Its Out!

Until Proven Innocent, Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson's definitive account of the Duke lacrosse case is out today. Be sure and get your copy. And then go and see KC Johnson speak at Duke on September 11, 2007. (See the last post for details.)

Another Follow Up to Duke and the Police

by Jason Trumpbour, FODU spokesperson

Speaking of the growing library on the Duke lacrosse case, I realized that I forgot to mention in my last post an item from Mike Pressler and Don Yaeger's book, It’s Not about the Truth that I thought was rather interesting. That post and the one before it dealt with the Duke administration's violation of federal law by releasing protected student information to Durham police without a subpoena. In It's Not about the Truth, News and Observer columnist Ruth Sheehan, an early critic of the lacrosse team who had based her criticism on the false information being disseminated by Nifong and the Durham Police Department, recounted a conversation she later had with John Burness:

I did have a conversation with [him] about the university's role in the case at some point and asked why when all of this was coming out that they [the university] didn’t help us understand the truth, why they did not spin the other side to us. They could have helped us, that’s for sure. One thing he did say to me at the time, which is a convenient excuse but also true, was that they also have to be really careful about how they handle student information.

Yes, one cannot be too careful.

I am sure that Until Proven Innocent will add more insights such as this one into the Duke administration's thinking. I greet that prospect with both eagerness and trepidation.