48 Comments

1. Black Rabbit:

I too rejoice at the belated arrival of justice to O. J. Simpson who has caused so much pain to so many.

Oct 3, 2008 - 11:38 pm 2. David Thomson:

The original O.J. Simpson trail clearly revealed the extent of widespread black self pity and indifference towards justice for all regardless of skin color. They could have cared less about his obvious guilt. The mindset is quite noticeable regarding their current overwhelming support for Barack Obama. Once again, the majority of blacks don’t give a damn about the overall country. Identity politics primarily underpins their choices on Election Day. Indeed, Obama presently benefits from this same sense of entitlement and moral bankruptcy.

Oct 4, 2008 - 3:04 am 3. Broadsword:

“Once again, the majority of blacks don’t give a damn about the overall country.” Not necessarily. Voting for someone based on skin color alone may be silly. It is not, ipso facto, evidence of indifference to the welfare of the country. What’s the expression…? Do not ascribe to malice what may more easily be explained by ignorance.
OJ may never admit his guilt; but he’s going to a place known for conversion.

Oct 4, 2008 - 4:44 am 4. Paul from Florida:

The Goldmans, they never got justice, in spite of the platitudes of the security/lawyer industry and the millions of tax dollars spent.

I would of taken OJ out.

Just because there is a huge bureaucracy, with really badly done Greek temple buildings, with legions of temple staff that depend on only them knowing the secret umba gumba language and how only they can approach the gods of justice, well, that is no reason to be a knee walking, genuflecting peasant.

If someone, or thing, won’t do, then you have to do it yourself. Or not. Simple as that.

To protect their franchise, the legal priests, no matter what their divisions, will unite to protect themselves, and their incomes, from such a fundamental slight, and threat.

I guess you have to walk where you can.

Anyways, my bet is that OJ goes Islam on us, and once again, becomes a star.

Oct 4, 2008 - 5:31 am 5. bogeywheel:

I’ve come to the conclusion that the so-called justice system is, by and large, a system of the lawyers, by the lawyers, and for the lawyers. When justice actually occurs, it’s an incidental byproduct.

I was mugged at gunpoint nearly 2-1/2 years ago. The gunman was arrested within 30 days of the crime. We have the right guy; no mistake. He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in the state pen if convicted.

Ah, but there’s the trick … in order to convict someone, you have to get them to trial first. Over the past 2+ years, I have been to court 5 times … 1 pre-trial hearing, and 4 “trial dates” at which the defendant has successfully gotten postponements merely be requesting them. (I thought one had to show a compelling reason in order to get a postponement, but apparently not.)

This guy has (1) a drug habit, (2) no steady job, and (3) a gf with a drug habit, and (4) a mother with a rap sheet that would make Al Capone proud. And he has used a firearm in the commission of a crime. In short, he’s a homicide waiting to happen. Any moron can see that allowing this guy to freely walk the streets is to significantly increase the chances that someone at some point is going to die.

But what does the “justice” system do? Why, allow him to freely walk the streets, of course.

Oct 4, 2008 - 6:46 am 6. bogeywheel:

Roger – do you think the first OJ trial would have had a different outcome if Judge Ito had banned cameras from the courtroom?

Oct 4, 2008 - 6:49 am 7. Scott:

Oh,poor Juice…now his relentless search for his wife’s killer (he never found that killer on the golf courses of south Florida,I suppose)will seemingly come to an end…HA!MY DAY HAS BEEN MADE!!!!!!

Oct 4, 2008 - 7:00 am 8. Promoguy:

Last night while listen to KABC and the self described “fair civil rights attorney” Leo Turrell, I couldn’t help noticing two comments he continued to make with regards to the case.

1. All white jury

2. He kept identifying the charges as allegations.

I thought that after a conviction they weren’t allegations anymore. Or at least that’s what he said when he was sucking up to OJ on the murder charges.

Oct 4, 2008 - 7:01 am 9. Lightnin' Hopkins:

As the cop dipping his pinky in the product and tasting it says to Ray Liotta’s character in “Goodfellas,” I say to Orenthal:

“Bye-bye, d***head.”

Oct 4, 2008 - 7:20 am 10. ahem:

Poetic justice.

Oct 4, 2008 - 8:11 am 11. J. H. Colter:

The original OJ trial was a very good lesson to the populace about the vicissitudes of the American legal system. Countless times, I have short-circuited discussion about how an otherwise excellent case can go south, simply by asking the client “Did OJ kill those people?”

Oct 4, 2008 - 8:12 am 12. Boyd:

“History will see the original Simpson Trial as a turning point in the evolution of our culture into a media dominated spectator sport often devoid of moral compass.”

