OJ is Back
Barry Nelson
ChicagoPosts: 1,508MI6 Agent
Well the media circus is underway and the nuts are getting ready as OJ is about to go trial again. Now I am no fan of OJ, but I have to say, I think the Las Vegas District Attorney has gone overboard charging OJ with 11 counts, kidnapping, robbery with use of a deadly weapon, burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon, coercion with use of a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to commit a crime. All these charges yet we know, OJ had no weapon, no one was kidnapped. and one of the victims said he never felt threatened. I predict most of these charges will never stick. The leagl system in this country is very strange indeed.
Comments
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
OJ killed two people, everyone knows it, but he wasn't convicted. I don't know whether he's guilty of these latest allegations, but I sure hope he is, and I hope he spends a long time in jail because of it. He should have been in jail for over a decade already, with no hope of getting out.
Robbery is taking someone's property/valuables by force.
Burglary is breaking in somewhere and taking something away.
Barry, like you I think OJ Simpson is guilty as sin and deserves no sympathy from any quarter. And while I understand where you're coming from with your belief that justice should be fair and impartial, the irony is that the first OJ Simpson trial from the mid 90's led to quasi-celebs like Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie (and now OJ himself) being made examples of in court. Given the rampant overcrowding in most courts there's no way that you or I or anyone without a prior conviction would be forced to serve time for a minor traffic infraction or given $125k bail on such shaky grounds. But the results of that first OJ trial led to such a public outcry that judges always seem to second-guess themselves when celebrities - or celebrity attorneys - are involved and often go out of their way to show that there is no favoritism.
I remember one famous trial here in Boston where a British au-pair was charged with mudering an infant (one of those unfortunate cases of shaken baby syndrome as I recall). All the legal experts agreed that it was a case of involuntary manslaughter at most, but her defense team made the boneheaded decision to refuse the opion of settling for a less severe charge (which probably would have meant no or minimal jail time and/or parole). They also got Barry Scheck, one of the DNA experts from OJ's legal, team as an expert witness. Long story short, she was found guilty of first degree murder and, tellingly, many jurors later said that Scheck's testimony and his affiliation with OJ's legal team led them to doubt his word on the bench. The judge reduced the sentence a few months later but this little story just goes to show the negative effect that first OJ trial had on the public's confidence in our legal system and how, to this day, we continue to be affected by it.
I didn't follow the trial all that closely but to the best of my recollection, it started out as a case of insider trading (a big no-no on Wall Street) but all the government got was a conviction of obstruction of justice and lying to investigators.
Was her punishment commiserate with the crime? That's a matter of opinion but it's hard for me to reconcile the taxpayers' dollars spent prosecuting these types of cases when there are people with pages and pages of DUI and assault convictions out on the streets right now. All just my opinion of course.
Mine too. {[]
Well, the judge has declared a mistrial. X-( That means the little nyaff is walking about LA on bail. And that Lana Clarkson's family will have to sit through the whole traumatic experience when the case comes to court again. Spector has a history of pointing guns at people, especially women, and was seen running from the house claiming "I think I've just killed someone." Yeesh. How much evidence does a jury need?
What's wrong with these people? They'll jail young women for incidents that compared to murder are relatively minor. Paris Hilton get jailed for DUI? Lindsay Lohan will be there sooner or later for something or other. But when a male celebrity actually kills a woman, OJ, Spector, they're free to go. It beggars belief. It really does.
If you take a look at the docket of any court in the country, I think you'll find that the piling on of charges is nothing particular to OJ. In fact, it's standard operating procedure in most cases, even traffic. Squeal your tires and you're liable to be cited for speeding, exibition of speed, reckless driving, etc ...
You take someone from their home at gunpoint and kill them, you're not just charged with murder, but with all the crimes that led up to it (conspiracy, kidnapping, use of a weapon etc ...). It happens all the time -- it just doesn't get the kind of publicity it gets when the pile's on O.J.