Letters to the Editor
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This is sad
But having seen rape cases prosecuted (or not) in NC, (in Orange county, which is if anything more liberal than Durham county) ... I'm pretty sure that just because the charges were dropped does not mean that the boys were innocent. Just that it could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
The fact it came to trial at all suggests to me that the evidence was compelling that the victim was at least sexually assaulted and sodomized.
For example, the NYT said that the rape charge was dropped in December because the woman changed her story. She had initially said she was gang raped and then later said that she did not know that she had been penetrated with a penis.
Not that she had NOT been penetrated ... but what with. (get on your tummy and think about it. What can you see?) According to NC law, one is only raped if there is penetration with a penis ... not with a finger, or object. I remember a particular case at Duke from the 80s in which a girl was sexually assaulted with a Coke bottle. That wasn't legally rape in NC either.
No doubt people who just love to squeal about false rape accusations will love this development ... but will fail to realize how hard it is to *prove* rape in a criminal case in North Carolina, and how few quite legitimate cases ever come to trial at all, for lack of evidence.
At this moment, at best, we just don't know what happened.