THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 4, 1995 TAG: 9510040011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
It was one of the longest trials on record. It has surely been the most overcovered. But deliberations were stunningly brief. Jurors took less than four hours to decide that O.J. Simpson was not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of two brutal murders.
Those convinced to a certainty that Simpson is guilty may conclude that the defense raised too many doubts, the prosecution failed to make its case. The key policeman was shown to be a liar. Forensic people came off as buffoons. The judge ran a less than taut ship. Prosecutors made far too many errors. And a phalanx of defense attorneys laid down a barrage of alternative theories.
Yet two people are dead. An awful lot of evidence points toward the acquitted man and no plausible alternative villain has been suggested. The jury may have reached one verdict, but in the court of public opinion a different view of Simpson is likely to prevail.
Many will feel justice was not done, but this is the way the system works. If there are flaws in it, perhaps this trial will spur reform. Surely the Los Angeles Police Department is in desperate need of overhaul. Which brings us inevitably to the question of race that infected the trial from the beginning.
It is a distressing reality that from the word go, blacks and whites viewed the events described in this case across an apparently unbridgeable chasm. Polling has shown a lopsided majority of blacks to be convinced Simpson was not guilty of the crimes, the police corrupt and unreliable if not actual conspirators. White opinion has been diametrically opposed.
It is not to the credit of the defense that it seized on this divide and exploited it, but it didn't create two perceptions as different as black and white. This trial has shown that perceptual divide to be an inescapable fact of life in America.
No conceivable verdict could have brought the races together. A conviction would have persuaded many blacks that Simpson was railroaded because of his race. The acquittal will convince many whites that justice can be perverted by playing the race card. Perhaps the best that can be hoped is that this extraordinary trial and its outcome will start a serious public conversation.
Civil society depends on a shared belief in certain institutions. Among the most important are police and courts. The Simpson trial has starkly revealed that faith in them is sharply divided along racial lines. And civil society cannot long endure if such distrust persists. We have a long way to go if all citizens are to have confidence that police are honest, courts are competent and justice is colorblind. by CNB