[jman220]

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Nifong's blatantly violated legal ethics rules, though, when he made prejudicial statements about the defendants to the media. He also withheld exculpatory DNA evidence from the defense and even lied to a judge about the existence of such evidence. While those violations are definitely enough to get disbarred, I am not sure if they are grounds for a private suit by the defendants ...

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I'm not a lawyer, so what are the legal "grounds" for filing a private suit? I'm guessing that your remarks above are enough to file a suit.

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There usually has to be a statute authorizing the suit or some kind of common law cause of action. The problem is that the rules Nifong violated are ethical rules that are primarily intended as a way for state courts to regulate the conduct of lawyers and disbar them if they misbehave. They are generally not intended to constitue legal grounds for which private individuals can sue lawyers. There are all kinds of ethical rules that require lawyers to avoid conflicts of interest, zealously advocate for their clients, etc. If a lawyer violates one of those rules, he can be suspended or disbarred, but he cannot be sued for malpractice by a client just on the basis of him violating those rules. Although violations of those rules will often constitute malpractice, there is a completely separate set of standards for when a client can sue for malpractice.

In order for the defedants in this case to sue, there needs to be some kind of North Carolina statute that explicitly authorizes defendants to sue for damages in the event of prosecutorial misconduct. I'm just not sure if such a statute exists. If there isn't one, they still might be able to sue, but then they would have to be a little more creative and fit this case into some kind of tort claim.

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Sovereign Immunity. He can't be sued for this. A prosecutor's immunity from civil liability is nearly absolute when it comes to their conduct in the prosecution of cases, although he can certainly be disbarred.