It may be 13 years to the day that O.J. Simpson hugged attorney Johnny Cochran, and walked away from a Los Angeles courtroom free of the double murder of his ex-wife and lover. But on this day in 2008, he wasn’t so lucky. Did the jury convict O.J.Simpson fairly? Even without the previous high profile trial, the facts of this particular case confirm in everyone’s mind that this gentleman is not at all a gentleman. He is a bad egg that will spend his life where he should spend it; in jail.
My father was a great one for quotes, lines, and little words of wisdom, gleaned mainly from his mother, who herself gleaned them from all sorts of places. Shakespeare, the Bible, poetry etc. One of those quotes was, ‘as you sow, you reap.’ This basically means that wherever you sow your seed, that’s where it will grow fruit. If you spend your life being a decent person, good and fair to others, you will get that back in return. Having lived in Thailand these last five years, the Thai people also have a saying. It is ’som nom na’, which translated means, ’serves you right.’ But I personally like a former colleagues eloquent expression ‘every dog has its day.’
Simpson, many say, should have been convicted of that double murder all those years ago. Even if we believed him then, he mocked all of us by writing the book ‘If I Did It.’ This explained how the murder ‘would have’ occurred. Now if you didn’t commit the murders, how would you know? It was a blatent slap in the face to his ex wife’s family and the family of Ron Goldman, his ex wife’s lover. It basically said he did it, and there is nothing anybody can do about it.
So when it surfaced that Simpson was up for armed robbery and kidnapping, many people started to smile again. Simpson has been acquitted of the murders. No one can try him again for that. But to get him on something else is as tantalising as it was for Eliot Ness’ ‘Untouchables’ getting Al Capone on tax evasion when it was known all along that he was a mob boss responsible for everything from murder to dealing in prohibited alcohol.
It also demonstrates that maybe Simspon isn’t playing with a full deck. He gets off on a murder charge. This would be a good time to lay low, even if he did do it. He got off. Shut up. But no. He decides that in 2007 he was going to write a book and play with all of us a little. How can you be so stupid as to think that you can write a book detailing the murders, and then say to people that you didn’t do it? He then gets himself involved in an armed robbery. Yet again he feigns innocence. How much lying does he think we have the stomach for?
Talk has been strong about whether the jury judged the facts put toward them in this trial, and didn’t bring pre-conceived prejudices from the previous trial. Of course they would have known it was Simpson, and what that meant. But the fact that they took 13 hours to deliberate, and that there was another person involved who had an identical charge, means that they looked at the evidence before them, and judged the two men accordingly. If there were any residual thoughts lingering about Simpson, it would be the facts of this trial that would speak to them, and maybe confirm what they always suspected about Simpson’s behaviour, and his intent. The fact that he is back in trouble with the law on a serious charge says that he is not the nicest gentleman in the neighbourhood.
Even though some may ask whether the jury were impartial or not, I don’t see too many people complaining about fairness or justice here. Simpson has received a fair trial both times. That’s all anyone can ask for.
However, this verdict does ensure that O.J. Simpson won’t be coming in contact with anyone but prisoners for a very long time.
Enjoy your day.
