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Friday, June 11, 2010 | 12:13 p.m.
This is O.J. Simpson's booking photo in Nevada's High Desert State Prison.
Sun Coverage
An attorney for O. J. Simpson says the football great never got a fair trial in Las Vegas that led to his conviction on charges involving robbery and kidnapping, and a maximum prison sentence of 33 years.
Yale Galanter told the Nevada Supreme Court that District Judge Jackie Glass gave the jury wrong instructions on the law and she was more interested in getting the trial over quickly than in getting to the truth.
But Clark County District Attorney David Roger argued Glass “did a phenomenal job of refereeing the case” and that she came down “rough” on both the defense and prosecution at the trial.
Simpson, 62, was convicted of 10 counts including robbery, burglary, kidnapping and assault and received a minimum sentence of nine years and a maximum of 33 years. Simpson and five men entered a room at the Palace Station and took property from Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley.
Simpson maintains this was his property that had been stolen years earlier from his trophy room. But Justice Mark Gibbons said Simpson also took memorabilia of football all-star Joe Montana and baseball great Pete Rose.
Galanter, of Aventura, Fla., argued it was Simpson’s intent to recover his property. Simpson believed he had a rightful claim, Galanter said.
But Justice Gibbons said committing a robbery cannot be used as a defense.
Galanter suggested the kidnapping charge was clearly overcharging.
But the justices noted that two of the men with Simpson were armed and that may have posed a risk to the victims.
Galanter said the two victims were not harmed. He said one of the victims was on the telephone after the incident telling another party that this could turn into a “cash cow.”
Galanter also argued there were no blacks on the jury. Two potential black jurors were excluded because the likelihood of a conviction would have decreased, he argued. “It smacks of prejudice,” he said.
Roger countered that one of the prospective black jurors was disqualified because her brother had been sent to prison for three years and she believed he was wrongfully accused. And she appeared to be a Simpson supporter.
The other juror, Roger said, “flip-flopped” on her answers and she struggled with judging another person.
Justice Nancy Saitta said a review of the case showed both sides broke the rules and the judge was heavy-handed on both the defense and prosecution.
Roger said Simpson was accompanied by “gunmen and big thugs” and the taking of property is not permitted by Nevada law.
He said two of the men were carrying guns and that increased the harm to the victims. And Simpson yelled when entering the room, “Don’t let anybody out of here.” The theft of property had been planned, the district attorney told the court.
The court took the arguments under submission and will rule later.
Simpson, who turns 63 next month, is confined at the state prison in Lovelock.
Galanter also inferred that one of the jurors made statements after the case that indicated he didn’t agree with the acquittal of Simpson in the 1994 slaying of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in Los Angeles.
The court also heard arguments on the appeal of Clarence Stewart, one of the men accompanying Simpson. Stewart, 46, confined at the Northern Nevada Correction Center in Carson City, was convicted of similar charges and is serving the same 9-33 years in prison.
The Juice is loose! (maybe)
Mississippi of the West - we can't have any of them black folk on the jury - you know those people always stick together ...good thinking Rogers
trying to noose the juice?
Didn't both sides participate in choosing a jury?
Stop crying after the fact.
OJ had his day in court...now he can live with the verdict.
Simpson is a morally bankrupt individual. This jail time will give him the needed time for his own salvation. I wonder if he has made any good friends in the joint.
Did I phrase that correctly?
Free "Da" Juice. He was framed for the murder and this robbery. David Rogers (DA) said the Juice won't go free in Las Vegas.
If it hadn't been the Evil OJ, this would have never gone to trial, let alone led to a guilty verdict followed by a long incarceration.
Justice in Nevada is not blind, and is inherently
flawed... but you probably knew that.
Simpson didn't know the first rule of criminal "justice" - probably blinded by his acquittal in CA, and his attorneys ethically can't tell him:
"If you've got the means and the money, and there's a reasonable chance you'll be convicted, go to Costa Rica. They don't extradite."
Money buys justice - it always has.
He was on thin ice long before all this happened. Any sensible person that got away with what he did in the murders of his wife and Ron Goldman would have quietly disappeared into the night, never heard from again. He still had his pension, he played golf everyday, lived near the Florida beaches and still had women pursuing him. Instead, the moron takes it upon himself to fly to Vegas and try and take back his merchandise thru illegal means. He should have quietly hired an attorney and let him pursue the merchandise. Sometimes you just have to think before you act. He had an entire 5 hour plane flight to ponder what he was planning to do that day. Didn't it once come across his mind that his method for taking back merchandise might land him in trouble???
OJ definitely killed those two people, and should have been incarcerated for the rest of his life for it. Unfortunately the legal system in California is a total joke, and OJ was acquitted. Convicting him of kidnapping and sentencing him to this lengthy term only proves that our legal system is just as f'ed up. The taking back of your own property, from someone who stole it, is not a crime in my book. If someone steals my TV, and I seem them driving down the street with it in their car, shouldn't I be allowed to retrieve what is rightfully mine? My friend had his house burglarized by his own relative, and Henderson police told him that it's his word against theirs and there is nothing they can do, so dont tell me that calling the police and letting them handle it is the responsible thing to do. What if it wasn't just a TV that they stole? What if it was your pet, or your kid? What would you do then? Furthermore, how many cops do you think are in a big hurry to help OJ retrieve stolen property? Probably none. If the police are going to be nonchalant about property crime/theft, then they leave the citizens to take matters in their own hands and th
OJ was GUILTY of murder. He got away with it. OJ is GUILTY of robbery/kidnapping with the special circumstances of premeditation. He needs to rot in prison for the full term of his sentence.
There is no justice in the US, only the illusion of a judicial system.
