Blind Justice

Did OJ Simpson kill his ex wife and her young friend, on the doorstep of her Brentwood home, all those years ago? I believe he did. Most people do. He got away with murder. That's the truth.

What is also the truth is that he was found not guilty of the crime, in a court of law. He is, technically, innocent of the crime.

Now, he has been found guilty of a number of felony offenses, during an altercation with professional memorabilia collectors, where members of OJ's entourage brandished weapons and demanded the return of objects, that OJ disputed the rightful possession of. Is he guilty of these offenses? A jury has found it to be so.

Here's the rub. Normally, a celebrity involved in a situation like this might not get more than a hand slap. If he was willing to pay off those offended, charges might not even be filed. Maybe that's not fair but it's the community standard, in the celebrity friendly town of Las Vegas. The judge in this case will have wide latitude in imposing sentence. OJ has never been convicted of a crime before. Justice is supposed to be blind.

How blind do you think it will be?

I'm not crying about poor OJ. If he spends the rest of his life in jail, so be it. He is an odious individual. Cops always say that if a perp isn't guilty of the crime he or she is charged with, that they have previously gotten away with far worse and deserve to go to jail anyway. In most cases, this may be true but is that the way the justice system should operate? What is important here is the possibility that our system of justice is often not fair or objective in the degree of prosecution and punishment meted out to offenders depending on their relative position in society or law enforcement's sentiment toward them. It's easier to see this in the case of OJ, than in more mundane situations, involving regular people.