In today's coverage of the Duke lacrosse case, The News & Observer for the first time identifies the accuser, Crystal Gail Mangum of Durham, by name.

During the year since Mangum told police she was assaulted at a lacrosse team party, The N&O had followed its longstanding policy of not naming claimants in sexual assault cases. This policy is accepted practice among most print and broadcast media in the United States.

The N&O has upheld this approach, which the newspaper has followed for at least 24 years, to avoid discouraging victims of rape and sexual assault from reporting such crimes. The N&O's policy regarding sexual assault claimants has rarely been challenged, and we saw no reason to abandon the policy in the midst of a case.

In recent weeks The N&O's senior editors consulted a number of people with an interest in these issues, among them advocates for sexual assault victims, defense lawyers, current and former journalists, a district judge, journalism educators and ethics experts, in considering whether and under what circumstances to identify Mangum. No consensus emerged, but the conversations helped us consider essential questions about precedent and impact.

With the decision of the state Attorney General's Office to drop all charges against Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans, no charge of rape or sexual assault exists. Mangum's claim has been vehemently denied by the three men indicted in the case and by their teammates, who believe they have been damaged by a false accusation. Attorney General Roy Cooper said his office concluded that the three are innocent.

Mangum also has been widely identified on the Internet, including on mainstream sites such as Wikipedia. Because of these circumstances, and to more fully report on the case and its aftermath, we decided to publish her name. Also, we will review our standing policy.

If you would like to weigh in on this decision and the issue of naming sexual assault claimants in criminal cases, go to share.triangle.com and search for "Naming accusers." We ask that you be civil and encourage you to include your name and town.