Money buys judges, lawyers, and lying experts.
The government fakes evidence, entraps people and plants evidence. The US is just as corrupt as 3rd world countries.
He did the crimes he will do the time.
"Roger said Simpson was accompanied by "gunmen and big thugs" and the taking of property is not permitted by Nevada law."
Oh, but it's okay for them to steal from him. Notice how the article fails to mention the 2nd gunmen or thug according to DA Rogers? It's my understanding that the 2nd gunmen was not only let go but also allowed to keep his CCW permit as long as he helped the DA. If anyone should be in jail it should be him and not OJ. This case is clearly tainted and needs to be thrown out and retried fairly.
1. OJ did take the stand in the civil case, and they determined that he was liable for the murders. Afterwards, several jurors said it was Simpson's testimony that tipped the case AGAINST him.
2. Advice for Amanda Knox, the American recently convicted of murder in Italy, and now complaining of the Italian judicial system: either stay out of the jurisdiction, or if you enter the jurisdiction, don't kill anyone.
3. Same advice for OJ: if you don't like the Nevada judicial system, stay the hell out, and if you do come, keep that ugly nose of yours clean while you are here.
... Keep-'em-Vegas! WE don't want him-back-HERE in BFLO./NIAGARA! OJ used 1st. wife Marguerite, as-a-PUNCHING bag while he was BREAKING records for-da-BILLS! An African-American BPD officer told me! & he said the real estate agent, who sold OJ's suburban house, found extensive damage due-to-fist-&-foot patterns put-through-doors & WALLS! CASE CLOSED!!!
Judges son involved in a car accident (drag race???) that kills 15 year old girl...slap on wrist...black guys get set up by fellow sleezoids and get 9 years?? (only in Vegas and maybe Utah)
Leave the bastard in jail,...he should have been there anyway. He wouldn't have gotten in trouble here had he been locked up for the double murder he's guilty of.
David Roger is a sniveling wimp who was probably the target of every bully in school, so now he wants to get back at those mean people who tormented him.
If his office used legal and ethical tactics to win a case, the'd win a lot less, so they do whatever they can to convict.
That isn't justice, and it is against the law. But David "Weasel" Rogers doesn't care.
He should go to prison for what he and his office do every day.
The glove fit this time! keep him in his cell. I wonder if he is a roster or a chicken get ready to buy OJ soap on a rope it hits the floor everytime.
How is any of this news worthy? I'm so tired of him and that dum ass smile of his.He always looks like he's laughing at all of us.Let him just rot where he is....
if OJ is not a murderer then he is a mega-chump. how obvious is it that he was a marked man if he ever flaunted the law to this degree in any of the 50 states. and then he's too dumb to figure out that his egomaniac attorney was guaranteeing that he would get a lifetime first class ticket to nevada department of corrections. exactly what crimes he committed and to what degree he should be punished was, prior to his trial, debatable. but any simpleton could figure out that in the face of the known evidence, a jury was going to convict him of something. so instead of attempting a skillfully, diplomatic like resolution with the d.a. by way of a plea agreement, so that OJ could possibly see the light of day in a couple or few years, there was galanter flying in from florida with his chest-beating courthouse steps press conferences, clamoring about how there were not going to be any deals and OJ was going to go to trial and be vindicated. galanter couldn't care less about OJ. Galanter knew if a deal was worked out with the D.A., then he couldn't have been in the trial spotlight.
Galantger should have taken the logical and ethical position prior to trial, which was, that his client was, albeit presumptively innocent, willing to accept some minor degree of culpability for a poor decision that was never intended by him (OJ) to bring harm to anyone. If galanter had done that, and the D.A. responded by not offering a workable solution, then galanter would have shifted public opinion toward making the D.A. out to be unreasonable with ulterior motives thus putting pressure on the D.A. to negotiate. instead the only one that can truly be seen, in retrospect, with ulterior motives, was galanter, which was obvious from the start.
Although I doubt it, perhaps it was OJ that told galanter no deals i want to go to trial. And I doubt it because even in that situation, Galanter likely could have, if he desired, persuaded OJ away from that position by making him see the light. In the end many got their wish in seeing OJ go to prison, and I get my wish in seeing galanter go back to Florida.
No. 1) IF you don't believe OJ was really Guilty for killing his ex-wife Nicole, and Ron Goldman then stock-up on fish-oil because your brain is in danger of Stopping Cold, No. 2)READ Triumph of Justice: the Final Judgment on the Simpson Saga by Dan Petrocelli with Peter Knobler and No.3)then you can Cry for the families as you see how L.A. attorneys botched the case, OJ's attorneys confused the case and OJ got Away with Stone-cold Murder!! Don't be Afraid of being Woken up--Read the Book-check out the evidence.
OJ comandeered the people in that hotel room,
his "help" had guns, and folks could be dead Now if someone moved a bit too fast!He yelled that no one could Leave, which is tantamount to Kidnapping. The judge was quite fair if you look at the record, but you folks who like to think that OJ always gets the bad rap happen to be wrong. Ever hear of violent behavior?
To my good friend TraynorDr. I agree with your no. 1, although in due respect to Amanda Knox and the absolutely ridiculous way she was prosecuted in Italy, a fair trial was hardly possible for her. The entirety of her case makes the American judicial system shine like a beacon on a hill, and makes me glad that I am Not on trial in Italy. The Italian judicial system in regard to this case should hang their head in Shame. Is Amanda guilty--thanks to How her case went forward-we shall Never know. OJ's cases are Quite different, as our judicial system.
If you can't do it the right way retry them... What is being done borders on a crime itself. I don't see how they can sleep at night...