The Duke Case: Innocent
Lesley Stahl Speaks To The Exonerated Players And The State A.G.
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Play CBS Video Video Duke Players, AG Speak Out In Full: The three former Duke lacrosse players, and the attorney general who gave them their lives back by clearing them of all charges, talk to Lesley Stahl about the ordeal.
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Video Cooper Discusses Duke Case North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper tells Lesley Stahl about his office's investigation into the Duke lacrosse case. Cooper says the situation was "much worse than we thought."
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Video Duke Lacrosse Players Speak "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley talks to the Duke lacrosse players accused of raping an exotic dancer. They profess their innocence and discuss how the case has put their future plans on hold.
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David Evans, left, Reade Seligmann, center, and Collin Finnerty. (CBS)
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North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper speaks during a news conference in Raleigh, N.C., on April 11, 2007. (AP)
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Former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
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Photo Essay Duke Lacrosse Case Duke lacrosse players were charged with sexual abuse in high profile case that caused tension in Durham, N.C.
Asked if he wants Nifong to resign and be punished, Evans tells Stahl, "I want to give him the respect that he didn't give us. And he's got a legal situation to deal with. I'm not going to preach yesterday that it's up to…. The legal system determines guilt or innocence, and [to] go out here and say that he is guilty. I don't think that's right. And I've learned my lesson."
Nifong declined 60 Minutes' repeated requests for an interview. The day after the three young men were exonerated, he did issue an apology.
Collin Finnerty said, “Too little, too late.”
"This has been a year of decision after decision after decision to keep doing the wrong thing. He's had so much time to say he’s sorry over the last year. And now he comes the day after we're exonerated. I don't think anyone's going to feel better after that apology," Finnerty says.
"Let's say you had the opportunity now to look him in the eye. What would you say to him?" Stahl asks Finnerty.
"Why? Why? I just wish I could just get it answered – why us?" he says.
For the first time in a year, they’re making plans again. Dave Evans, who’s already graduated, was just offered a job on Wall Street. Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, who were suspended from Duke, have been invited back, but are applying to other colleges. They all want to put what’s happened behind them, but it’s not going to be easy.
"I'm angry at so many people, and there are so many people that I think need to be held accountable. But for the time being, I'm just so happy to get back on with my life," Seligmann says. "I want to, I want to move forward. I want to be back at school. I'm out for getting my name back. I want to have – I want to smile again. I don’t want to have to be vengeful."
Asked if this is over, David Evans tells Stahl, "I don't think it really will ever be over. No matter what, you can try to move on, but rape will always be associated with my name. Innocent might be a part of that, but when I die, they'll say, 'One of the three Duke lacrosse rape suspects died today. He led a life and did this, but he was one of the three Duke lacrosse rape suspects.'"
Produced By Michael Radutzky, Tanya Simon and Shachar Bar-On
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


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See all 181 CommentsHe's not a 21 year old boy from Duke but we love him. He's a 51 year old man that has held the same job for 30 years: He's a 32 year old man who is the first in his family that completed college and landed a law job with the state: He's a 25 year old man that married 3 years ago and has a 2 year old son: He's a 14 year old boy who just had his first sexual experience with a 15 year old girl behind the dugout in the local park: He's a 17 year old that had *** with his 35 year old teacher: they are all one in the same:
FALSELY EXCUSED OF RAPE AND VIOLENCE.
I want to know, how many of you have been put into the position to prove our innocence? Not only in rape cases but in other domestic violence cases.
When you don't have millions to fight it, when you can't afford to go months without an income, when you live(d) in the house that your accuser also lives in, when you've been court ordered to vacate the premises,your bank accounts are frozen, your suspended from your job, your forbid from contact with your children, what do you do?
You loose your job, you loose your home, you loose your life savings, you loose your families life savings, you loose your life.
When this drags on for months and the DA refuses trial, he refuses evidence, when after a few months they offer you a plea, what do you do?
You take the plea to end this all only to find out everything you thought you temporarily lost is gone for ever.
You're innocent - but plead guilty....
He's not a 21 year old boy from Duke but we love him. He's a 51 year old man that has held the same job for 30 years: He's a 32 year old man who is the first in his family that completed college and landed a law job with the state: He's a 25 year old man that married 3 years ago and has a 2 year old son: He's a 14 year old boy who just had his first sexual experience with a 15 year old girl behind the dugout in the local park: He's a 17 year old that had *** with his 35 year old teacher: they are all one in the same:
FALSELY EXCUSED OF RAPE AND VIOLENCE.
I want to know, how many of you have been put into the position to prove our innocence? Not only in rape cases but in other domestic violence cases.
When you don't have millions to fight it, when you can't afford to go months without an income, when you live(d) in the house that your accuser also lives in, when you've been court ordered to vacate the premises,your bank accounts are frozen, your suspended from your job, your forbid from contact with your children, what do you do?
You loose your job, you loose your home, you loose your life savings, you loose your families life savings, you loose your life.
When this drags on for months and the DA refuses trial, he refuses evidence, when after a few months they offer you a plea, what do you do?
You take the plea to end this all only to find out everything you thought you temporarily lost is gone for ever.
