December 12th / 14th, 2008
"O.J. Verdict Proves Justice Isn’t Blind"
Fourteen years ago, NFL Hall of Famer O.J. Simpson was accused, then
acquitted of murdering his ex wife Nicole Brown, and her friend Ron Goldman. The
trial held our nation spellbound, and the verdict divided us along racial
lines.
TV news crews captured images of Blacks celebrating, and Whites looking
typically judgemental.
Say what you will about Simpson, but a jury of his peers believed that
bungling CSIs, corrupt police, and incompetent prosecutors failed to make their
case.
I may be the only white guy in this hemisphere who thinks the jury got it
right. Remember the bloody glove that was supposed to nail Simspon? It couldn
’t even fit half way onto OJ’s severely arthritic hand. And speaking of his
hands, I always found it hard to believe that a man with such gnarled hands
could have wielded a knife with such force as to nearly decapitate one of his
victims. As such, I believe that at least one if not two other men were
involved, and that OJ might or might not have known their identity. He might
have solicited their help in frightening Nicole into giving up her fight to
deny him custody of his children. Or, as some reports indicated, Nicole might
have been in debt to drug dealers who decided to make an example of her.
But regardless of those and other theories, OJ was found not guilty under the
law, and that means he entered this year’s Las Vegas ordeal with no prior
criminal record.
Yet, last week, following a lengthy trial in which OJ was charged with
attempting to steal his own memorabilia, Judge Jackie Glass sentenced Simpson to
33 years in prison, and treated him as though he was some sort of repeat
offender.
And then there was the Nevada jury, who was anything but a jury of his
peers.
All twelve jurors were White and nine were women. That’s why the trial was
biased and unfair, and why those white bread idiots found OJ guilty on all
twelve counts, including a ridiculous charge of kidnapping.
Moreover, the entire case was a set-up job designed to pay Simspon back for “
getting away with murder”. Las Vegas police were in cahoots with a sleazy
felon memorabilia dealer who tape recorded the interaction between OJ and two
of the men who illegally obtained Simpson’s mementos. Immediately following
the sting, the dealer netted over $200,000 from media outlets who broadcast
the hidden camera hotel hijinx. By the way, police were overheard on that
tape saying “if L.A. couldn’t get him, we would”.
And so here’s a former sports hero being charged with trying to retrieve his
own property which had been stolen from him. He never carried a gun. He
never told anyone else to bring a gun. He just wanted his stuff back.
Following the sting, Simpson innocently asked police if they had arrested the
thieves who stole his possessions. It was a logical question. Little did he
know that the cops were working with the bad guys to punish a man who they
thought should have been punished long ago. That’s not criminal justice, that’
s just plain criminal.
But let’s get back to the all white jury, and to the female judge who
sentenced OJ.
Prior to the start of the Vegas trial, Judge Glass allowed prosecutors to
issue a lengthy questionnaire to all 500 prospective jurors. Of the twelve
finalists, five said they thought OJ was guilty of the 1994 murders. That’s not
only having prior knowledge of the defendant’s behavior, that’s blatant
prejudice against him.
How tainted can a trial be?
In all fairness to Judge Glass, she didn’t authorize a sleazy sting
involving sleazy felons cooperating with police. And she didn’t tell OJ to go
storming into someone else’s hotel room. She didn’t pick the jury, nor did she
create the sentencing guidelines for the crimes with which Mr. Simpson was
charged.
On the other hand, Judge Glass could have reviewed the jury questionnaires
and declared a mistrial from the get go. She also could have set aside the
all white jury’s verdict, and ordered OJ to do ten years of community
service.
For God sakes, the man only tried to regain possession of his own property
from thieves of ill repute. The problem is that, despite Glass’s disclaimer,
her sentencing and the trial itself was, in fact, pay back for Simpson having
once been acquitted in a high profile murder trial.
Anyone else who was a first time offender would have been treated
differently, especially anyone else who is Caucasian.
Simpson can now appeal the tainted verdict, but he’ll have to do so from his
jail cell. Judge Glass denied him bail. Why? Because she took into
consideration his prior behavior in appearing to flee from Los Angeles police
following the Brown/Goldman murders. But wait a minute. He was acquitted of
those crimes, so how could a Judge take into consideration something an innocent
man did in an unrelated case?
The whole thing wreaks of prejudice and pay back, and I hope that OJ
prevails on appeal. Having said that, if he does win his freedom, he must grow
some brains.
One of the reasons he’s in hot water now is because he acted like an
arrogant idiot following the ’94 murder trial. He claimed he would go in search
of Nicole’s killer, then spent 24/7 on the golf course. He continued to
associate with shady characters. He wrote a book titled, “If I had Done it”,
which infuriated those who thought he got away with murder, and offended even
his most ardent supporters. And he tried to strong arm two thieves into
returning his memorabilia, rather than engaging an attorney to do so for him.
Stupidity may not be a crime, but, in this case, it may land a once admired
figure in prison for the rest of his life.
If all appeals fail, and if I were Simpson, I would ask President Obama to
pardon me next year. Barack is immensely popular and perceived as
fair-minded, so he could use his new found influence to erase a shady case and
overturn a prejudiced verdict. That’s not likely to happen, though, because Obama
is, first and foremost, a politician who wants to get things done, and
eventually get re-elected. He is also a student of history, and knows what happened
to Gerald Ford’s re-election hopes after he pardoned Richard Nixon.
And so, O.J. has the bad fortune of being addicted to bad judgement. And
as we all know, Vegas is not a healthy place for people with addictions.
Still, if he did murder two people a generation ago, then the old saying, “
what goes around comes around” may seem fitting and natural. It’s like Al
Capone committing murder and extortion, then being sent to prison for tax
evasion.
But in Simpson’s case, the law should have protected him against
pay back. Those who had a hand in orchestrating this miscarriage of justice
should be forewarned. What goes around, comes around for them as well.
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