OJ was found guilty on thirteen counts:
O. J. Simpson was found guilty late Friday on all 12 counts stemming from a confrontation in a hotel room last year, including armed robbery and kidnapping.
The verdict, which comes 13 years to the day after Mr. Simpson was acquitted in the highly publicized murders of his ex-wife and her friend, concluded a four-week trial that many have seen as a proxy for those unsatisfied by that 1995 outcome.
Mr. Simpson now faces 15 years to life for the kidnapping charge as well as a minimum of at least an additional 10 years in prison on the other charges. His attorney, Yale Galanter, said he would appeal.
After the verdicts were read, the judge revoked the bail for Mr. Simpson, a Heisman Trophy winner and an inductee in the National Football Hall of Fame. As his sister, Carmelita, wept and fainted in the front row, he was led away in handcuffs. Mr. Simpson is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 5.
Two thoughts:
First, His children now have a dead mother and their father, her murderer, will now die in jail. Anyone who would subject his children to that is subhuman.
Second, I can only hope that this will give the Brown and Goldman families some sense of justice. The last time I saw Fred Goldman on television, he was a snarling, bitter, angry man, and it was clear that the murder of his son had consumed him. Maybe this will give him some peace of mind.
Consider this your one and only post on the matter.
S.G.E.W.
Mr. Simpson is a bad man.
Glenn
OJ goes to jail. See guys that guys that are black with first names that start with an O are BAD. Don’t see the connection here folks? hint hint hint…wink wink wink!! They say bad things about our troops etc…wink wink wink….
Bob In Pacifica
Aside from commenting that this is a repackaging of the OJ Simpson product line in time for the 2008 election I’ve stayed away from the Las Vegas case.
Simpson did not kill anyone, not by the available evidence presented in the criminal trial. The autopsies tell an entirely different story than what Americans seem to think. The next morning the Browns provided an ALIBI for Simpson (they changed their story a couple weeks later).
The OJ Simpson murder case was a core reason that Republicans sweeped into Congress in 1994. It was a part of the contract on America.
OT: Your formatting is screwed up. All your links and ads are spilling into the comments box.
John Cole
What browser are you using? Everything is fine on mine.
gopher2b
#2 and #3 commenters above: you’re fucking insane. Go back to your holes.
I hope no one else comments or speaks his name ever again.
Tim Fuller
One too many perhaps, but I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t really just payback for the ‘mistake’ they made in handling the first case?
I wonder who will be America’s Ron Goldman and pursue the many administration officials who legalized and engaged in the torture and murder of Iraqi (et. al.) POW’s? I’m still reeling about the testimony of Yoo, who couldn’t say if it would even be illegal for the President to order the torture of a suspect’s CHILDREN in order to invoke their parent’s testimony. You know that for a Senator or Congressman to ask that question IT HAD PROBABLY ALREADY been happening. I’m more curious about that than whether Trig is really Palin’s baby.
Enjoy.
greynoldsct00
Fucking finally he goes to jail. Let’s see how he enjoys being somebody’s bitch. I hope we never hear about him again.
Tim Fuller
For the record, I believe OJ was guilty and I also believe that the cops planted some evidence (most certainly the glove). The cop who did it was also the same cop who had been called to the house on earlier occasion and witnessed the beating that OJ had put on her.
As to posts 2-3? I don’t remember any such information at the trial. Is that something you picked up out of OJ’s book How I Killed My Wife? (if I woulda…)
At the time I felt the jury had no choice but to let him off. We simply cannot have the police doing stuff like this. It would appear that Mr. Simpson has a severe anger management issue and we would all likely be safer with him under watch. Given his NFL history I wonder if steroid abuse has played a part?
Enjoy.
Dulcie
I’ve never understood the passionate feelings – even outrage- people have regarding O.J. Many celebrities have been charged with murder and have been convicted/aquitted. Why this person? Would the level of outrage have been the same if O.J. and Nicole had been a same race couple? If you’re wealthy and can afford a good attorney, the odds of being found not guilty are pretty good.
I’m just glad the trial is over so the media will leave town!
And I can’t tell you how much I love the editable posting feature!
Punchy
Bush pardons him on January 19, 2009.
You heard it here first.
magisterludi
OJ is a pig and a murderer and should have been convicted years ago, imo.
Unfortunately, this smacks more of revenge than justice. Makes me decidedly uncomfortable that he was possibly convicted for past crimes rather than the case at hand.
