THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 4, 1995 TAG: 9510040562
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LAWRENCE MADDRY
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
O.J. . . odd justice.
Come with me to where there is murder most foul. Let's examine the grisly scene in Brentwood.
Then tell me he is innocent despite the bloody cuts on his hands. Innocent although he has beaten his wife senseless in the past. Innocent although she once screamed to police: ``He's going to kill me!'' Innocent despite the safe-deposit box Nicole kept, containing a will and photographs of her face and body after one of his beatings?
See the gloves, the cap, socks, the matching shoe prints, all of the bloody remnants left by the killer.
Then tell me he is innocent. And I will say you are mad.
Odd justice? But justice was perverted in Los Angeles long before the man we all loved, the man with the fluid grace in his legs and a charming and winning smile, was accused of murder. Even before O.J. was born, L.A. cops - to say nothing of those in the South - would pick up blacks on the street for no reason. Roughed 'em up, showed 'em their place, just for the hell of it.
Then fast-forward through the '60s when civil rights legislation gave blacks hope that we would put a lot of that behind us. But we didn't. And particularly not in L.A. Remember that horrifying footage of Rodney King on the street, pounded to a pulp by L.A. policemen. They beat him like an animal.
How wonderful it would be if we could turn back the clock to happier days when O.J. was triumphant, zigging and zagging across the playing fields for Southern Cal and, later, Buffalo. Back before his dark side had been revealed.
O.J. has done it again. He has zigged and zagged through the longest murder trial in California history with the best lawyers that money could buy. And he won big, his counsel trashing some good people along the way who deserved better: Detective Philip Vannatter and O.J.'s friend Ron Shipp are just two.
Not guilty. Of both murders. What a nice smile O.J. had for the jury as he spoke a quiet, ``Thank you,'' to his acquitting accomplices. A sweet, boyish smile, reminding us of the O.J. we once regarded with such warmth. He was almost family, you know. For a nation.
No more.
Odd justice? Imagine yourself a black juror with that knowledge of police racism and oppression flowing through your consciousness like a polluted stream. Then imagine the effect upon you when the state brought Mark Fuhrman - a racist and liar - to the stand as a primary witness against a black American hero.
Toss in some obvious police bungling of evidence and - if you and yours have been the subject of false arrests - it shouldn't take you long to find a reasonable doubt. Particularly when the prosecution showcased a slick detective who used the N-word 42 times.
So that's it. Pity the families of Nicole and Ron. Pray that God will bring peace to their tormented hearts.
The Juice had a dark and sinister side. None of us knew it was there until the prosecution's searchlight illuminated it. The light had a cracked lens in many places. But we saw that dark side. And there was no reasonable doubt with most of us.
So there you have it. Ron and Nicole got a ticket to the boneyard and O.J. walked away with the gold ring of freedom. May demons haunt his dreams if he's guilty. And soak his bed with a cold sweat. That jury decision was payback time for past wrongs - an odd and twisted form of justice as strange as the scar on his finger.
Wonder if his scar's still there? The Goldmans and Browns will carry theirs forever.
KEYWORDS: O.J. SIMPSON VERDICT REACTION by CNB