THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 24, 1995 TAG: 9501240288
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Marc Tibbs
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
No matter how I try to trivialize it, no matter how insignificant I say it is, I can't seem to shake this fascination with the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
Not because I'm so enthralled by O.J. or because I want to see how prosecutor Marcia Clark is wearing her hair these days. Not even for the salacious nature of it all. I've long since become immune to that.
What most intrigues me is the wanton legal wrangling. It's the closest intellectuals get to a free-for-all. Literally, a bar brawl, the cerebral equivalent of the World Wrestling Federation.
Take Monday's hearing, for example. Everyone expected each side to go to the mat, offering a dry overview and getting right down to the specifics - much of which we've already heard.
But even before the opening bell, the defense tried tossing the prosecution over the top rope with a surprise witness list.
As a viewer (fan), you've got to love it when one lawyer gets blindsided by the other and then tries to summon the proper courtroom decorum to call his attacker everything but a child of God.
And like any partner worth his salt in a tag-team brawl, defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran tried shielding the judge's view while co-defense lawyers sneaked in the damage.
Not to be outdone, prosecutor Marcia Clark and Co. had a few moves of their own. First, went their strategy, object vehemently. Then counter with a side deal that will also loose restrictions on your own witness list. Then make a motion to delay the trial just to let the judge know how serious you are.
It's high drama of the first order. I'm reeling when I watch this stuff.
I don't really care that much about O.J.'s reactions; I'm trying to figure out what Cochran's next move will be, or whether Marcia Clark will go for his jugular.
During early hearings on the blood analysis, Clark must have repeated a thousand times the 99.43 percent probability that blood found at the crime scene was consistent with Simpson's blood. And as if that weren't enough, she walked up to a chart board and wrote it out in big, screaming red numbers for everyone (including potential jurors) to see.
It's subtleties like these that give this trial its appeal. With each motion, another subplot unfolds. It's riveting.
I glanced up at the clock late Monday afternoon and convulsed when I thought I was missing the opening arguments.
Fortunately, those arguments had been delayed - a harbinger, no doubt, of things to come. Still, I sat in front of the televised hearings for what seemed like hours.
I had much the same reaction to the Iran-Contra hearings- watching Oliver North sit there at attention, his Marine lieutenant's uniform speaking volumes to the viewing audience and to the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who questioned him.
When North's lawyer made his now-famous ``potted plant'' statement, it was a blow to the solar plexus not even Hulk Hogan couldn't muster.
American jurisprudence - I just love this game.
That's why I'll probably be in front of the tube again today. Waiting for the next takedown. by CNB