Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
I have a feeling the O.J. Simpson saga is far from over.
It may never be over.
Most interesting in developments this week was Fred Goldman's offer to excuse O.J. from any liability. All O.J. has to do is write up - in graphic detail - how he brutally murdered Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson. Then he has to sign it.
Then, of course, he must manage to get it published and widely circulated. No problem there, I'm sure.
O.J. turned down the offer.
The idea was that since O.J. was acquitted, he could confess all he wants without fear of being tried again. It's the double jeopardy thing. You can't be tried twice for the same crime.
The double jeopardy standard is a good thing. Too bad we couldn't ignore it in O.J.'s case.
But then it hit me. There IS a way to try O.J. again for the murders of Ron and Nicole.
Remember when those L.A. cops beat up Rodney King? They went to trial in 1991. They were acquitted.
They what happened?
Just hours after the not guilty verdicts in that case, the Justice Department announced it might have to re-prosecute the officers. Three months later, the officers were arraigned on federal civil rights charges.
More recently there's the case of Lemrick Nelson. He was convicted just this week on federal charges of violating the civil rights of Yankel Rosenbaum. Nelson killed Rosenbaum.
The case, coincidentally, began in 1991. Nelson was part of a mostly black mob that terrorized Hasidic Jews for three days during rioting in Crown Heights, N.Y. The riots were sparked by the death of a black child struck and killed by a car. Rosenbaum, a Hasidic scholar, lucklessly stumbled into the rioting and was stabbed by Nelson. A dying Rosenbaum identified Nelson as the assailant. Nelson, 16 at the time, confessed and produced a bloody knife to boot.
No matter. Nelson retracted his confession and a predominantly black jury acquitted him.
But enter the federal government. It tried Nelson on civil rights violation and he was convicted.
There is no double jeopardy in these cases because the federal government is a separate sovereign entity. It can try suspects on the same facts that failed to convict at the state level.
Technically, civil-rights prosecutions like these don't constitute double jeopardy.
The problem with prosecutions like these is that they are generally motivated by a desire to diffuse political pressure instead of a desire to achieve justice.
Normally, I would probably be against something like that. It seems like a double standard.
But in O.J.'s case? Hey, whatever works.
Anybody have Fred Goldman's phone number handy?
