The Juice

Well, O.J. Simpson got arrested again. Maybe this time they’ll find a jury that will listen to the evidence?

I had to explain to my 23-year-old daughter who he was and why he was famous. She remembers him only from his murder trial, which took place when she was 11. She didn’t even know he played football.

She asked my why the Goldman family had to take away the rights to his confession, currently published in book form, to satisfy their judgment against him. Didn’t he have a lot of endorsements and stuff like that if he was a big football star?

I explained to her that he used to have all those things, similar to Payton Manning (whom she is familiar with), but because he is a multiple-murderer, no company wants him hawking their products anymore.

His trial, unlike most trials, was broadcast for the whole world to see. Usually, we the people don’t get to see the evidence. We have to take the jury’s word for it that the evidence supported conviction or that it didn’t. In this unique case, we got to see the evidence and we know that the jury blew it. We know he was guilty. There was no way he was going to pick up his career after that. We know that, thanks to jury nullification, he got away with murder, twice!

Personally, I hope that this time around Las Vegas can find 12 people willing to look at the evidence and not only at his celebrity. I doubt that this trial will be televised so there will be no playing to the cameras and that should help.

I sometimes wonder how those jurors sleep at night, knowing that they set a murderer free. This man killed the mother of his children and paid no penalty. Has anyone in the media followed the jurors’ lives since the verdict? Has their karma come home to roost, yet? They have some heavy debt to pay.