OJ: Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied

That phrase usually applies to an injured party who doesn’t get a speedy trial, a constitutional right within our criminal justice system.  But justice denied can also apply to the concept of convicting someone for a crime after an earlier, unrelated accusation failed to gain a conviction.  They couldn’t get him on murder charges, and so 13 years to the day after he was acquitted, OJ Simpson is found guilty on all 12 charges stemming from robbing two sports memorobilia dealers at gunpoint in a Vegas hotel room in 2007.

“I don’t like to use the word payback,” defense attorney Yale Galanter said. “I can tell you from the beginning my biggest concern … was whether or not the jury would be able to separate their very strong feelings about Mr. Simpson and judge him fairly and honestly.”

In fact, even the authorities thought this could be a chance to achieve delayed justice.

Simpson’s past haunted the case. Las Vegas police officers were heard in…recordings chuckling over Simpson’s misfortune and crowing that if Los Angeles couldn’t “get” him, they would.

But does anybody truly think that if this were anyone other than OJ the defendant would be facing life behind bars for this kind of incident?  Kidnapping can get you five years to life and armed robbery brings a mandaory two year sentence, with as much as 30 years in some cases.  But justice delayed is justice denied, and even OJ deserves to have this case looked at as separate from another, totally unrelated case where he was acquitted.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.