Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case

Stuart Taylor, Jr., K. C. Johnson

Macmillan, Sep 30, 2008 - Law - 464 pages

"A masterful examination of the pathetic rush to judgment in the Duke rape case." —John Grisham

The full story of the Duke Lacrosse case, by the authors who broke it

In this American tragedy, Stuart Taylor, Jr., and KC Johnson argue, law enforcement, a campaigning prosecutor, biased journalists, and left-leaning academics repeatedly refused to pursue the truth while scapegoats were made of these young men, recklessly tarnishing their lives.
Until Proven Innocent is the only book that covers all five aspects of the case (personal, legal, academic, political, and media) in a comprehensive fashion. It is also the only book to include interviews with all three of the defendants, their families, and their legal teams. And now it includes an up-to-date epilogue detailing the aftershocks and conclusion of the case.
Taylor and Johnson's coverage of the Duke case was the earliest, most honest, and most comprehensive in the country, and here they take on the idiocies and dishonesty of right- and left-wingers alike, shedding new light on the danger of a cultural tendency toward media-fueled travesties of justice. The context of the Duke case has vast import, and in its full telling, it is captivating nonfiction with broad political, racial, and cultural relevance to our times.

"Taylor and Johnson have made a gripping contribution to the literature of the wrongly accused." —The New York Times Book Review

"Until Proven Innocent is a stunning book." —The Wall Street Journal

"Vivid, at times chilling . . . their most biting scorn is aimed at the ‘academic McCarthyism' that they say has infected top-rate American universities like Duke." —Newsweek

"A superb new book . . . a book that not only reads like a legal thriller, but also exposes deep problems with America's legal system and academic culture." —The Economist

Contents

• DREAMS OF GLORY: 1
• AN UGLY SCENE DUKE MEETS DURHAM: 16
• SO MANY STORIES SO FEW INJURIES: 30
• POLICE BUILDING A CASE WITHOUT EVIDENCE: 36
• COPS IGNITE FIRESTORM DUKE RUNS FOR COVER: 50
• THE MOST DANGEROUS POWER ENTER NIFONG: 77
• THE DEFENSE FIGHTS BACK: 90
• ACADEMIC McCARTHYISM: 103
• POLITICALLY CORRECT SENSATIONALISM: 118
• RICHARD BRODHEADS TEST OF COURAGE: 129
• POLITICS TRUMPS LAW: 152
• BLIND INJUSTICE INDICTED AFTER PROVEN INNOCENT: 173
• NIFONG DEFEATS THE EVIDENCE: 195
• EXPERTS VINDICATE LAXERS DUKE HARASSES THEM: 207
• FANTASTIC LIES: 219
• LACROSSE REINSTATED WITH DISRESPECT: 236
• TURNING THE TIDE: 269
• NIFONGS PYRRHIC VICTORY: 285
• THE CONSPIRACY UNRAVELS: 301
• DEFENDANT NIFONG: 317
• DISGRACE AND EXONERATION: 332
• NO ISOLATED CASE FROM DUKE TO DEATH ROW: 356
• PRESUMED GUILTY FEMINIST OVERKILL: 371
• THE ASSAULT ON EXCELLENCE: 387
• A RECKONING: 403
• INDEX: 431

About the author

Stuart Taylor Jr. is a columnist for National Journal and contributing editor for Newsweek, writing about legal, policy, and political issues. A Harvard Law graduate, he covered legal affairs and the Supreme Court during eight years at The New York Times. He is a nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution and was nominated by The New York Times for a Pulitzer Prize for his Supreme Court coverage and by National Journal for a National Magazine Award for his columns on the Duke case. KC Johnson is a history professor at Brooklyn College and CUNY. He has written over 800 posts of news-breaking analysis about the Duke case on his blog and was a consultant to ABC's Law and Justice Unit for the case. The author of four books and co-author of Until Proven Innocent, he has a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case
• Authors: Stuart Taylor, Jr., K. C. Johnson
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2008
• ISBN: 0312384866, 9780312384869
• Length: 464 pages
• Subjects: Law / Criminal Procedure; Law / General; Law / Legal History; Social Science / Violence in Society; Sports & Recreation / Lacrosse; True Crime / General; True Crime / Sexual Assault