You're innocent - but plead guilty....
Someone who can't change his mind & won't change the subject.
That is the exact defintion of no case you complete and utter idiot. If you can't prove anything,there is no case. Please promise me you will come back after the civil suits show no change in the evidence or outcome and take your medicine.
You think they will recall the male face(s) and s-exual objects and s-exual strokes with precision?Agmin
You moron. if you accept your assinine premise that she was drugged (which she wasn't and you don't have one shred of proof she was. the rape exam would have turned it up if she had been because the doctor and nurse would have detected her "strange demeanor") you just said in your own words "...you think they will recall the male face (s)..." Any identification she makes as to the boys is inherently unreliable. By your argument, she can't recall faces with any precision. if she can't identify her assailants how can their guilt be proven beyond a reasonable doubt? These boys are guilty because they were there? There were 46 men on the team and 45 were white and at the party. If by your own admission, she can't identify the boys who drugged her, then it's okay to just pick any three and convict them because they happened to be at the party? One of them was 12 miles when she said she was raped in her first statement. He was standing in front of an ATm machine 12 mils away. If he's there, he can't be raping her at the party. I don't care how stupid you are, even you have to admit that he can't be in two places at one time. So if she is wrong about him (and you said we should go with her first statement as your proof)why can't she be wrong about the other two?
You don't even begin to have a clue of what did and what still is , or should I say isn't going on. Both bk & wh were and still are being affected by Katrina. All levels of Parish, State, Federal have and still are failing New Orleans(NOLA).Top 3 city for murder rate, most of which is black on black. Nola was a predominately black city, with a majority black city consul,police dept, judicial system and crime stats. Most crimes were/are black on black and black on white and are usually in or near concentrations of black neighborhoods. Only now are other cities like Houston, Dallas, Beaumont and others are comming to grips with the caliper Nola's finest residents of color. For several generations, Nola has barely endured their crime laced prasidic behavior that has sucked the citys' welfare and social service system dry while over burdening a malfunctioning criminal justice system. This is enough to give any city a black eye or two. Go ahead, check around an see how crime stats , in the the previously mentioned cities are double digit directly attributable to ex-Nola-ites. So with a black DA Jordan and his dis horrorable Mayor chocolate Milk Dud Nagin......da people in charge with no coheasive viably accepted plan to rebuild paradise. no raceism intended, just the facts. unfortunately, there isn't enough time and space to finish ....the rest of the story...page 2
Posted by olemiss85 at 09:08 PM : Apr 16, 2007"
How do you think that women who are drugged and "date raped" come to know they were drugged?
You think they will recall the male face(s) and s-exual objects and s-exual strokes with precision?
Everyone at the outset had valid reasons to believe that chit happened with those preppy PUNKS in that ENVIRONMENT OF DRUG, DRUNKENNESS, DISORDERLY CONDUCT, S-EX/STRIPPING.
Now they are trying to claim that because a drugged woman cannot recall her experiences, the johns, and their faces with precision, and her side kick has been either paid off or intimidated into capitulation, then there is no case!
Well, I'm daring those preppy PUNKS to sue!
In this way, we will be right back to square one when there was REASONABLE EXPECTATION OF GUILT due to the circumstances of debauchery on that faithful day, and the HISTORY OF BEASTLY BEHAVIOR by those preppy PUNKS!
When the females in your family get drugged and "date raped", let's hope you will also be taking up for their 'fine and innocent' rapists too! LOL
So if she was drugged, and she gives us a story, by your own definition set out above, precise recognition of particular facts can't be expected to be reliable. So anything precise this drugged womans says therefore can't be reliable. Your words, idiot, not mine.
Posted by imthewraith at 07:50 PM : Apr 16, 2007"
Please, go get those privilege preppy PUNKS to 'sue'. LOL
I'm betting that those cowards won't sue.
They would be even bigger fools than I thought of them should override their lawyers and sue. LOL
If they should sue, their REAL LOW DOWN CHARACTERS, which people are conveniently forgetting, will resurface to remind America just how these drug and drunken devils are! LOL
Pretty, please, make 'em sue; make the dumb Duke jocks sue. Then the world will know just how dumb these jocks really are. LOL
Even if we should assume that there was no actual 'rape', their arrogant and racist abuse of that woman EARNED them the accusation of rape; SINCE SHE WAS VIOLATED by the preppy PUNKS!
'Innocent' my arse! LOL
Posted by olemiss85 at 08:28 PM : Apr 16, 2007"
Don't be obtuse!
IF YOU WERE DRUGGED, PRECISE RECOGNITION OF PARTICULAR FACES CAN'T EXPECTED TO BE RELIABLE, NOW! CAN IT?
In "DATE RAPES" BY DRUGS recollection of details is not going to be reliable.
A lot of the confusion stems from the substances that woman had in her system.
There was a report that the woman began to act 'strange' due to substances she ingested.
If that woman wasn't raped directly, she could have been 'raped' with objects.
And if a woman was drugged, it make sense that she might suspect that she was raped.
I wish these coward preppy PUNKS would sue; so that more of the truth could come out!
I am daring you and them to sue. She could raise Johnny from the dead to come and plea her case. LOL
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