PrintMarch 7, 2012
Those 'Rogue' Prosecutors
Tracey Cline was removed from the position of district attorney for Durham County this week. She thus follows in the path of her predecessor, Michael Nifong, who was similarly forced out. But neither was removed before a great deal of damage had been done to the fabric of justice, and it is unlikely that Cline's single excision will do anything more to heal the patient than a biopsy will extinguish a cancer.
Durham County has long been a playground for the imps of injustice. The legal barriers established elsewhere to rein in prosecutorial abuse do not exist there.
North Carolina has no Speedy Trial law; a suspect may literally be jailed for years before trial. Grand juries keep no transcripts, and a defendant indicted by a grand jury has no right to a probable cause hearing where he may contest the jury's conclusions.
In practice, a district attorney may accuse anyone before a grand jury, falsify evidence to get an indictment, and then hold his targeted suspect for...(Read Full Article)
