NC Senate Democrats Move on Nifong, Hudson

Liestoppers ^ | 3/23/07

[freespirited]

Three North Carolina State Senate Democrats have initiated legislation that would provide a procedure for the North Carolina State Bar to act on the §7A-66 affidavit filed in February. The affidavit seeking the removal of Durham County DA Mike Nifong from office was stalled indefinitely by County Senior Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson despite a statutory mandate requiring him to act within thirty days of the filing. The proposed legislation would remedy Hudson's delay by providing an immediate, although temporary, avenue for the protection of the public from a rogue DA supported by a Judge willing to ignore the letter of the statute that was designed specifically to offer that protection. . State Senator Daniel Clodfelter (D-Mecklenburg) sponsored the new bill which was filed yesterday. If enacted, the bill gives the North Carolina State Bar, the Governor, and the Attorney General a role in the suspension and replacement of a rogue District Attorney. Co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand (D-Bladen, Cumberland) and Senator Charles Albertson (D-Duplin, Lenoir, Sampson), the bill, short titled “Governor May Suspend DA for Misconduct,” is proposed to take effect on July 1, 2007 which is coincidently, or not, three weeks after disgraced Durham County DA Nifong is scheduled to appear before the State Bar on charges of misconduct that include making extra-judicial statements, withholding evidence, and lying to the Court and Bar.

The newest Nifong Bill outlines a procedure for the North Carolina State Bar to request an immediate suspension of a District Attorney in the event of the filing of a §7A-66 affidavit if it finds the “necessity for prompt action exists.” As outlined by the Bill, the Governor may then move to suspend the DA whose replacement would be chosen by the Attorney General from among the attorneys in his Special Prosecution Division.

[freespirited]

Next should be a law that will put Liefong in jail.

[Niteranger68]

You can forget this. NC is now the NJ of the south. There's no fixing it.

[ladyjane]

Good news. Governor Weasley wants him out of there.

[rickdylan]

I'll say it again. The job of DA is a magnet to psychopaths and should be abolished. We need to bag the "adversarial" system of justice altogether and go to an inquisitorial system such as you see in France in which the common incentive of all parties is to determine what actually took place and who, if anybody, is guilty of anything. NOBODY should have any sort of a career or money incentive to put people in prison. This one almost compensates for the frogs eating snails.

In fact there's still one poor sob (Frank Fuster) rotting in a flori-duh prison for imaginary crimes and one of Janet Reno's witchcraft trials from the 1980s.