A new ad by Attorney General Roy Cooper highlights his role in dismissing the charges against three Duke University lacrosse players.

One of state Rep. Thomas Wright's attorneys compares his client to Dr. Richard Kimble.

Kimble is name of the fictional character in the TV show and film "The Fugitive" who is falsely accused and convicted of the murder of his wife, David Ingram reports.

Wright's attorney Douglas Harris told a legislative committee Monday that the character was based on Sam Sheppard, an Ohio physician convicted of murdering his wife and, later, famously acquitted.

Sheppard's case is now taught in law schools because public officials were overzealous in presuming Sheppard's guilt, Harris said.

"That's pretty much what you're doing here," Harris said. "Unless you want to be studied in every law school in America, you ought to be careful about what you're doing here."

Harris said Wright would not be able to get a fair trial on criminal charges in Wake County if the House were to discipline Wright on ethics charges.

Previously, Harris compared Wright to members of the Duke lacrosse team and to victims of lynching.

Shameless Plug: N&O reporter Joe Neff's brother, James, has a book on the Sheppard case.

The first gaffe of the debate came within minutes.

While answering a question about how the justice system treats minorities, Beverly Perdue said that she did not want to see another "Duke soccer team" happen.

"As the next governor of North Carolina, on my watch I will do whatever it takes to be sure there is not a James Johnson or a Darryl Hunt or a Duke soccer team either," she said.

Um, that would be Duke lacrosse, unless there's been another case of prosecutorial misconduct recently.

Hot-button issues inspired Dome readers to hit their mouse buttons.

In 2007, the most-viewed posts on the Under the Dome blog touched on the most contentious issues of the day: illegal immigration, homosexuality, the Duke lacrosse case and state political corruption.

Another drew a national audience because of its ties to national news.

Counting down the Top Five Most Viewed of 2007:

5. Wright's reimbursements: State Rep. Thomas Wright was paid eight times for travel when he was already in Raleigh, an investigation reveals.

4. Toasted Nifong: A downtown Raleigh bar offers "Toasted Nifong w/ a side order of National News" on its menu, lampooning the Duke lacrosse prosecutor.

3. The Orange County factor: An anti-John Edwards piece on "The O'Reilly Factor" misrepresented Orange County residents interviewed.

2. Neal: Being gay 'no big deal': Jim Neal, candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, reveals on local blog that he is gay.

1. Lancaster defends illegal immigrant policy: Martin Lancaster, president of the state community College System, defends the rights of illegal immigrants to study.

The No. 1 post is tops in another area. Thanks in part to a link on a local Web site opposed to illegal immigration, it generated 219 comments—the most of any Dome post this year.

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones is standing up for NCAA sports.

The Farmville Republican is urging Time Warner to begin carrying the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, a cable channel that features local college basketball, football and lacrosse games.

Twenty North Carolina colleges and universities have agreed to broadcast their games on the channel in the 2007-08 season. Time Warner does not offer the channel, although four other cable providers are.

Jones sent a letter to Time Warner Cable Chairman Glenn Britt protesting the lack of coverage. 

"I strongly encourage you to reach an agreement with MASN as soon as possible and begin televising on basic cable the 'must have' local sports of this regional sports network," he wrote.

Four of the lawyers who cleared former Duke University lacrosse players of bogus rape charges will speak about the case at a seminar sponsored by the state Academy of Trial Lawyers.

The session is set for Nov. 30 and is aimed at lawyers, according to a news release from the organization.

The lawyers on the panel each bolstered their already-formidable reputations in their defense of the lacrosse players. The speakers will be Joseph B. Cheshire V, Brad Bannon, Wade Smith and Jim Cooney.

More after the jump

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Forget about Gary.

The next Hollywood Cooper is Roy.

Cable network HBO plans to create a movie based on the Duke lacrosse case, the entertainment magazine Variety reported Tuesday.

The movie will be based on the book, "Until Proven Innocent," by blogger K.C. Johnson and Stuart Taylor Jr.

It will no doubt climax with Cooper's exoneration of the three lacrosse players by the state attorney general. For now, little is known about the casting of Cooper or other players in the case.

Readers, care to make suggestions to HBO?

It will be an academic conference held at the scene of the crime.

Duke University's law school hold a conference later this month with a very Mike Nifongish flavor: "The Court of Public Opinion: The Practice and Ethics of Trying Cases in the Media," Rob Christensen reports.

Nifong, of course, was the former Durham district attorney, who had a lot of very unflattering things to say about four Duke lacrosse players acused — wrongly as it turns out — of rape.

The panelists will include Judge Reggie Walton, who presided over the Scooter Libby trial, and Harold Haddon, who defneded Kobe Bryant against charges of sexual assault. Duke President Richard Brodhead will participate.

The conference will be held Sept. 28-29 at the Duke Law School. It is sponsored by grant form the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Mike Nifong has mailed his license in.

The former Durham district attorney had said that he thought the State Bar treated him fairly and would not appeal the verdict towards the end of his hearing in June.

But he attached a note decrying "the fundamental unfairness" of his treatment when he sent in his law license.

A disciplinary panel found Nifong guilty of 11 out of 20 violations of ethics rules for his handling of the Duke lacrosse case.

In a letter dated Aug. 7, Nifong wrote that he was upset that the Lane Williamson, head of the disciplinary panel, amended the order to include the 11th count after a Duke law professor pointed out it was missing.

"Mr. Williamson's e-mail assertion that the addition of a new conclusion of law based on the request of a Duke University law professor is merely a 'clerical correction' is preposterous beyond belief, and is further evidence of the fundamental unfairness with which this entire procedure has been conducted," he wrote. (N&O)