I’m filing that one away.

Oct 4, 2008 - 8:13 am 13. Dee:

He is not in prison yet. I’ll believe it when he is led into the prison in cuffs.

Oct 4, 2008 - 10:35 am 14. Zorro:

Roger and the others have said it all, but Paul made me think that this is the alternative when the inns of justice harbor injustice:

Bonasera: I ask you for justice.
Don Corleone: That is not justice your daughter is still alive.
Bonasera: Let them suffer then. As she suffers. How much shall I pay you?
Don Corleone: Bonasera. Bonasera. What have I ever done to make you to treat me so disrespectfully. If you had come to me in friendship then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies then they would become my enemies. And then, they would fear you.

Oct 4, 2008 - 11:01 am 15. srlucado:

History will see the original Simpson Trial as a turning point in the evolution of our culture into a media dominated spectator sport often devoid of moral compass. Will it now begin to right itself?

Nope. With the election of Obama, it’ll turn a downward slide into a full-throttle nosedive.

Scott,
Who really wants to be wrong about this

Oct 4, 2008 - 12:01 pm 16. cedarford:

I am leery of prosecutorial “overcharging”. It undermines respect for that law and the intent of legislators when they crafted legislation on charges like kidnapping, “assault with the intent to murder”, conspiracy, and “reckless endangerment”.

It is generally a way for the State to cow defendents and force them to plea to lesser charges.

Appeal a speeding ticket or ask for a trial and watch as charges “magically” add to the original “going over 30 above the speed limit” to reckless endangerment and other minor felonies or charges that will result in a loss of a driver’s licence. It is a good education, frankly, to learn how the lawyers rig the justice system. Many men find out in Family Court. Finding out it works on the word of a young bitch cop who jacks up going at 70 to “above 85 MPH” and tells you she hates “assholes” who drive Porsches was a cheaper lesson than the raping unprepared guys get in Family Court…

Same game is now played with armed robbery, muggings, rape – the penalties and charges on the books are not enough – so prosecutors have started adding “kidnapping” as implicit in anyone “held against their will, made to do things against their will”. Not what lawmakers intended when they wanted to eradicate the incentive to steal a baby or kidnap and hold the kid of a well-off member of society for ransom. The abusive prosecutor in the Duke Lacrosse case made “kinapping” his big charge and asserted any rape accusation is also a kidnapping charge if any prosecutor feels warranted using that tool to force plea bargains..

Just as I thought OJ was guilty of the Brentwood murders, I think that in NO WAY was Simpson guilty of anymore than taking back his stuff from fellow scumbags. Thieves who also had no intent of paying a cent to Goldman.

Cops and insurance tends to protect the wealthy and “above-board” members of society only. A large part of America follows a different code – they aren’t insured against property losses – the cops don’t help them recover stolen property or they can’t go to the cops – so the “code” permits strongarm repo.

If it wasn’t for OJ’s celebrity and the fact a convict dirtball was recording it for the purpose of entrapment and helping his ass out of other criminal charges? No way would cops or prosecutors touch a case of some scumbag getting back a few thousand bucks worth of personal property from fellow scumbags with a 10-foot pole. No way.

Clark County, where an all-white jury convicted OJ, is 11% black and 31% Hispanic by census.
OJ has a variety of paths of appeal.

1. Was he deprived a jury of his peers?
2. What is the custom in Las Vegas of other strongarm property crimes? Charges of kidnapping, firearm involvement ever prosecuted? Or only in OJ Simpson’s case because of his celebrity status?
3. What is the prosecution record in disputed property cases, which involve involuntary repo of property, even of drugs?

The old saying, “Two wrongs don’t make a right” applies. Justice is not served by abusing the system to nail someone that beat the rap in another case.
And the “Mike Nifongs” out there are no heroes…

Oct 4, 2008 - 1:05 pm 17. Gary Rosen:

What a joke, C-fudd of all people whining about an “all-white” jury. Hope he’s got his NAACP dues all paid up. What it’s really all about is that he wants OJ to walk because he killed a Joooo.

Oct 4, 2008 - 1:37 pm 18. Gary Rosen:

You know, C-fudd is sounding exactly like one of them ACLU lawyers.

Oct 4, 2008 - 1:44 pm 19. cedarford:

No, Rosen, I said OJ was guilty as hell of the Brentwood killings. I object to BS charges and him facing an all-white jury for a little ex post facto justice.

There.

You may resume your cowardly slinking, now.

