OJ Simpson and the Jury

On April 7th, 2008 former football great, OJ Simpson will be on trial, yet again. During the 1990's, as essentially everyone who was alive at the time knows, OJ Simpson was on trial for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and a young man, Ron Goldman. Due to errors by the police and the "dream team" of defense attorneys, OJ was found not guilty by a jury of his peers. During that trial, the jury had been sequestered, meaning that they had more or less no access to the outside world. They were not exposed to the many media outlets that were discussing the trial and so they were unable to have much of a bias concerning what the media was saying. When OJ was found not guilty many across the country could not believe it because all the evidence seemed to point to him. Now, he is back in court and another jury is going to be assembled. The problem I have with this is that there is absolutely no way the jury will not be biased. At his first trial, there was alot of racial tension, with the white jurors more likely to believe he was guilty and the black jurors more likely to believe he was innocent. For this trial, not only will racial bias exist, but everyone has seen OJ coverage on the television and many people believe he was the one who killed Brown and Goldman. The question that exists in my head is: Will potential jurors be able to put their biases from the murder trial aside and listen to the evidence to determine if he is guilty of these new charges?

I have to be honest, and if I was called to be on the jury, I would not be able to honestly say that I could approach this trial and be able to put my biases aside. The murder trial is one that I have studied closely in recent years and I have read OJ's book "If I Did It", and I really believe that he did it. He should have been smart enough to stay out of trouble with the law, but I am sure prosecutors in Las Vegas see this as an opportunity to redeem their counterparts in Los Angeles and convict the man who got away. I truly believe that the prosecutors in Vegas have greatly been helped by the media, since many reporters who are covering the story have led to the major bias in believing OJ's guilt. Jury selection for this trial should be a long, drawn out process, and if I was the judge, I would want to be completely sure that no members on the jury were too biased, so the trial would be as fair as possible. Basically, they need to find a group of people who have been living under a rock, and that is not going to happen. This trial should be extremely interesting to watch as it unfolds.