the rule of lawlessness

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- As four men sat in prison for a murder they didn't commit, records show that state investigators sent proof of their innocence to a North Carolina prosecutor, but he never revealed it to the convicted men.

He didn't have to. Nothing in North Carolina's legal standards requires a prosecutor to turn over evidence of innocence after a conviction.

The four, along with a fifth who also was convicted, were eventually cleared through the work of a commission that investigates innocence -- but not until they'd served years in prison, including several years when a judge says the prosecutor and sheriff "did nothing to follow up on" another man's confession.

The rule of law and the rule of lawlessness seem hopelessly entwined and it is frightening ... and not just to the black men and women who enjoy the fruits most. The arising of America as a Third World country is tended and nourished by those who are often given to flying the flag and touting the rule of law even as lawlessness gains its footing.

Is it any wonder that the raucous amorphous chorus swells, and takes on a formless form similar to this recent email:

Sometimes it is hard not to think that presidential candidate Donald Trump cannot possibly win the presidential nomination.

Why?

Because he has already won.