Juries
O.J. Simpson Appeal to Target Jury Selection
Posted Oct 6, 2008, 04:43 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
O.J. Simpson, convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery late Friday, has some strong arguments for his planned appeal, according to his lawyer.
Yale Galanter told the Associated Press that his client is being isolated from other prisoners for his own safety in a county jail where he will be held until his Dec. 5 sentencing in a Las Vegas courtroom.
Galanter says one issue is the seating of a jury that included no blacks and members who believed Simpson should have been convicted in his 1995 trial for murdering his wife. Simpson’s lawyers had fought to keep two black women on the panel and charged that the prosecutor's use of peremptory challenges to exclude them violated the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1986 decision barring race-based peremptories, Batson v. Kentucky.
Simpson had claimed he was merely trying to reclaim mementos from two sports memorabilia dealers and did not know his associates had guns. He was convicted for an armed robbery that occurred on Sept. 13, on the 13th anniversary of his murder acquittal, following 13 hours of deliberations after a 13-day trial, AP reports in a separate story.
In interviews Sunday, jurors said they were not punishing Simpson for past wrongs, according to another Associated Press story. They said they did not trust witnesses and instead relied on tape recordings and other documented evidence.
''We've been painted as an all-white jury who hates O.J., and that's just not true,'' said juror Dora Pettit.
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Posted by Jonathan Manson - 1 month, 4 weeks, 17 hours, 35 minutes ago
The trial had procedural errors in addition to the above issues. 1) Another voir dire issue was the jury questionnaires in which 5 jurors indicated they did not agree with the 1995 verdict 2) Civil trial evidence about the Goldman case was raised without objections being recognized 3) Motive was included in the jury instructions but was not part of the elements of the crimes charged 4) Defense attorneys were not allowed to prove that Alexander lied so as to impeach and allow for possible disregard of testimony by the jury.