Oct 4, 2008 - 2:19 pm 20. buddy larsen:

Couldn’t help but be struck by Roger’s post, after hearing something similar –similar in the sorta supernatural undertone –from a reporter on tv this morning. She spoke of the 13th hour of the 13th day, and that in the courtroom as the verdict was read, the room lights suddenly went out (it was a mis-set timer). Then OJ’s lawyer came onscreen saying something about how this is the way “…the stars align”. Then i remembered that this whole nation had been mesmerized by the OJ murder trial during the exact same time that in Bosnia we were fecklessly letting the Cold War start back up; that with the western handling of that war (the result at least in part of the lack of any interest and attention at all from us stateside joe n jane sixpacks) we opened the path for the return of the hyper-bloodhungry nihilism of KGB. So, yes, Roger is on to something, with his dread of the ominous and sinister atmosphere of the whole thing.

Oct 4, 2008 - 2:40 pm 21. Gary Rosen:

C-fudd, I might have actually conceded you had a point if you weren’t a lying hypocritical antisemitic douchebag and ignoramus.

Just sayin’. Do you want me to link to more of your “greatest hits”?

Oct 4, 2008 - 2:50 pm 22. buddy larsen:

I’ve noticed C4 here and there –at Althouse for one –getting away from the antisemitism. Everybody grows up sooner or later, hey?

Oct 4, 2008 - 3:00 pm 23. Gary Rosen:

Buddy, at the risk of sounding “stiff-necked” (heh) I don’t believe C-fudd ever gets away from the antisemitism, he only conceals it as long as he can to shore up his credibility. Aside from the bigotry he is phenomenally dishonest and hypocritical as I noted here with his pious remark about the “all-white” jury, down to handing out Clark County demographics like some left-wing MSM hack.

Oct 4, 2008 - 3:22 pm 24. Gary Rosen:

Also, Buddy, C-fudd frequently (and recently) has responded to my taunts by attacking me not individually but as Jew. For instance, one of his little conceits is to say I need to “read Dale Carnegie”. But he doesn’t say “Gary Rosen needs to read Dale Carnegie”, he says “Jews need to read Dale Carnegie”. Essentially our exchanges go like this:

Me: You’re an antisemitic mother#@*&#*!!
C-fudd: Oh no I am!

Oct 4, 2008 - 3:31 pm 25. Gary Rosen:

“as Jew” s/b “as a Jew”

Oct 4, 2008 - 3:34 pm 26. buddy larsen:

Gary –’oh no i am’ reminds me of that great Aussie cartoon (wish i had a link) whare the democrat donkey (as jack nicholson in that courtroom) hollers “I CAN’T HANDLE the truth!”

Oct 4, 2008 - 3:42 pm 27. Gary Rosen:

To change the topic, Buddy (both from C-fudd and OJ), unfortunately the Democrats don’t need to handle the truth because the MSM is hiding it for them. That is one of the biggest reasons they will win this election. If the voters really knew how left-wing Obama is he would go down like McGovern. Well, maybe not that bad, after all the “atmospherics” (Bush’s unpopularity and economic crisis) favor the Dems. But even those are distorted by the MSM.

Oct 4, 2008 - 3:49 pm 28. Ad Noctum:

This just proves that the Wheel of Karma keeps rolling and sooner or later it will roll over OJ’s backside and crush the life out of him.

Oct 4, 2008 - 6:48 pm 29. buddy larsen:

Thank goodness for the Wheel of Karma. Grinds slowly but exceedingly fine.

Oct 4, 2008 - 7:50 pm 30. nodakboy:

I heard someone say once that the worst thing that ever happened to O.J. was getting acquitted in the double murder case.
You can almost see it in his face.
It’s a terrible thing to “get away” with a horrible crime. And, of course, you can’t really get away with it.
Imagine every morning when O.J. looks in the mirror.
Imagine him searching his children’s eyes for what they really, must really, think.
Of course, his worst moment was the double murder. But the worst thing, so far, that has ever happened to him was “getting away” with it. It will ruin him entirely if he doesn’t come clean.
(Not to mention the many ancillary victims of his crime.)

Oct 4, 2008 - 8:22 pm 31. Ice Nine:

Yeah, he had an all-white jury. Yeah, many of them probably voted him guilty of these marginal charges as retribution for his previous corrupt verdict. Tough s**t. That is simply “jury nullification” – a term we learned in his murder trial. Live by it, OJ, die by it.

Oct 4, 2008 - 10:03 pm 32. Pops:

The mills of the gods grind slow but exceeding fine.