Of course, remember Al Capone…
Punchy
@gopher2b: you MUST be new here…
Keith
I don’t get that on IE7, but I get it on my IE6 work machine.
Now, on my IE7 machine, hitting BJ.com causes iexplore.exe to spike to 50% CPU, and the page is locked for 30 seconds to a minute, which is pretty bad. In all fairness, I also get issues like this when I have 5-10 tabs open, but BJ.com is the only one that does it to IE with just one tab open. I’m guessing it’s some Javascript coming from view.atdmt.com, as that’s where the hanging starts.
S.G.E.W.
Thinking further, I am somehow reminded of Chris Rock’s recent bit on Flavor Flav (paraphrased):
I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help but run O.J. through the political calculus. After all, Obama talked about him (briefly) in his "A More Perfect Union" speech. How will the media treat this? How will Fox treat this*? How will it resonate in our peculiar nation’s racial consciousness? Me, I have no idea.
*Remember when Fox was caught darkening photos of Barack? Last time I really remember that happening was with O.J.
MobiusKlein
I think #2 was a joke, and #3 is the crazy person.
As for ‘payback justice’, just this: If your name is OJ, you better know that they are keeping a close eye on you. No sympathy.
slip
fred goldman.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
Double You Tea Eff?
Tim Fuller
To #15. Spot on. He should have kept his ignorant ass on the golf course. In the final analysis, he went over the deep end trying to recover some personal sports memorabilia. Dumbass.
Enjoy.
Kamishna ya Watu Xenos
The kidnapping charge is the one that carries the heavy time, and it is definitely overcharged. Blocking a door during a robbery may technically meet the elements of the kidnapping statute, but the heavy penalties associated for kidnapping are intending to discourage actual, you know, kidnappings. I am a bit surprised the jury went for it.
He deserves 3-5 years for this, at most.
His kids are 20 and 23 years old. They can deal with it.
iluvsummr
My heart goes out to OJ and Nicole’s kids. I’m not sure even a lifetime of therapy can get them through their world falling apart twice. Their age has nothing to do with it.
Kamishna ya Watu Xenos
The memorabilia had been parked by OJ with the collectors so that Ron Goldman’s estate could not seize them. When they were going to be sold to bona fide purchasers, OJ had to grab them or lose them for good. So the ‘robbery’ arose out of a pre-existing conspiracy to break the law.
If nothing else, it demonstrates a personality readily willing to use violence in order to break laws he considers inconvenient. So I have no sympathy for OJ.
gbear
OJ’s next book:
‘How I Would Have Done It Differently’
John Cole
@slip: Aieee. Thanks.
@Dulcie: It was the media circus.
Stuck in the Fun House
This will be my only comment on OJ Simpson.
(……………rivet rivet……)
r€nato
it was indeed the media circus. Most celebrity murder cases do not involve slow-speed freeway chases (during the NBA Finals, goddamnit! He deserved 5 years just for shitty timing!) and then of course there was the televising of the trial which turned the whole thing into a circus. I don’t think Robert Blake’s trial was televised, for instance.
As for the Vegas case, I have decidedly mixed feelings. It sure sounds like retribution for getting off scot-free for killing his wife and her boyfriend. 25 years seems excessive for that stunt he pulled. 5 to 7 years sounds more reasonable.
At the same time, the fact that he committed that ridiculous heist (did he really think he was going to get away with it… outside of California???) proves to me that the guy has anger management issues and is not above resorting to physical force and violence to get his way.
The bleeding heart civil libertarian in me is not going to be shedding any tears for OJ, though it troubles me some that it probably should.
Scott H
@magisterludi
Funny, Al Capone, finally convicted on tax evasion, was the first thing that came to my mind. Not that these gentlemen are comparable, but every jurisdiction in the country must have been looking to get Simpson on something, anything.
w vincentz
"If the gloves don’t fit, you must acquit"…
but…
If the guns DO fit, you must….CONVICT!
To me, I’m glad he’ll be out of the MSM for the rest of his pathetic life.
I hope his kids heal, though I think they’ll be haunted for the rest of their lives.
shortstop
I’d like to donate my one comment in response to this one post to anyone who’s ever had an interest in O.J. Simpson.
dbrown
The way he killed those people was brutal and very, very personal. Cutting the throat of a bond victim who gets to not only see it coming but endure the pain and terror of the wound as they choke on their own blood is just short of a torture killing. The man is sick and what he did in Vegas was typical of an extremely violent criminal. He considered those goods his and didn’t give a damn about anyone or thing but what he can take. Good riddance to sick filth.
