having not gotten to this yesterday means that KC Johnson has had time to write up a much more substantive post concluding the same thing.

Speaking publically so as to inflame opinion against the defendants? Well, they could have just slapped him with a censure or suspension for that. That's sort of what I figured would probably happen.

But now they're averring multiple lies, conspiracy, and perpetrating a fraud on the court, which is pretty big shakes.

It doesn't help that Nifong, like his "victim," has offered up multiple conflicting stories to explain away his difficulties telling the truth. In fact, the bar seems to have added those conflcting stories to its dishonesty charges.

The lawyers here -- the experts, if you will -- did tell me that state bars were willing to disbar a lot more frequently than I imagined, and that the NC state bar here seemed to want to purge itself of this embarrassment. I guess those "experts" sort of know something after all.

posted by Ace at 09:16 AM

| Access Comments