Oct 5, 2008 - 1:35 am 33. Saltherring:

I did not follow the media circus that was the OJ murder trial. I do recall, however, passing by a television screen, at my place of employment, as the verdict was announced. The relatively small room, a lobby for multiple offices, was inhabited by perhaps 25 people; mostly white, a few asians, with perhaps a half dozen blacks scattered throughout. The blacks cheered and the whites groaned as the verdict was read. It was at that moment I realized how bitter and hateful the black culture really is. OJ had murdered white people and gotten away with it! Screw justice, screw the victims’ families, we won! Take that, whitey! I walked away sadly.

Oct 5, 2008 - 6:41 am 34. Matt, Esq.:

This is all a big ploy. Simpson’s looked everywhere outside for his wife’s killer without success. Now, he’s going to get the killer from the inside. Goldman’s the federa; deputy determined to foil Simpson’s plans and keep him in the slammer.

OJ Simpson Wentworth Miller Ron Goldman. PRISON BREAK SEASON 4 !

Oct 5, 2008 - 10:03 am 35. NahnCee:

“History will see the original Simpson Trial as a turning point in the evolution of our culture into a media dominated spectator sport often devoid of moral compass.”

Well, while “the media” are trying their hardest to swing the Presidential election for Obama, things are so bad with them budget-wise that they couldn’t afford to send reporters to Las Vegas to cover the trial in person. Neither newspapers nor networks had on-the-site coverage that I am aware of. Dominick Dunne covered it for Vanity Fair, but he’s dying of cancer and I think VF felt like they owed it to him for one last hurrah.

How the media have fallen in 13 years … I wonder what the next 13 years will bring for all those moral and ethical “journalists”.

Oct 5, 2008 - 10:05 am 36. NahnCee:

“The blacks cheered and the whites groaned as the verdict was read. It was at that moment I realized how bitter and hateful the black culture really is. ”

What I couldn’t believe back in those days was how open America’s black culture was about their desire to “give it to da man”. Didn’t the black people jumping up and cheering understand that people watching them would have exactly the same reaction as Americans watching Palestinians cheering and handing out candies on the day of 9/11? I have always felt like the day OJ was acquitted and white American watched black America dance on justice’s grave was the day Affirmative Action died.

Oct 5, 2008 - 10:09 am 37. Tina Trent:

The original jury ought to go down in history as the last lynch mob — hellbent to deny justice to innocent victims because the jurors were racists. They won’t, of course.

To the man who was mugged — good luck with that. OJ notwithstanding, people in this country have no idea how broken our courts are — so starved and strangled by the defense bar that a just outcome is entirely unlikely in any given case. Nobody within the system even expects people to go to jail for violence anymore. And the attitudes embodied by the O.J. murder trial are alive and well at every level of the courts — it doesn’t make headlines, of course. There is no justice — thanks to fifty years of untrammeled expansion of defendants’ “rights.”

Oct 5, 2008 - 10:21 am 38. Boatbulder:

I was dismayed and puzzled by the OJ verdict and the reaction of blacks–including many people I admire and respect. (I was at a YMCA–about 1/3 black–when the verdict came down). I have thought about it and discussed it(carefully) with some of my black acquaintances. I believe that much of the pro-OJ sentiment that has been attributed to hatred and racism is actually attributable to fear and a completely diffent view of the American system of justice. Blacks, not surprisingly given what history and experience has demonstrated to them, do not generally “trust” the police and the “authorities” to protect them from criminals or to treat them fairly. Everyone can probably recall some instance of a police officer treating them unfairly. I know I can. But I don’t percieve the police or “the system” as being opposed to me–and I think that’s where the difference lies.
Whether OJ was guilty or innocent was not as important to them as whether the police were. Once that bigot Mark whatsiname (I can’t believe I’ve forgotten it)came into the picture, the case was over. It no longer mattered what the evidence was. Everyone who has supported or argued that the OJ verdict was “correct” has not insisted on his innocence, but has pointed to the conduct of the police.

Oct 5, 2008 - 11:33 am 39. NahnCee:

At least the term to be “Nifong’d” has entered the lexicon and is an accepted possibility. The system may be broken but upon occasion there *is* recompense, and defendants can have trammeled rights.

Oct 5, 2008 - 11:44 am 40. buddy larsen:

While we’re touching on lawyers, about every third commercoial on cable tv seems to be a sudden loud blaring “Have YOU or anyone in your family been harmed by (fill in one of dozens –maybe hundreds– of products) ??? If so, CALL THE LAW OFFICES OF (fill in some more blanks)!!!”

Sweeping the national tv audiences must be costly –the returns must be GREAT.

Oct 5, 2008 - 11:52 am 41. Boatbulder:

Furman

Oct 5, 2008 - 11:52 am 42. buddy larsen:

USA used to be the last bastion of enterprise friendliness. Looks like they gonna be no bastion anymore. Oh yes –forgot –there’s China –now running a fine, growing American economy. China’s on its way to the moon –maybe we’ll have a Lunar Free Trade Zone.

