THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 4, 1995 TAG: 9510040678
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Q. Did the verdict match the evidence or was the jury making a statement?
A. Harold Barnes, Norfolk defense lawyer: ``If we look at the evidence alone, I think he would have been convicted by an overwhelming weight of the evidence. The other side of that coin is when you look at how the evidence was obtained. It was the fruit of a poisoned tree. When that happens, the jury is bound by the law to reject the evidence.''
Donald Smith, criminal justice professor at Old Dominion University: ``The evidence is incredibly strong. In a society that fears crime as much as we do, if we had this much evidence and didn't convict, we'd never convict anyone, and we'd have anarchy. The reality is we do convict most people on much less evidence.''
Tonya Lomax, Portsmouth public defender: ``I believe the verdict matched the evidence. There were a lot of questions left unanswered by the prosecution's case.''
Q. What role did race play in the verdict?
A. William S. Geimer, Washington and Lee University law professor: ``Race played less of a role than people think. . . . There were three nonminority jurors who had to come quickly to the same decision.''
Martin Bullock, Portsmouth commonwealth's attorney: ``I don't think they let O.J. go because he was black. Some say African Americans are not hard on crime and won't demand tough sentences, but African Americans by and large are hard-working, serious people who believe that when a crime is done, a penalty should be imposed.''
Troy Spencer, former Norfolk prosecutor: ``No one can deny that Mark Fuhrman was a factor. I think he blew the prosecution's case more than any single thing. Because of Fuhrman, I think race became a factor - he made it so.''
Q. Has this trial skewed the public's view of how trials in America are conducted?
A. Geimer: ``I hope not. There are a lot of unfair things about the way a lot of trials are conducted in this country. We have to respect not-guilty verdicts regardless of whether we agree or not. The evidence was pretty strong, but the operative truth is that the system worked. O.J. is not guilty.''
Albert Alberi, Virginia Beach prosecutor: ``It's very discouraging because I've spent a lot of time explaining to people. . . It is not in any way an accurate depiction of the vast majority of criminal cases.
Spencer: ``I think it has. It set a dangerous precedent, especially concerning the concept of reasonable doubt.''
Q. Was the televising of this trial a plus or a minus?
Leonard E. Dobrin, an ODU criminologist: ``I think it's going to generate debate over the propriety of TV cameras in the courtroom. . . It's pretty obvious if the TV cameras weren't there, it wouldn't be the same trial.''
Alberi: ``I think it was a mistake. It basically permitted both sides of the courtroom to publish information that should never have been public to the public or to the jury.''
Q. Was O.J. treated differently than an average defendant?
Peter Decker, Norfolk defense attorney: ``Of course. It shows the classic case of unequal justice. Here's one of the greatest collections of lawyers in U.S. history. . . their cost was in the millions of dollars. If these facts were presented for an ordinary defendant, I would say he had a zero percent chance for an acquittal, or even a plea bargain.''
Q. Where did the prosecution fail?
Decker: ``I'm not sure they did their homework, especially concerning Mark Fuhrman. Perhaps they were caught by surprise by his past. But if they knew he was a racist and allowed him to answer the questions as he did. . . without correcting them before the jury, then they may have deserved the outcome they got.''
Smith: ``The prosecution failed by staging the prosecution in downtown LA instead of Westwood where the crime occurred. The demographics would have been very different.''
Q. Will this trial have any long-term effect on the criminal justice system?
A. Barnes: ``It should make us go back and re-examine our way of dealing with defendants. We cannot convict at all costs. It is possible the prosecution in this case cost the Brown family and the Goldman family an opportunity at complete justice.''
Bullock: ``It's going to raise the standards of expectations for police departments across the country. That means, on behalf of law enforcement, we're going to have to train our people better, supervise our people better and make sure the standards of professionalism and ethics are paramount in every case.'' MEMO: This story was reported by staff writers Angelita Plemmer, Marc Davis,
Lynn Waltz, Joe Jackson and June Arney.
KEYWORDS: O.J. SIMPSON VERDICT REACTION by CNB