SouthEastSleuth
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As a resident of Durham County, I truly have a vested interest in the outcome of this race. The two announced candidates have vastly different approaches to everything from victim's rights to prosecutorial styles to families of victims to prosecutorial decision making processes. Whomever wins this election will mold and shape the Durham County DAs Office for the next four years. This is a position that decides many things - what cases are prosecuted, how they are prosecuted, when they are prosecuted, etc. That said, cases currently under investigation, "cold cases," as well as future cases will all feel a profound impact from the results of this election. While I have to believe that anyone in the position of District Attorney is focused on crime and it's victims, it's HOW they approach and execute their position that differentiates one person from the next. And again, the current candidates, Mike Nifong and Freda Black, offer two distinct personalities and styles.
Yesterday was the first day of official candidacy filing for the May primary. This will indeed be a hotly contested race in Durham County this year, and, promises to certainly be lively as well, as evidenced by: (excerpt. link to full article follows)
Durham filings begin with potshot in DA's race
[font='Times New Roman',serif]By Gregory Phillips and John Stevenson, The Herald-Sun
February 14, 2006 12:46 am [/font]
DURHAM -- The 2006 election filing season opened Monday with a potshot at his opponent from Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, who was the first person in the state to register his candidacy with the N.C. Board of Elections.
Numerous others also filed on Monday to run for positions ranging from judgeships to sheriff to seats in the Legislature.
Nifong verbally took on lawyer Freda Black, who will file today to run for district attorney, over a campaign flier that says Black was "lead prosecutor" in Michael Peterson's nationally televised 2003 murder trial. Peterson was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing his wife, Nortel Networks executive Kathleen Peterson.
"She was not the lead prosecutor," said Nifong. "The lead prosecutor was Jim Hardin. Any assertion to the contrary is flatly false. There is only one lead prosecutor in any trial. Freda was the second-chair prosecutor."
Black said it was all a mistake.
She said the flier was produced by Campaign Connections of Raleigh, and she had nothing to do with it.
"I've never seen it," Black added. "They did it on my behalf, but I did not approve the language. It is true that I was not the lead prosecutor."
Brad Dixon of Campaign Connections said there was no deliberate attempt to mislead the public.
Rather, he said the flier was produced by "excited and energetic volunteers" who accidentally got carried away with their rhetoric.
Nifong received his undergraduate degree from UNC in 1971 and his law degree from the same school in 1978. He became an assistant district attorney in Durham in 1979 and took over as chief last year when his predecessor, Jim Hardin Jr., the lead prosecutor in Peterson's trial, was appointed to a Superior Court judgeship.
Nifong said he didn't deliberately set out Monday to be the first person to file with the state Board of Elections. Instead, he said he arrived at the board 90 minutes early because he didn't want to get stuck in a crowd after the agency opened for filings at noon.
But it was "kind of cool" to be first, Nifong added.
"It's a statement that I'm committed to doing this job," he said. "Maybe, with any luck, I'll also be first in the hearts of Durham voters."
http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-701419.html
Should be an interesting Spring...
Yesterday was the first day of official candidacy filing for the May primary. This will indeed be a hotly contested race in Durham County this year, and, promises to certainly be lively as well, as evidenced by: (excerpt. link to full article follows)
Durham filings begin with potshot in DA's race
[font='Times New Roman',serif]By Gregory Phillips and John Stevenson, The Herald-Sun
February 14, 2006 12:46 am [/font]
DURHAM -- The 2006 election filing season opened Monday with a potshot at his opponent from Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, who was the first person in the state to register his candidacy with the N.C. Board of Elections.
Numerous others also filed on Monday to run for positions ranging from judgeships to sheriff to seats in the Legislature.
Nifong verbally took on lawyer Freda Black, who will file today to run for district attorney, over a campaign flier that says Black was "lead prosecutor" in Michael Peterson's nationally televised 2003 murder trial. Peterson was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing his wife, Nortel Networks executive Kathleen Peterson.
"She was not the lead prosecutor," said Nifong. "The lead prosecutor was Jim Hardin. Any assertion to the contrary is flatly false. There is only one lead prosecutor in any trial. Freda was the second-chair prosecutor."
Black said it was all a mistake.
She said the flier was produced by Campaign Connections of Raleigh, and she had nothing to do with it.
"I've never seen it," Black added. "They did it on my behalf, but I did not approve the language. It is true that I was not the lead prosecutor."
Brad Dixon of Campaign Connections said there was no deliberate attempt to mislead the public.
Rather, he said the flier was produced by "excited and energetic volunteers" who accidentally got carried away with their rhetoric.
Nifong received his undergraduate degree from UNC in 1971 and his law degree from the same school in 1978. He became an assistant district attorney in Durham in 1979 and took over as chief last year when his predecessor, Jim Hardin Jr., the lead prosecutor in Peterson's trial, was appointed to a Superior Court judgeship.
Nifong said he didn't deliberately set out Monday to be the first person to file with the state Board of Elections. Instead, he said he arrived at the board 90 minutes early because he didn't want to get stuck in a crowd after the agency opened for filings at noon.
But it was "kind of cool" to be first, Nifong added.
"It's a statement that I'm committed to doing this job," he said. "Maybe, with any luck, I'll also be first in the hearts of Durham voters."
http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-701419.html
Should be an interesting Spring...