O.J. Simpson Trial Redux

By Wyatt Earp | September 9, 2008

The reviews are in: “It’s killer, Jerry. Killer!” – Kenny Bania.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Defense lawyers in the O.J. Simpson kidnapping and armed robbery trial are fighting to seat a racially diverse panel that hasn’t prejudged whether the former pro football star and his golfing buddy should go to prison.

Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s me, but I think his history of violent crime should decide whether or not he should go to prison. It’s not like he’s been a pillar of the community . . . especially since he slashes the throats of said community.

Jury selection continued Tuesday after Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass, prosecutors and defense lawyers used most of the first day of jury questioning Monday to try to find jurors unaffected by Simpson’s celebrity and his 1995 acquittal in the slaying of his ex-wife and her friend in Los Angeles.

“I’m not kidding around,” Glass said. “Can you put that aside and understand that the case we are trying here and the information you’re going to hear about here is totally separate from that case?”

I think most people know that and understand that. Only lawyers and politicians think people are stupid and uninformed.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be a Simpson trial without someone dealing the race card.

A lawyer for Simpson co-defendant Clarence “C.J” Stewart raised the issue of race, arguing that the predominantly white Las Vegas jury pool had too few blacks to fairly deliberate the fate of the two black defendants.

“It is not representative of the county, in terms of a jury of your peers,” Charles D. Jones, a former Louisiana state legislator, said before Glass rejected his request to dip deeper into the jury pool to enlist more black jurors. (H/T – CNN)

Yeah, nice try. As of the 2000 census, the demographic makeup of Las Vegas was 69% White and 10% Black. By my calculations, a jury of Simpson’s peers would include two African-American jurors. That’s it. If O.J. wants a jury more favorable to his race, he should (allegedly) rob someone in Harlem next time.

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