[Fred] Jones, 66, a retired steel salesman, said he believed Simpson committed the Los Angeles murders, but that he put the crimes out of his mind when he was selected as a juror.
It's one thing to have information from the media about the 1994 murders. It's another thing to have a preconceived opinion on guilt based on what you heard or read. That's the essence of the prejudice from pre-trial publicity. He should not, in my view, have been on the jury.
Simpson's longtime attorney, Yale Galanter, said today that the way jurors were selected would be "a cornerstone" of a planned appeal.
"We had people who would say, 'I think he murdered Ron and Nicole. I hate the fact that he wrote the book. I don't like his life. He definitely murdered them.' But if they checked the fair and impartial box, they were in the pool," Galanter said.
In addition to jury selection, I'm troubled by the prosecutor's reference to the Goldman family in closing argument after the Judge refused to allow the Goldman family attorney to testify as unduly prejudicial. Motive was not an element of the charged crimes, although the instructions said the jury could consider motive, as established by the circumstances of the offense. (Instruction 29 on page 37 of the jury instructions.)
There already had been a heated battle over whether to let the Goldman family attorney testify and the Judge ruled against the testimony.
"The relevance regarding this issue and the civil suit is marginal," Glass said. "The prejudice far outweighs the probative value."
Then, in closing, the prosecutor says OJ's motive was to avoid having to turn over property to the Goldmans.
The defense teams' repeated objections and request for a mistrial were denied.
Assistant District Attorney Chris Owens was the last attorney to address the jury. Owens raised the specter of Simpson’s murder trial when he argued that Simpson’s anger in the hotel room was rooted in his belief that his agent Mike Gilbert’s betrayed him by selling his personal items when he was supposed to be hiding them from the Goldmans.
The references to the Goldmans and the California civil judgment brought Simpson’s defense attorney Yale Galanter to his feet several times to object vehemently, when the State prevailed, he moved for a mistrial at the close of Owens’ summation. The motion was denied.
One more ruling I disagree with (Las Vegas Sun article.) The Judge's refusal to allow O.J.'s lawyer to impeach the credibilty of a witness by pointing out he lied about his profession, saying he was a real estate agent when the defense had information he was a pimp. And, to make matters worse, the witness brought a bible to the stand and was seen reading it by the jury when the parties would approach the bench for conferences.
The judge replied:
"Whether he's a real estate agent, a truck driver, a dog catcher, or anything else, and whether he admitted that he was or wasn't a pimp, doesn't go to his motive for testifying in this court," Glass said.
Wrong test. It's not his motive for testifying they are seeking to impeach, it's his truthfulness. The defense should have been allowed to show the witness lied. As jury instructions 35 and 37 say, if they find a witness has lied about any material fact in his testimony, they can disregard all of his testimony if they so choose.
Alexander was a critical witness:
One of the gun-carrying members of Simpson's group, Walter Alexander said Simpson asked him and their mutual friend, Michael McClinton, to bring "heat" on Sept 13, 2007, to help the former NFL star recover what he claimed were personal items from a Palace Station hotel room.
Alexander said McClinton gave him a .22-caliber handgun to bring to the run-in with two memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley, whom Simpson said were trying to sell personal items of his.
Alexander and five others who were in the entourage that day have signed plea agreements with prosecutors in exchange for their testimony against Simpson and his co-defendant, Clarence "C.J." Stewart.
....Alexander said Simpson acknowledged the guns during the altercation and at one point shouted, "Put the gun down."
That contradicts Simpson, who has denied asking the men to bring guns and has insisted that he was not aware guns were used during the alleged robbery. The former All-Star running back has said he and his colleagues simply went to the Palace Station to recover personal items that had been stolen from him and that guns were never part of the plan.
There's also this:
Alexander was arrested, questioned, charged and held for about 12 hours before being released on bail.He eventually cut a deal with the prosecution, but not before he shopped around to see what his options were.
Defense attorneys alleged that Alexander tried to extort $50,000 from Tom Scotto, Simpson, Stewart and his mutual friend whose wedding he missed that weekend. Alexander said that was a complete lie. He did, however, say he asked Scotto to pay his legal fees.
During the preliminary hearing, Alexander admitted that he told Scotto that if he helped pay for an attorney he would "possibly see what I could do to help O.J. out of the matter."
The witness directly contradicted O.J.'s version of events and was willing to change his testimony for money and the Judge didn't allow the defense to show he lied, exaggerated or misled the jury? I think that's a wrong call by the judge.
It's going to be a long year or two for O.J. in a high security prison, probably in solitary for his safety, while he waits to see if a Nevada appeals court grants him a new trial.
