Justice grinds on ... and on

Ever heard "It ain't over till it's over"?

Forget that. When it comes to two of the most infamous legal cases in recent Durham history, it appears that even when it's over it's not over. Supporters of both convicted murderer Michael Peterson and disbarred former District Attorney Michael Nifong are trying to resurrect those long-thought-dead cases and get new trials or reversals.

Most of us assumed that by now, five years after Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife, the dude had settled in at Nash Correctional Institution and made peace with what will likely be his home for the rest of his life.

Yet, because Peterson prosecution witness Saami "Shy 'bout telling the truth" Shaibani lied about his credentials in that capital case as well as others, Peterson's backers want a new trial.

Shaibani testilied -- that's when you testify and lie simultaneously -- that he was a professor at Temple University. Perhaps he meant he may have once had lunch on Temple's campus. Calls to Temple turned up no one by his name ever on the payroll, and a previously published report said he had but a "courtesy affiliation" with the school that entitled him to a free parking pass.

Shaibani, a physicist by training, makes himself available as an expert witness. His testibaloney has already led to at least one new trial for a defendant he helped put away for murder.

If the Peterson trial staggered Durham's reputation, the Nifong case nearly KO'd the city by focusing unflattering national attention on it.

Rabid Nifong supporters -- both of them -- contend the former prosecutor was unfairly persecuted for, as Sidney Harr said, "going after defendants who were from families of privilege."

Harr is a retired physician and an artist. He has drawn a color pro-Nifong comic strip called "The Mis-adventures of Super Duper Cooper" about a "mild-mannered ... bumbling attorney general dispensing selective justice based on color and class."

He portrays state Attorney General Roy Cooper, aided by a barely dressed "curvaceous assistant," wondering, "Let's see ... What else can I do to make the Nifong's life miserable?"

In arguing that Nifong deserves reinstatement to the bar, Harr noted Monday that Nifong is the only district attorney ever disbarred in the state -- despite instances of egregious prosecutorial misconduct by others.

Pretrial statements made by Cooper and Gov. Mike Easley, respectively, that Nifong was "a rogue prosecutor" and "the worst appointment I ever made" damaged Nifong's chances for justice, Harr said. "How was he going to get a fair trial after that?" he asked.

How many members, I asked Harr, are in the Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong? "If you join, that'll be three," he said. "You can have any title you want, as long as it is not president."

That title belongs to Durham community activist Victoria Peterson, who, because of her advocacy on behalf of Michael Peterson as well as Nifong, could soon become known as the patroness saint of lost causes.

"The wheels of justice move slowly," Peterson said when I asked whether she thought they'd get Nifong's license reinstated, "but they move. You must have people willing to stick their necks out. There are a lot of people who feel that he didn't get a fair trial."

None, apparently, who are willing to, in Victoria Peterson's words, stick their necks out and join the committee.