According to the Raleigh N&O, Kirk Osborn has died today. Kirk has
been Reade Seligmann's tireless attorney on the Duke Lacrosse case.
Over the past year, I was fortunate to correspond with Kirk via
e-mail and came to know him as a beautiful man. He always answered
each and every message. Such a champion of the presumption of
innocence, such a champion of Reade's innocence, such a champion
of the supporters and bloggers of the Duke Lacrosse case. I am so
saddened to learn of his death. I know he was not a very old man
so this is such a shock. My heart goes out to his family and Reade and
to Kirk's colleagues and friends. I know he made a great contribution to
justice for Reade and others. His intelligence, compassion, commitment and
temperment held well against a man like Mike Nifong in the courts. I still
have recordings of the hearings before they ruled the cameras out showing
Kirk's steadfast, compelling, yet tempered arguments in the face of
Nifong's persecution of his client. I am going to keep those tapes. There
was a champion, there was Kirk Osborn. Rest in peace, my hero.
