Francis Akenami
Orenthal James Simpson (born July 9, 1947), nicknamed "the
Juice", is a retired American football player, broadcaster and actor. Simpson’s
trial in 1995 was heralded as the trial of the century. Popularly known as OJ
Simpson, he was then a black American celebrity who beat double homicide after
being accused of murdering ex-wife (a white lady) and her boyfriend. OJ assembled
the best defense team in history money could buy led by the brilliant and
flamboyant lawyer Johnny Cochran. There was a lot of evidence and the case was
treated as a celebrity case with all the glitterati you can imagine.
In their desperation to prove the case beyond reasonable
doubt, one of the prosecutor witnesses a CIA officer planted some evidence by
wiping the hand-gloves found at the murder scene on OJ’s car just to get even
more fingerprint and biological specimen evidence. The case became really tense
and also became a ‘we versus them’ case (that is, white versus black).
After almost two months of evidence review and television
entertainment of the most widely televised court trial in human history; it took
the jury only about 4 hours to reach a unanimous verdict. What was the killer
punch? During the trial, both the prosecution team and the defense team had
agreed to allow OJ try on the gloves found at the double homicide scene. The
gloves could not fit into the hands of OJ Simpson. An excited Johnny Cochran,
the lead defense attorney declared “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit."
The Jury unanimously declared OJ Simpson not guilty. Blacks
were celebrating victory, while whites cried openly at the travesty of justice.
However, the rule of law was respected.
FAST FORWARD TWELVE YEARS LATER
The popular OJ Simpson had collected a lot of valuable items
many of which bore his signature. Someone stole some of those items and took
them to a hotel for sale in 2007. A friend of OJ saw the items and called OJ
informing him that his items that were stolen were in a hotel and were on offer
for sale.
OJ was very angry. He went there with a friend and he took
his gun with him. He went into the hotel, accosted the guy who stole his items
and forcefully recovered the items at gun point. The POLICE was called in.
In September 2007, Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada,
and charged with numerous felonies, including armed robbery and kidnapping. In
2008, he was found guilty and sentenced to 33 years imprisonment. The man who
beat double homicide was tried for attempting to recover his valuables that
were stolen and was sentenced to 33 years jail term as I write this piece. OJ is
likely to spend the rest of his life in jail at the Lovelock Correctional
Center in Nevada. Yet again, the people respected the rule of law.
God’s time is the best!!
