THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A20 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 28 lines
Regardless of what folks might think about the verdict in the O.J. Simpson criminal trial, pro or con, it's very difficult to see how the civil-trial result can be acceptable to any fair-minded person.
Here we had a judge who sided almost exclusively with the plaintiffs, and an obviously stacked jury, exposed to daily analysis on several TV channels. Many of these discussions were quite subjective, to say the least.
There has been a lot of debate about how the man got away with murder in the first case. Also true is that a number of other cases have been retried in other courts, e.g., the Rodney King beating case. William Raspberry of The Washington Post rightfully points out that all these cases probably amount to double jeopardy - irrespective of the legalities.
In addition, this seemed to be a clear-cut case of revenge rather than a real search for justice. If justice was to prevail, the result of the criminal case should have played a more prominent role. It did not. So what we are left with is an individual who is not guilty of murder but wrongfully responsible for the victims' deaths. Go figure.
Next up, the Oklahoma City bombing case.
ERNEST L. PEACOCK
Norfolk, Feb. 7, 1997