Oct 5, 2008 - 12:01 pm 43. Ritchie Emmons:

“History will see the original Simpson Trial as a turning point in the evolution of our culture into a media dominated spectator sport often devoid of moral compass.”

I was flying to Australia during a portion of the original OJ trial. I changed planes in Aukland, New Zealand. I picked up a paper in the airport and there was a half-page ad for TV coverage of the OJ trial. It seems that perhaps the “moral compass” points globally.

Oct 5, 2008 - 4:20 pm 44. NahnCee:

Fuhrman has an “h” in it. Probably stands for “honor” since as far as I can remember, he was the most honorable participant of that whole trial (including Clark and Darden).

Oct 5, 2008 - 5:15 pm 45. Benson:

So we have:

A court system that seems to dispense justice almost at random, but certainly with depressing infrequency; a racial bloc of citizens who are eager to lash out at their perceived oppressors, past and present, along racial lines and without respecting truth or justice; and a general sense of dread and foreboding that some link to one of the presidential candidates.

To that I would add the greedy willingness of lawyers like Barry Scheck and Alan Dershowitz to prostitute themselves in what they knew was the cynical perversion of justice.

If Simpson is being repaid by karma, then it must be that our nation is also getting its comeuppance. I dispute both claims. Simpson is and always was a moral moron, a sociopath barely under control; sooner or later, he would have committed another crime.

And national or cultural karma? No. We can fix what’s broken in the jurisprudential system, if we recognize that every bad aspect of it is the result of bad individuals corrupting the process. From boneheaded judge Ito to the stunningly incompetent prosecution to the bigoted jury and the media feeding frenzy, people were out of line. The lines are there. But individuals ignored them.

Big problem. Not easy to solve, so we should roll our sleeves up and get to work. This calls for better education, showing students what justice is and is not, and why it matters. It calls for innovative, effective imposition of professional ethics; Knifong’s fate provides a glimmer of hope that it can be done.

It’s up to us. Recognizing horrible examples for what they are is the first step.

Oct 5, 2008 - 5:37 pm 46. oMan:

“She spoke of the 13th hour of the 13th day, and that in the courtroom as the verdict was read, the room lights suddenly went out (it was a mis-set timer). Then OJ’s lawyer came onscreen saying something about how this is the way “…the stars align”.

That sounds like a pretty good airport novel, buddy larsen. For myself, I think that OJ finally got what was coming to him. In the Greek sense: hubris. Yes, his posse helped him skate from the Nicole/Ron Goldman murders, but his internal corruption continued unabated. Do you think any normal soul would have written his stupid teaser book about “If I had done it?” He wanted to destroy himself. Now, at long last, he has succeeded. I hope he spends his time in prison contemplating and atoning for his crimes. But I think he’s simply not capable of it. He has no ability to understand himself. He is a toy of the gods. Which we must confine.

Oct 5, 2008 - 7:36 pm 47. Gary Rosen:

NahnCee – not sure about Fuhrman, the racism charges may have been overblown but he came across as kind of a weirdo. A few years back I saw one of the investigating officers on a talk show (probably Leno), a decent old-line cop. He said he “never had a case with that much physical evidence” and blasted the prosecuting attorneys (Clark and Darden) for blowing it. But he also said, “no one could have gotten a conviction with that jury”.

Oct 5, 2008 - 9:29 pm 48. hermie:

Fuhrman was smeared as a racist by the defense and the media. The ‘N’ word was brought up without the prosecution attempting to identify the context, and Ito, who in my opinion was an extremely weak judge who had no business on the bench, much less this trial, allowed this circus to go on.

Ito was also bullied and manipulated by the defense when it came to even the smallest of things. When Clark wore the ‘angel’ pin in the memory of Brown, Ito demanded she remove it. Yet, when the defense all wore ‘african’-style print neckties, all he would saty was ‘nice neckties’; even though it was an obvious attempt to influence black jurors. When the defense made statements about Ito’s wife, who was a member of the police department, Ito broke down a bit while on the bench at the trial. It then became so obvious that this man had no business presiding over this trial.

Jury members’ own words demonstrated that they had no intention of looking at the evidence. One female juror said when she looked at Fuhrman, she saw a ’skinhead’. The defense poisoned the well, and Ito would not take control. Also, when asked about why Nicole would write in her diary about here fears about Simpson’s abuse, the juror said ‘Well, you’ll have to ask her.’.

Oct 6, 2008 - 5:32 am

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