A Rush to Injustice: How Power, Prejudice, Racism, and Political Correctness Overshadowed Truth and Justice in the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case (Hardcover)

~ Nader Baydoun (Author), (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A rowdy party, booze, boys, and a stripper-and after a wild night of living it up, charges of assault and rape were leveled at certain members of the Duke lacrosse team. When the district attorney brought charges, it seemed like an easy verdict. Few suspected then that this national blockbuster of a news story was all based on lies.
Seasoned trial attorney Nader Baydoun deconstructs the case and reveals the egregious misconduct that led to a rush to judgment and a gross injustice. By presenting the evidence with a trained eye for detail, Baydoun exposes the political pandering of the district attorney, his neglect of crucial evidence, the way in which he stacked the case against the innocent suspects, and how he tenaciously believed unreliable victim testimony-all to ensure his reelection. Baydoun also takes the university leadership to task for its failure to support the students in the case.
In this gripping tale of injustice, Baydoun sets the record straight and points the way to justice for the real victims.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (June 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595551182
• ISBN-13: 978-1595551184
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #203,704 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shame on Duke Administration and faculty, July 25, 2007

By	Richard C. Rucker (Wilmington, DE) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Definitive and excellent review of what went on at Duke during the Lacrosse Rape Case. Confirmed my beliefs that actions of President Broadhead, Trustee Chairman Steele, and the Group of 88 professors behaved disgustingly and failed to support their students. Following the notice of innocence, none had the decentcy to offer any apology to the students and their families. What was once a proud part of my life in attending Duke is now full of shame for the school. The only way for Duke to start working back to being the school it once was is for all of the above named administration and the 88 faculty to resign.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book About Shocking Injustice, June 19, 2007

By	Charles J. Rector (Woodstock, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a powerful book that is co-written by a gradate of Duke University who came to realize just how despicable the actions of both Duke administrators and faculty have been in the Duke Rape Hoax.

This book provides an especially powerful indictment of the maladministration of University President Richard Brodhead and quotes the following passage from a letter sent to Brodhead by a Duke alumnus:

"You are quoted as saying, `I embrace athletics at Duke.' My God, President Brodhead, if the way you treated those three players, the team, and the coach is your idea of an embrace, what do you do when you dislike someone or something?"

The above quote is well worth rereading and pondering.

Other insights from this book include:

*If all 46 members of the lacrosse team deny both doing anything wrong themselves and having any knowledge of any other player doing anything wrong, then the administration should have taken this as proof that nothing wrong happened. This reveals a shocking lack of common sense by the Duke adminstrators.

*The Group of 88 faculty members who ran a number of ads urging students to form opinions about the case based solely on race and class and forget about emerging facts about the case, are people who are committed to politics and not to justice.

*Prior to his indictment, Colin Finnerty was widely regarded by his friends and teammates as being the guy who was least likely to be prosecuted due to his being the nicest guy on the team.

*Wes Covington was interviewed for this book and told of Nifong's arrogant behavior. One day, an intern approached Nifong and want to shake hands with him. Nifong's response? To refuse the handshake on the grounds that, "I don't shake hands with interns."

*Durham Police Department Sergeant Mark Gottlieb complained to Covington that Nifong was pressuring him to arrest players sooner rather than later.

*Bob Ekstrand was also interviewed for this book and he related a chilling story of how Nifong wanted to have two of the players arrested in class, purely for reasons of publicity, but was blocked by a judge.

All in all, a great book about shocking injustice in the Land of the Free.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Disgusting, but Alas, It is Academia, August 19, 2007

By	Derek Manchette (The South, USA) - See all my reviews

The raw facts of the Duke rape case are disgusting enough. As the authors, Nader Baydoun an R. Stephanie Good, point out, there were numerous holes in the case right from the get-go wide enough to drive a semi through and it is nothing short of obscene that the case proceeded as long and as far as it did. But it did proceed so far and three young men will carry the scars with them for life. One can only hope they have the mettle to not let it eat them up and instead use it to grow stronger.

As the authors point out, though, it was not merely the raw facts that were at issue in this twilight zone of a case. Many, many others simply had no concern for the guilt or innocence of the three young men and were more than happy to hang them out to dry in order to advance their own agendas. District Attorney Nifong simply wanted to be reelected and needed the black vote to do it. The Group of 88 had their own agenda driven by politically correct views of race, gender and athletics. The New Black Panthers are nothing more than a hate group which would not have cared less if blacks had raped a white woman instead (as indeed later events actually proved). The authors do a good job of painting these people for what they are.

What the authors miss, however, is the larger picture of campus life that makes an incident like this not only likely, but inevitable. How many times do you think students at Duke have heard feminists tell them that a woman needs to be believed when she says she was raped? Probably a lot. How many times do you think these same students have heard other feminists (who like to claim they are moderates and that not all feminists are male bashers) point out that such a statement is directly contrary to the presumption of innocence and that anyone espousing it should not hold a position of authority at the school? Probably never. How many times have the student heard statistics on rape that were inflated through the roof? Probably a lot. How many times have they heard "moderate" feminists challenge such misinformation? Probably never. How many times have they heard some feminist introduce the issue of rape into any conversation simply to gain the emotional high ground and patronize someone with whom they disagree? Probably a lot. How many times have they heard a "moderate" feminist or anyone else challenge such behavior and defend the object of such behavior from such patronization? Probably never. Such questions could go on and on and on.

The cold, hard fact is that college campuses have become festering grounds of misinformation about gender issues and that misinformation is consistently in the same direction, i.e. portraying men as more violent and privileged than they are while portraying women as more victimized than is the case. The Duke rape hoax came directly out of this.

The authors do a better job in discussing the racial hypocrisy that reared its ugly head. But even here, there are a few painful points that must be illuminated. The authors claim that most blacks really want justice to be served. But then we later learn that Nifong got 90-95% of the black vote. These do not strike me as numbers befitting a group determined to see justice done. Perhaps we can say that the black community was misled by Nifong, but really, where does this lead us? If I were to just say that blacks are easily misled and do not care enough about the facts to examine them for themselves, people would call me racist. But what other choices are there? This is a deeply troubling issue that deserves tighter analysis than we receive here.

Finally, the authors spend much time telling us what good people these players are. I do not doubt this, but again there is a troubling issue that needs to be stated. Until this case came about, Nifong himself had conducted himself honorably. It is an uncomfortable truism that a person's outward honorable behavior is not always a good indication of what a person will do when the crunch comes. The players thankfully seem to have an internal quality that matches their external personas. But many others in this sordid affair, including Nifong and probably many members of the despicable Group of 88, do not. We should be mindful of the lesson. No doubt the accused players are.