Sheehan's opportunity

A year ago today Raleigh News & Observer news columnist Ruth Sheehan wrote a column (“Team’s Silence is Sickening”) attacking 46 Duke students for doing nothing more than following the advice of their parents and attorneys. Even worse, Sheehan told N&O readers the players were guilty of terrible crimes. Her column began:

Members of the Duke men's lacrosse team: You know.

We know you know. …

And one of you needs to come forward and tell the police.

Do not be afraid of retribution on the team. Do not be persuaded that somehow this "happened" to one or more "good guys."…

Later that same day, DA Mike Nifong spoke publicly about the case for the first time. He attacked the students in terms very similar to Sheehan. Like Sheehan, Nifong assured the public the players were guilty of concealing a crime and its criminals.

Many people initially bought into what Sheehan and Nifong were saying. But soon the case started falling apart. By June sensible people recognized the truth of what Duke Law professor James Coleman said in a letter to the N&O:

According to the police account of the identification, however, the police officer who presided over the proceedings told the alleged victim at the outset that he wanted her to look at people the police had reason to believe attended the party. […]

This strongly suggests that the purpose of the identification process was to give the alleged victim an opportunity to pick three members of the lacrosse team who could be charged. Any three students would do; there could be no wrong choice.

Coleman was describing a frame-up and Sheehan was “catching it” from readers who realized her March 27 column was a McCarthyite screed reeking of prejudgment and disregard for citizens' basic rights.

A few days after Coleman’s letter appeared, Sheehan wrote a column blaming Nifong for her March 27 column. Sheehan said:

To think that for a brief moment I actually pitied Nifong for the attacks on his handling of the case. What a joke.

Nifong is the one who described this thing in such incendiary terms from the start that it was impossible to ignore.

But as Sheehan knew, her March 27 “Team’s Silence is Sickening” column appeared BEFORE Nifong started publicly attacking the students. It went online shortly after midnight; and a print version was delivered to Durham driveways around 5 A.M. Nifong had plenty of time to read it before he spoke to the press later that day.

That leads to some questions we should all be asking and Sheehan needs to answer.

So I’m sending Sheehan a link to this post and asking her to answer the following questions:

1) Considering Nfong didn't speak publicly until after your column appeared, aren’t you misleading readers when you tell them all the slimes in your Mar. 27 were based on what he said?

or

2) Did Nifong or someone you trusted would tell you what he was saying provide you with “background information” BEFORE you wrote your Mar. 27 column?

In that case, while you’d still bear the heaviest responsibility for the column, you’d have some grounds for telling readers Nifong was also to blame for it.

Sheehan knows the answers to those questions. She demanded the players answer questions and tell the truth. They’ve done that even as, innocent, they’ve suffered terribly because of the actions of Nifong, certain Durham Police officers and enablers like Sheehan.

Now Sheehan needs to answer questions honestly.

To be clear about Nifong: he should be disbarred and tried. But he shouldn’t be blamed for the actions of Sheehan and many others who helped make the frame-up possible.

Sheehan has a chance to do some things that will be very important and helpful to many innocent people who’ve suffered great injustices.

She can retract both her March 27 (“Team’s Silence is Sickening”) and April 3 (“Lacrosse team out of control” ) columns.

She should apologize to the students, their families, Coach Pressler and his wife and young children. An apology is also owed her readers.

If Sheehan does all of that, she will have made a major contribution to correcting some of the wrongs that have been committed against so many innocent people, most especially David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann.

She will have done what she often tells readers she wants her three young sons to do: the right thing.