Former stripper and convicted murderer Crystal Mangum, a Black woman who accused three white Duke University lacrosse players of raping her at a team party in 2006, has now confessed that she lied and said she is hoping for forgiveness.
"[I] made up a story that wasn't true," she said Wednesday.
Mangum set off a national racial firestorm when she accused David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann of raping and beating her in a bathroom during the party that began on March 13, 2006, for which Mangum was hired as a stripper along with another woman.
Mangum gave her confession in an interview with the podcast "Let's Talk With Kat" at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, where Mangum is serving 14 to 18 years for the second-degree murder of her boyfriend in 2013.
"I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn't, and that was wrong. And I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me," Mangum told podcast host Katerena DePasquale.
"I made up a story that wasn't true because I wanted validation from people and not from God," Mangum said.
The bombshell accusation set off a chain of events that led to the arrests of the three players, overzealous prosecution resulting in the disbarment of the local prosecutor, the firing of the team's coach, the cancellation of that season, and the transfers of two of the three players.
Duke student newspaper The Chronicle reported Friday that Duke Athletics declined to comment, as did university administration, former university President Richard Brodhead, then-lacrosse coach Mike Pressler, and Seligmann.
Then-North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, currently the state's outgoing Democrat governor, exonerated the three more than a year later. Duke University reached an undisclosed settlement with the three men, and the city of Durham, where Duke is located, settled a lawsuit with the three in 2014.
Former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, who said in an interview in March 2006 that "there's no doubt a sexual assault took place" and that the assault was "racially motivated," was disbarred in June 2007 for lying in court and withholding DNA evidence that would have cleared the men.
Mangum, however, can no longer be prosecuted for lying under oath since the statute of limitations on perjury charges is two years under North Carolina law.
"I want them to know that I love them, and they didn't deserve that, and I hope that they can forgive me," Mangum said of Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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