O.J. Simpson finally convicted
A long time coming, O.J. Simpson may spend life in prison after being convicted of conspiracy, burglary, kidnapping, robbery and assault. Jurors were convinced that Simpson and five accomplices robbed two sports memorabilia dealers at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino last September. The defense said O.J. was only trying to steal back personal items and that he didn’t know two of his people were armed. Suffice to say, jurors didn’t buy it. O.J. faces a minimum of five years and at most life in prison.
Simpson’s lead attorney, Yale Galanter, said he would appeal the conviction, which came after some 13 hours of deliberation in a single day by the jury of nine women and three men.
Galanter said Simpson’s past as a notorious murder defendant, widely seen as having eluded justice in Los Angeles, was a factor in the swift verdict reached by the Las Vegas jurors.
Amazingly, the verdict came on the 13th anniversary of his acquittal. Poetic justice some might say. Others, those not great with words, might simply point at O.J. Simpson and laugh, “Ha ha,” Nelson Muntz style.
Why do people care whether O.J. Simpson is convincted for some crime? No one cared when Robert Blake was found not guilty for his wife’s murder. No one cared when Phil Spector’s trial ended in a mistrial. The media claimed that no one wanted to re-create the media circus of the Simpson trial. But when Simpson is convincted for attempting to steal some sports memorabilia that he claimed once belonged to him . . . suddenly both the media and the public are interested again. They don’t care when two white male celebrities escape conviction, yet they care when a… Read more »
difficulty of understanding is beaucse it is a question of two completely different systems of jurisprudence based on fundamentally different principles. The French system based on the Napoleonic code, and the American based on English Common Law. In a criminal trial in the US, one is tried in open court and judged by a jury of one’s peers, (Thank God for the VI Amendment) and is found “guilty” or “not guilty” – NOT INNOCENT, by a unanimous verdict, with the standard being “guilt beyond a reasonable doubt”Note:CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATESAmendment VI[Civil rights in trials for crimes enumerated.]”In all criminal… Read more »