Comrade Colonel Ivan Ivanovich Renko
White America is still outraged at the black killer of a beautiful blonde.
They know he got away with something, but can’t bring themselves to blame the fumbling prosecution in that case.
As I’ve said to many a white acquaintance, "Yeah, I believe the big dumb son-of-a-bitch did it. And I believe the jury brought back the right verdict, too. It’s the prosecution’s job to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, and they just simply didn’t." Unfortunately for them, black Americans can easily– easily— believe cops would conspire to ensure the conviction of a black celebrity.
As to this conviction– well, he’s a dumb son-of-a-bitch. Having gotten away with murder, the stupid fuck shoulda taken his kids and moved to fucking Aruba somewhere and laid low. Stupid arrogant fuck.
You may rest well assured that this conviction is revenge for his earlier acquittal. Kidnapping, for the love of Cthulu? Oh, hell to the no, this was cops and prosecutors determined to apply the biggest penalty they possibly could.
This is better than a lynching– but not that much better.
D. Mason
Yeah, because convicting someone of a crime they quite obviously committed but with a more harsh sentence than was probably warranted is basically the same as murdering someone for the color of their skin. Way to belittle actual victims of race crimes.
P.S. you seem like a pretty hardcore bigot to me.
Beej
Yup, the prosecution in the original Simpson case sucked. Why in hell did they think they needed Mark Furman to make their case? And where was Al Cowlings? They didn’t think what Simpson said to him in the white Bronco was relevant? And the jury got it right, from the evidence that was presented to them. The standard is beyond a reasonable doubt. There was a whole truckload of reasonable doubt by the time the incompetent prosecution got done. And Simpson did it. Did this jury get in some retribution for the earlier case? Could be. I imagine Simpson will appeal. It will be interesting to see what an appeals court has to say about the sentence.
Comrade Colonel Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Isnt’ it? A crime they obviously committed? You call keeping a door closed kidnapping? Wow.
Uhh…. Fuck you, white man.
Soylent Green
Doubtful. I predict that he’ll get the minimum sentence and be out for good behavior in under ten years. The sentencing judge will consider only the scope this case, not the bigger picture.
kommrade jakevich
Sorry to break this to you but O.J. is not the only guy who was ever arrested for murder and later found not guilty.
If the verdict really upset you so badly, please, please, please don’t make a habit of following your local court’s docket. You’ll wind up a) Convinced that every other person on the street is a killer/thief/rapist or general thug. b) With an ulcer the size of a football.
Comrade Colonel Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Very true– but this was a big black guy who brutally murdered a beautiful white woman.
Why, back in the old days, there would never have been a trial.
The nearest black neighborhood may have gotten burned to the ground, though.
Screamin' Demon
I read "Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O.J. Simpson Got Away With Murder" a year after the trial. Vince Bugliosi paints a brutally accurate picture of a incompetent prosecution team that blew what should have been a slam-dunk conviction. Had Bugliosi been the prosecutor, O.J.’d be pushing up daisies right about now, because Vince would have sought the death penalty and gotten it, too. Read the fucking book, and then try to tell me that’s not so.
dadanarchist
How has no one said this yet?: This is great news for John McCain!
Bob In Pacifica
MobiusKlein, explain why there was no aspiration in Nicole Brown’s lungs? Was her throat cut after she had stopped breathing? That means that her throat was cut after she was dead. And why no blood in the mouth and sinuses even though the throat wound bissected her epiglottis? That means her throat was cut after she’d stopped bleeding.
What happened to the blood that should have collected internally from Goldman’s stab wound in the small of his back? Did Simpson wait for Goldman to bleed to death, lift him up, stab him in the back, and then lean him against that tree stump?
That’s why whatever happened in Brentwood and who did it, it didn’t happen how you think it happened.
Meanwhile, if you read the coroner’s investigator’s report, completed June 13th, the day after the murders, you would know that when the coroner’s office contacted Mr. and Mrs. Brown, they told her (the investigator) that the last time they’d talked with Nicole was after 11p.m., when they got home from the Mezzaluna Restaurant. The Browns talked with the investigator probably less than twelve hours after they’d last seen their daughter. It’s incredible to think that both parents could have misjudged when they’d gotten home from dinner after seeing their murdered daughter the last time, especially when they knew the importance of knowing when their daughter was last known to be alive. Less than twelve hours prior.
