- Declared bankruptcy in 2008.
- Graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1971 with a degree in political science. He earned a law degree in 1978 from the university's law school and began working as an assistant district attorney for nearby Durham County in 1979.
- Former district attorney of Durham (NC) County who sought prosecution of three members of the Duke University lacrosse team in 2006 after they were accused of rape and assault by Crystal Gail Mangum, a black student at nearby North Carolina Central University who also worked as an exotic dancer and was at a party thrown by the team in March 2006. Although there was no physical evidence of either rape or assault, Nifong, who was running for re-election, pursued charges relentlessly. DNA tests were done and the only DNA found in Mangum was that of her current boyfriend at the time. However, Nifong suppressed this basic exculpatory finding. This, along with the general lack of evidence and Mangum's checkered background, led NC State AG Roy Cooper in 2007 to dismiss all charges against the three accused lacrosse players. In June of that year, Nifong was disbarred after the NC Bar Association found him guilty on 27 of 32 charges including fraud, dishonesty, deceit or misrepresentation, making false statements of material fact before a judge, making false statements of material fact before bar investigators, and lying about withholding exculpatory DNA evidence. He was convicted of criminal contempt, serving one day in jail.
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