As you will recall, I’ve been writing about the Duke false prosecution scandal since the beginning, on the Reform Club and then on this site since its inception. (See articles here and here, for example.) Over time, this writer’s analysis has been confirmed repeatedly by additional revelations from North Carolina, and other writers have created a chorus of boos for NC prosecutor Thomas Nifong.

I initially called for Nifong’s impeachment, the resignation of Duke president Thomas Brodhead (who jumped on the scandal as a way of showing support for the town’s people over the students at his own university), and the prosecution of the unnamed accuser (who remains unnamed—her reputation, such as it may have been beforehand, continuing unscathed by this incident, unlike those of the accused Duke lacrosse players, their teammates, and especially coach Mike Pressler, who was forced to resign despite having notihing whatever to do with the incident that never actually happened)

Now the superb economist and opinion writer Thomas Sowell has called for Nifong’s removal from office and disbarrment. Sowell points out that an impulse behind this matter is a desire for retribution for past injustices against blacks. But as Sowell points out, the Duke lacrosse players had nothing to do with what happened a century ago, and injustices today are wrong in themselves and won’t change the past. A culture that thinks intended social consequences (such as a greater sense of pride for some particular group of people) are more important than justice is a vile thing indeed.

What was wrong then is wrong now, and any respect for justice requires that these young men be freed from the specter of prosecution and Nifong impeached, convicted, and disbarred.

In addition, I again urge that the Duke University leadership fire Brodhead for cause, and for the prosecutor who replaces Nifong to indict the Duke lacrosse accuser under the appropriate charges for her integral part in this stupendously ugly incident.