All I can say to this is it's about damn time; they'd better nail O.J. Simpson this time:
O.J. Simpson was arrested Sunday and faces multiple felony charges in an alleged armed robbery of collectors involving the former football great's sports memorabilia, authorities said.[...]
Prosecutors were planning to charge Simpson with two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery, burglary with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and coercion, said Clark County District Attorney David Roger.
A conviction on the most serious charge, robbery with use of a deadly weapon, could bring a sentence of three to 35 years for each count, he said.
"He is facing a lot of time," Roger said.
I like that, "a lot of time." Look, this guy literally got away with murder despite overwhelming evidence -- in front of the entire country's eyes, to add insult to injury. The O.J. Simpson case made a mockery of our criminal justice system ("if the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit") and became a national embarrassment. Finally, justice may be done.
A great Virginian named George Mason wrote the Bill of Rights to restrict the Government and insert the People into the justice process. In that time (and I hope still today) juries were seen as the protection against an over-reaching government, as a check on prosecutors, and as the voice of the People is assessing community standards as to liability and damages in civil disputes.
- No indictment w/o a grand jury (5th)
- Right to trial by jury in a criminal prosecution (6th)
- Right to trial by jury in civil actions exceeding $20 (7th)
- No fact determined by jury is to be redetermined by a judge outside common law (7th)
Juries are the quintessential expression the People over Power. No matter what you may think about a specific outcome in the criminal or civil realm, belittling jury outcomes is a Republican (corporate) tactic used to attack the People and justify all kinds of anti-poor, anti-democratic (with a little "d") reforms, and undermines our Constitutional Democracy.
Don't attack juries when they acquit or when they award lots of money because they are outraged by corporate irresponsibility and the profits they derive while injuring people. Obviously, this is not universally true as juries have been the tool of racists in the past when they seem quick to give the death penalty when whites are killed by blacks, etc. or ignore evidence of innocence in many infamous (and countless unknown) examples in the south, but I don't think the O.J. case plays quite as broadly as you are playing it here.
If anyone deserves criticism for the O.J. outcome it is the prosecutors in the case and the police, and if anything, it highlights the ability of the rich to obtain the best defense they can while the poor are stuck with over-worked, underpaid, and frequently incompetent (in most regions of the south) defense attorneys.
Most people have a knee-jerk reaction to blame the urban jury and Repubs love to cite this as an example of why the judicial system is broken and juries need to be restrained because they view this as a black urban jury arriving at an unjust result.
It's easy to second-guess being on the outside, but the jury was sequestered. They only heard the evidence that was presented and didn't have everything we saw (plus the commentary). They acquitted in only 4 hours after weeks of evidence.
No question that O.J. was probably involved and a civil jury found so, but a jury found the Government didn't meet it's burden of proof. Probably doesn't cut it in criminal prosecutions. Beyond a reasonable doubt means just that. The prosecution should have been better prepared, the defense pointed out issues with the evidence, and the jury spoke.