Victor Bloom MD
Grosse Pointe Park
I write this just a few days after the jury came up with the stunning verdict of "not guilty" after the longest murder trial in our history which was accessible to every American. Since the trial was televised worldwide daily, those of us who were interested became proxy members of a very large jury. We were privy to much hearsay evidence that the jury could not see, and the jury had exposure to admissable evidence that we could not see, and yet many of us felt qualified to render judgment, and wondered if the real jury would agree with us.
As the months wore on and there were endless discussions in the media by legal experts, but little to be heard from psychological and psychiatric experts. This omission was doubly remarkable since a psycho-sociologic phenomenon of unprecedented proportions was growing. The most important and obvious one was, that the majority of African-Americans thought that O.J. Simpson, previously a national icon, was innocent of the charges, and that the majority of whites thought he was guilty, almost beyond a shadow of a doubt. The late-show comics, Leno and Letterman, thought nothing of joking endlessly about the trial, assuming O.J.'s guilt. These armchair Sherlocks resonated with their mostly-white audiences.
The situation became focussed as the prosecution and defense gave their closing summations to the jury, which was mostly black, and race was always in the air. Johnnie Cochran, the chief defense counsel who is black, was accused of mis-using the 'race-card'. His obvious rebuttal was that the prosecution's chief witness was revealed as a horrific racist and liar, and the theme of the defense was, "if you can't trust the messenger, you can't trust the message." Even Fuhrman himself bragged that the prosecution case rested on him, that if he goes down, "it's bye-bye". He went down.
In effect, the defense was able to destroy the massive but contaminated prosecution case of circumstantial evidence, and toward the end, it was a toss-up in which the nation literally sat on the edge of its chair. Still, the majority of blacks thought he would be found not-guilty, and the majority of whites thought he would be found guilty. In fact, at the eleventh hour, when the jury came to a stunning decision after less than four hours of deliberation, and refused to make eye-contact with the defendent, many thought the jury found O.J. guilty after all, and were worrying about another riot. Many thought that the jury must have been irresponsible to have come to a decision so soon. Questions were raised that, disobeying the orders of Judge Ito, they had communicated and deliberated before they were given the task, before the final arguments.
Since the jury was sequestered and were locked together for months, they had become, obviously, a cohesive group. Malcontents had been excluded, and it was survival of the fittest. They could well have communicated a lot nonverbally, more and more over time. Much is revealed by timely smiles and frowns, shaking or nodding of heads, eyebrows up or furrowed, shoulders and palms up or down, the communication seasoned by inarticulate sighs, moans, groans and harumphs. Given the brief time of deliberation, the jury obviously had the makings of a consensus long before we were aware of it. The jury was mostly black, so it was reasoned by whites that race played a primary role in the decision, even though the prosection's evidence was successfuly challenged by Barry Scheck on rather solid scientific grounds. Many whites thought the jury obviously did not adequately review the massive scientific evidence. The evidence was in serious doubt, even though the prosecution argued that the mass of evidence pointed to guilt.
The reaction of the crowds after the innocent verdict was stark in its contrast. The whites were sedate and the blacks were jubilant. The whites may have thought that justice was denied, but the blacks celebrated the fact that maybe for once, for them, the criminal justice system adequately represented a black defendant. This time the whites had a knee-jerk identification with the victims and the blacks identified with a black man about to be lynched by the white power structure. To many blacks, the verdict was a stunning reversal of American history--- wherein a black man was all too easily found guilty, and often innocent blacks took the rap and their lumps by corrupt police. Is this the most powerful case yet of affirmative action?
What we are left with is the possibility (the probability in many minds), that O.J. really killed Nicole and Ronald, but that the state was simply unable to prove it. The victims' families will always say that justice was denied, that the decision of the mostly black jury was a travesty, and that "the race-card" won the day. But the fact is that O.J., (or anyone on trial, in this country), from the beginning, is presumed innocent, unless he is found guilty in a court of law, with the evidence revealing guilt, beyond a reasonable doubt. The fact is that due to the corruption and incompetence of the police, of which there is a long, undeniable history, the mountain of 'evidence' was truly in doubt, and so a possibly guilty man is set free.
In our system of government, it is basically agreed that the criminal justice system was formed to protect the accused against abuses of the government, a principle which protects us all. Therefore, it is more important that a guilty man be set free, than an innocent man unfairly judged guilty and wrongly punished. After all is said and done, we must emit a collective sigh of relief, that our system of justice remains intact, and our hearts must go out to ALL the victims, who are white and black--- Nicole, Ronald, the Simpson family and children, and possibly O.J. himself, if he is really innocent.
What is hopeful in all of this, is that many whites have been ashamed and embarrassed at the flagrant and unruly racism of the likes of detective Fuhrman, and blacks have been impressed with the degree to which the majority of whites disown Fuhrman and his ilk. The blacks knew that many whites deny the reality of the abuses of racism, or consider it all too lightly. Perhaps in time this will no longer be the case, and O.J. jokes and racial stereotypes will no longer be accepted. We all hope that racial cops like Fuhrman will no longer be accepted by the LAPD or anywhere, anytime in this country. As Johnnie Cochran explained later, with great determination, dignity and eloquence, the issue of race must be faced, if we are to get beyond its abuses and the inevitable polarization which results. The concept of "playing the race-card" demeans the hard work of the defense team, the verdict of the jury, and assumes the guilt of the defendant. In this country, at this time, Orenthal J. Simpson must still be presumed innocent.