As a criminal lawyer, Durham resident, and Duke alumnus, I followed the Duke lacrosse case with more than a casual interest. Now, years after the fact, there’s a new book about it. The Price of Silence, by William D. Cohen, is available on Amazon for about $25. It purports to be “the definitive, magisterial account of what happens when the most combustible forces in American culture— unbridled ambition, intellectual elitism, athletic prowess, aggressive sexual behavior, racial bias, and absolute prosecutorial authority—collide and then explode on a powerful university campus, in the justice system, and in the media.” Like the case itself, the book is controversial and divisive. It has received some very positive reviews, both from readers on Amazon and from the press. Publisher’s Weekly describes it as “[t]op-notch investigative journalism,” and Kirkus liked the book as well. But the book also has quite a few detailed one-star reviews, and local media sources, perhaps more familiar with the facts of the case, are less effusive than the national press. The News and Observer reports here that the book is based largely on the author’s interviews with former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, whose perspective on the case is presented “at length and virtually unchallenged.” The newspaper then challenges one of Nifong’s claim, namely, his suggestion that Attorney General Roy Cooper’s decision to declare the defendants “innocent” was without the support of the long-time prosecutors who reviewed the case for Cooper. The story quotes one of those prosecutors, Jim Coman, as saying [...]
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