The importance of this? At 11 p.m. OJ was loading his luggage into the limo. If the Browns were talking with Nicole after 11 then Simpson couldn’t have killed her.
Of course, Mr. Brown submitted an "amended" statement a few weeks later, when the LADA was trying to construct a case against Simpson. If you look at the timelines, you will see how the prosecution worked mightily to move everyone’s timeline earlier. There were some things that they couldn’t move, like the end of the NBA playoff that Simpson and Kaelin were watching, so Kaelin just lied about it. And, of course, there was the big problem with the dated and timed receipts at the Mezzaluna that were caused by "daylight savings". In June.
In short, if you are to believe that Simpson killed those two you have to believe he killed them, waited for the blood to have drained out, then created ornamental wounds and rearranged the bodies. You also have to believe that both parents of Nicole couldn’t tell time regarding when they got home the morning after the murders, but remembered two weeks later..
I did a lot of research on the case because there seemed to me to be a kind of propaganda campaign for the Republicans for 1994 and the Contract With America. Remember, Newt Gingrich actually blamed Susan Smith killing her children on the immorality of the Democrats and Bill Clinton. Never mind that Smith’s criminal behavior arose from her being molested as a child by an uncle who was a figure in the local Republican party.
Think about how much cable airtime was devoted to the "Trial of the Century". Think of the talking heads like John Gibson, Charles Grodin, Geraldo Rivera and others spending an hour each every night demonizing Simpson. There were two radio stations in the SF Bay Area which broadcast almost all the trial and the pre-trial hearings. Not only were all these people presuming Simpson’s guilt but there was very little actual reporting of what happened during the trial and especially what it meant.
Anyway, OJ Simpson was the posterboy for the Republicans in 1994. A lot of anger. A lot of racial undercurrents. The most-trusted black man in America at the time lusts after and kills blond white woman. Believe what you will, but there are some inconvenient facts.
Bob In Pacifica
By the way, John, I don’t have the problem on my Vista computer, but on my older one. Probably an older version of Explorer.
Aaron
I also read the Bugliosi book on Nicole’s murder and he convincingly make the case that the prosecution really did drop the ball.
And lets not go with ‘subhuman’ particularly for blacks. lets go with ‘inhuman’ and ‘narcissistic’.
CaseyL
The vengeful feelings towards OJ have less to do with racism than with its opposite: affection.
Before he committed those murders and everyone found out what kind of person he really was, he was widely liked and admired, as a legendary football player and a self-deprecating comic actor.
People liked him, and finding out he was really a violent, jealous louse who murdered his ex-wife and her friend – and then said something about how much he must have ‘loved’ her in order to have slit her throat… well, it was one hell of a shock. Almost a personal betrayal.
Bob Weber
I have no doubt that Simpson committed the murders. However, if I had been the judge in the case I would have excluded the evidence taken that night by the police from Simpson’s residence. (No search warrant, police trespassing, fruit of the poison tree doctrine.) The robbery – kidnapping case against him was a lot more iffy.
james gilhooly
got what he deserved..he has got to think how am i going to be the meal ticket any more..signature is worth nothing now i hope the Golmans get that stuff and destroy it that is part of history bad history we can get rid of
Redleg
Who fucking cares? OJ is a fucking washed-up joke who had disappeared from the public eye until the Vegas shit. Fred Goldman needs to give it up and try to live his fuckin’ life instead of obsessing over OJ.
Jeff
I don’t get this at all. If a guy kills his wife in clod blood, he shouldn’t get the death penalty because it will make his children orphans? Is that what you’re suggesting?
I’ve always held that both Simpson-Goldman trials got the right verdict: The criminal case was fvcked up beyond repair by the LAPD and DA, but the civil one needed a lot less proof.
This sentence is, indeed, payback for the black man killing the white woman — he won’t get away with it this time!
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s
This says it all about OJ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUyJqLqkO7c
Alan Blackman
So they finally got OJ.I knew they were going to find him guilty.I don’t think he killed Nicole,but he KNOWS who did it.He got tired of paying off his wife’s drug debts.And that fucking Ron Goldman was a fucking junkie.I hate his fucking father.Piece of shit.He needs to die in jail.Racist bastard.It was incredible watching them in court.Why the fuck were they there?This trial had nothing to do with them.The fix was in.So white American should be happy.Obama slipped away,but you got OJ!!!!!