Late Friday night the twelve person jury deliberating on the latest O.J. Simpson case came back with a guilty verdict, on all 12 counts. Simpson and co-defendant Clarence Stewart were taken into custody immediately following the reading of the verdict.
The jury of nine men and three women, none of them African-American, began deliberations Friday after hearing from 22 witnesses over 12 days of testimony. Chief among the witnesses were seven of the nine people inside Room 1203 of the Palace Station Hotel and Casino for the September 13, 2007 confrontation.
The evidence included testimony from the two dealers, four co-defendants who cut plea deals and cooperated with prosecutors and hours of often-profane, crackling, secretly recorded audiotapes.
Prosecutors alleged that the men, led by Simpson, burst into the room, flashed a gun and threatened memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Al Beardsley.
The men then filled two pillowcases with Simpson trinkets, signed Pete Rose baseballs and Joe Montana lithographs. Simpson’s defense attorneys maintained their client was merely trying to retrieve personal photographs and other mementos that belonged to him.
[From CNN.com]
When you get away with murder, a little armed robbery and kidnapping is nothing.
Neither Simpson nor Stewart took the stand in their own defense. The trial was marked with an abundance of drama as the players on both sides of the case, lawyers and witnesses alike, took every opportunity to make a spectacle of themselves.
As testimony neared its end, (Judge Jackie) Glass, a former television news reporter, vented her frustration with the quibbling lawyers.
“I’m trying to get this trial back on track,” she snapped. “I am surprised you haven’t seen my head spin and fire come out of my mouth at this point in this trial.”
[From CNN.com]
Sentencing is scheduled for December 5, so O.J. has a couple months to contemplate the very real possibility of finally spending the rest of his life in jail. Simpson is 61 now and he’s facing 15 years to life for the charges he was found guilty of Friday night. O.J. let out a deep sigh when he was taken into custody, probably because he knows this was thirteen years in coming.
Thirteen years to the day. In a beautiful display of poetry in justice, O.J. Simpson was found guilty of the crimes that could at last put him in prison for life, thirteen years to the day of his aquittal for murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
Attorneys for Simpson asked that he be released pending sentencing, which Judge Glass quickly and soundly denied. They also announced their intention to appeal the verdicts, asking the judge for an extension on the deadline for filing the appeal, which was also denied.
OJ Simpson is shown on 11/8/07 outside Clark County Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. Credit : Judy Eddy / WENN
