O.J. Simpson is Arrested

O.J. Simpson has been arrested upon the charge of armed robbery. Every legal talking head in the world rejoiced. This development will ensure constant employment on Greta and Nancy for at least the next year. Not to mention the joy Mark Fuhrman, then a detective, now a TV legal expert, must be feeling for obvious reasons.

A second O.J. trial is just the balm, some might suppose, for dreary news from Iraq and the upcoming election. Those of us who considered the outcome of the first O.J. trial a travesty of justice will experience the joy of seeing Simpson in the dock again. Hopefully the matter will be handled better this time than last.

There is every hope that the outcome of the second O.J. trial will be more just than the last. There are very few people, even the addled ones who cheered at the verdict, who can be unaware that O.J. Simpson carved two human beings up like a pair of Christmas turkeys and got away with it through a combination of clever lawyering and a timely play of the race card.

This time it will be different, it is hoped. O.J. likely cannot afford the sort of "dream team" that helped to get him off the last time. Besides, Johnny Cochrane is now practicing in another venue from which there is no appeal.

Of course some clever attorney looking more for fame than money could handle the case pro bono. While the prosecutor can argue the evidence and the law, a clever defense attorney can argue unfairness and bigotry. Too bad Alan Shore is a fictional character, since he is very good at that sort of thing. In any case it is unknown how impressed a Vegas jury is by that sort of thing as opposed to an LA jury.

The argument will be that O.J. cannot possibly get a fair trial. No matter what the jurors swear to in the voir-dire it is unlikely that anyone will be able to forget or set aside the glove, the bronco, and all the other features of that thirteen years ago circus called a trial. Not to mention that absurd book, now in the stores, If I Did It. If indeed!