In the wee hours of the morning of Jan. 31, two men lay on a Buckhead sidewalk dying of the stab wounds they had received in a street brawl outside a bar. The men, Jacinth Baker, 21, and Richard Lollar, 24, were not powerful or wealthy or well-known. In fact, they were everyday working stiffs.

By that night, Atlanta police had arrested a professional football player who was everything the two dead men were not: wealthy, well-known and well-connected. Police charged Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis with double-murder and later charged two of his buddies, as well. Less than two weeks after the crime, Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard obtained murder indictments against all three.

At a news conference shortly after the arrests, Mayor Bill Campbell promised "justice -- nothing more, nothing less." "We will not be swayed by fame or status," he said.

 

YOUR VIEW

What do you think of the performance of Paul Howard and his team in prosecuting the Buckhead murders case?   They did a fine job. 12% 707   They should have waited longer to indict. 7% 448   They blew it. 81% 4836 Total Votes   5991

It had all the makings of an epic showdown between the professional athlete able to buy a dream team defense and a prosecutor determined to avenge the deaths of two citizens who had a right to live, their lowly stations notwithstanding. In an election year, any prosecutor who could win such a case would be expected to sail back into office with strong public approval. And the mayor, of course, would win plaudits for his refusal to bow to the gods of celebrity.

There was just one problem with that storyline: It didn't hold up. There was no evidence that Lewis committed murder, so Howard was forced to drop murder charges against him and allow him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice. Howard hoped to salvage something of his bungled prosecution by having Lewis testify against his buddies, Joseph Sweeting, 34, and Reginald Oakley, 31.

But even with Lewis' testimony, there was precious little hard evidence against Sweeting and Oakley. So, on Monday, at the end of a four-week trial in which Howard looked like an incompetent first-year law student, a Fulton County jury acquitted the two on all charges.

While the families of the victims may be convinced that wealth trumped justice, the misdemeanor plea bargain and subsequent acquittals had very little to do with Ray Lewis' exploitation of his wealth and connections. Instead, this bungled prosecution is an illustration of a range of other human frailties: anger, arrogance, hubris and hunger for publicity, among them.

Perhaps egged on by the mayor -- who can never resist the chance to preen before the press -- Howard became convinced that charging Lewis with murder would give him the opportunity to bring down a high-profile felon. The police, too, were eager to get Lewis, perhaps because he lied to them during the early hours of the investigation.

What prosecutors and police officers should have considered is this: A street brawl is difficult to sort out. Witnesses may have been drunk. It could take months to interview and re-interview each witness; to re-create the scene outside the bar to reconcile conflicting witness accounts; and to examine every shred of evidence.

But Howard leapt to indict within days. When he did, defense lawyers moved for a quick trial. That trapped police and prosecutors, who had little time to finish investigating their case. That was evident after their witnesses unraveled on the stand.

Without a celebrity defendant, this case would probably have proceeded in a more routine fashion. Howard would not have forsaken his judgment; police would have taken months to investigate; and, eventually, suspects would have been charged with manslaughter, a more likely charge when homicides grow out of a street brawl.

But because Howard tried to ride to fame on the back of Ray Lewis, he has damaged -- not enhanced -- his chances for re-election. And the killings of two young men remain unpunished.

Cynthia Tucker's column appears Sunday and Wednesday.