Posted Oct. 7, 2008 – When questioned during jury selection, all 12 of the non-Blacks who were eventually chosen as jurors said they would give O.J. Simpson a fair trial, but the fact that at least five of them said they believed the former football legend had gotten away with murder 13 years ago is enough to make you wonder.
On Friday, after just 13 hours, the jurors – 11 of whom described themselves as White and one as Hispanic – convicted Simpson of a copious list of serious criminal acts, including robbery with a deadly weapon, burglary with a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, first-degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon, coercion with use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit a crime. Simpson was accused of rounding up five men last year and busting into a room at a hotel-casino in Las Vegas, and confiscating several game footballs from his playing days, trophy plaques and photographs. Two of Simpson’s cohorts were armed, according to prosecutors, and one of them testified that Simpson asked him to bring a gun.
Does anyone really believe it’s a coincidence that the verdict came down on the exact day that he was acquitted in the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles 13 years ago?
Simpson’s 1995 acquittal widened a racial rift in America that left many Whites praying for a day like Friday. To many of them, Simpson had appeared to spend the past several years gloating about his narrow escape from the initial rap. To many African Americans – who cheered exuberantly after that acquittal – the collective mindset for years had been: “O.J., please go sit your a** down somewhere!” Now, in a perfect O.J.-hating world, Simpson could spend the rest of his life in prison. Theoretically, the 61-year-old fallen star could be sentenced to 132 years behind bars – if you add up the max on all counts. While it’s highly unlikely he will get that harsh a penalty, legal experts say he’s probably looking at at least 10 years on the kidnapping charge alone; add some extended time for the gun charge, and it could amount to a life sentence for someone his age.
But back to the jury.
How likely is it that the potential jurors were all honest on the quesionnaire and that one of them had only heard of Simpson because of Simpson’s TV commercials? Go to the next page for more.