North Carolina ? Mike Nifong, the former district attorney who spent 24 hours behind bars for withholding evidence during the Duke lacrosse case, was released from the Durham County Detention Facility on Saturday morning to the excited utterances from the same supporters who surrounded him Friday.

Unlike Friday, Nifong had some things to say.

He thanked the jail staff for “the professionalism of which I was treated and the respect which I was shown. Other than that, I just want to go home and spend some time with my family.”