Saturday, October 04, 2008

Finally, Justice for O.J. Simpson: GUILTY on All Counts

Yesterday in Las Vegas, O.J. Simpson was found guilty on all counts of armed robbery and kidnapping. His trial verdict came thirteen years to the day after he was acquitted of the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. O.J. Simpson was given an undeserved free pass thirteen years ago.

Although the evidence of his guilt in the Simpson-Goldman slayings was overwhelming, the almost all black jury let him off. Their verdict was was clearly jury nullification on account of their shared race with the defendant. Simpson's acquittal was an outrageous miscarriage of justice.

It was very shocking to me when the 1995 verdict was read on television and I realized, for the first time, that black people are, as a whole, very racist. This was made clear by the fact that 90% of black people nationwide wanted O.J. acquitted (regardless of his guilt) and broke into cheers when the verdict was read. To them, the trial was not about murder or guilt or innocence, it was about black people against white people. My college-inbred racial idealism went flying out the window and has not returned.

So O.J. got to play golf for the next decade, even though largely spurned by a society who knew the truth: that he was a vicious murderer who had been given a get-out-of-jail free card. He was successfully sued in a civil trial by the families of Nicole and Ron and found liable for their deaths. The jury awarded millions of dollars to the families, if they could collect it. Then a year or so ago, O.J. did something incredibly stupid. He attempted, with five accomplices, to rob two sports memoribilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room.

How he could have thought this was a good idea is not obvious to me. Did he think he wouldn't be recognized? That the victims wouldn't report it to the police? No, there was something else at work in this drama: O.J.'s deep feelings of guilt for Nicole and Ron. I suspect that O.J. was operating on a subconscious level, that he committed such a bone-headed crime because he wanted to be caught and punished. Then and only then might he be finally released from the guilt of the murders he committed. The fact that he was finally convicted of a serious crime, on the 13th anniversary of his acquittal in Los Angeles, is truly amazing. It seems that God had a hand in it.

Somewhere, Nicole and Ron are smiling. When the cell door finally slams shut in O.J.'s face it will be because he wanted it that way. O.J. Simpson has judged himself and pronounced sentence: guilty on all counts.

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