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Durham Poll

The ABC affiliate in Raleigh has just released a poll showing a dead heat in the race for Durham district attorney, with Mike Nifong trailing challenger Freda Black by one point, 39-38. Nifong leads among blacks and liberals; Black leads among whites and conservatives; tomorrow is Election Day. The third candidate, African-American defense attorney Keith Bishop, has only 11 percent, presumably siphoning votes away from Nifong. North Carolina has no runoff if the winning candidate receives 40 percent of the vote; given these polling figures, a runoff seems unlikely.

Obviously tomorrow's result will influence the next step in the Duke case. A Nifong defeat might provide the excuse for the state's attorney general to intervene and take over the case, as is allowed under North Carolina law when a prosecutor is compromised. (This morning, defense attorney Kirk Osborn filed a motion to remove Nifong from the case, claiming a violation of the state bar's ethics provisions.) Presumably, the AG could determine whether Nifong has any evidence against the accused that would survive legal challenge; and, if so, move ahead and prosecute the case competently, while, if not, drop the charges. Given the closeness of the ABC poll and the recent signs that Duke's student body, if not its faculty, have grown concerned with the DA's erratic behavior, a heavy turnout from Duke's students could play a major factor in the outcome.

Update, 5.57pm: The motion of Reade Seligmann's attorney is now publicly available. Although it's obviously the statement of an advocate, this is considerably more than a defense leak, and the amount of exculpatory evidence presented--that Nifong, according to Seligmann's attorney, refused even to consider before indictment--does not reflect well on how this case has been investigated. CNN also has a photo of Seligmann at at ATM machine at the time the rape was allegedly committed.

Posted on Monday, May 1, 2006 at 11:43 AM | Comments (4) | Return

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