Does anybody remember the “runaway bride” Jennifer Wilbanks? She made up a lie, that tied up law enforcement resources. Her lie did not carry on for over a year, in part because of good police work and no insane DA like Mike Nifong. Well anyway, Wilbanks’ big lie did not last long, but she did have to pay a price for telling that lie. She had to pay restitution and cut grass as punishment. Considering nobody she lied about was ever charged with a crime, her slap on the wrist punishment never got much attention.

Now, we have Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Gail Mangum. The story went from rape to sexual assault and eventually crumbled. Mike Nifong is in lots of hot water, as he should be. But the accuser skates! She’s caused several families, not to mention an entire town, a year’s worth of grief. And she’s not even going to have to mow a lawn for it. The impact of Mangum’s lie was far greater than that of Wilbanks, but it seems Wilbanks paid the steeper penalty in legal terms. Why did the good folks in Georgia handle a liar appropriately, but it seems North Carolina is allowing a liar to get off with the greatest of ease?

What if it’s because the liar in North Carolina is Black? Do officials there fear that prosecuting a liar Ms. Mangum would cause some kind of racial tensions, or do they let all the people who lie to authorities off this easy? Everybody in North Carolina deserves equal protection from liars, regardless of race. And taxpayers do not deserve to bear the burden of liars based on race.

update 4/13/2007 10:49AM: I just want to point out, that both Jennifer Wilbanks and Crystal Gail Mangum claimed to have been kidnapped and raped. So their lies were very similar.