(From left) Duke University lacrosse players Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann, at a news conference after rape charges against them were dropped. Photograph: Gerry Broome/AP
Given that the case has been a political hobbyhorse more or less since it started, it's little surprise to find a new round of point scoring and finger wagging now three US college students accused of beating and gang raping a woman have eventually been cleared of all charges.
As we report today, the trio, members of the lacrosse team at Duke University in North Carolina, were accused of attacking one of two strippers hired to perform at a student party.
The fact that the men were wealthy, white and privileged while the alleged victim was a black single mother and part-time student, touched on a series of divisive national raw nerves and, it appears, helped the local district attorney, Michael Nifong, ignore a series of inconsistencies as he enthusiastically prosecuted the case.
Mr Nifong was roundly condemned by North Carolina's attorney general, Roy Cooper, who called the legal maneouvrings "a tragic rush to accuse".
One of the more sober assessments of the 13-month saga comes in North Carolina's Raleigh News and Observer, whose editorial talks of "a measure of justice, although delayed", adding:
It was a stunningly clear resolution to an often murky case, one that highlighted racial and class divides, along with anti-Duke feeling in Durham and animus about athletes. The players are white and their families well off; the accuser, a black student at NC Central University, worked for an escort service.
Some readers commenting on the paper's web site are far less temperate, one saying:
I hope the so-called "victim" will get her butt sued and criminal charges filed against her for making false allegations. She and Nifong should be held to the full extent of the law. She thought she had the winning lottery ticket and Nifong was going to make sure it paid out.
The never knowingly temperate New York Daily News saw a bigger picture, saying Nifong had "pandered for votes, or to the Duke faculty mob, who righteously decried oppressions they believe pervasive in America".
Meanwhile, the National Leadership Network of Conservative African-Americans released a statement saying Mr Nifong's conduct showed "the descent of a man willing to betray the public trust by pitting communities against one another along racial lines".
And a special mention to one story in the Washington Post for finding an angle as yet rarely addressed during the case - the effect on the sport of lacrosse:
"As allegations against three Duke lacrosse players mounted and metastasized into a national scandal last spring, Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse coach Dave Pietramala sat in his office with his assistants, and a troubling thought arose."There are people sitting around, drinking their coffee in the Midwest, that have never heard of lacrosse until now," he said.
