security guards.
Nothing, however, is more personally odious to me than the DA’s office saying that one of the factors considered in transferring the case downtown was that the downtown courthouse could better accommodate the media. Apart from the fact that there is just as much space near the Santa Monica courthouse for the TV trailers and their apparatus as downtown, since when is justice not the
only
concern? Since when should justice be jeopardized in any way at all by media considerations? If our society doesn’t take
murder
, the ultimate crime, seriously, what do we take seriously anymore?
Many have said Garcetti wanted the case transferred downtown because his own office is there, and being a politician running for reelection who never met a TV camera he didn’t like, he knew he wouldn’t get the same radio and TV exposure if all the cameras and reporters were out at the Santa Monica court. My guess on this view is that it is wrong.
One reason for transferring the case downtown, which has gained currency among some, is that Garcetti feared that if Simpson was convicted by a mostly white jury in Santa Monica, it might have caused a riot in the black community. But at the time the case was transferred downtown, there wasn’t the slightest hint in the black community of a possible riot over the case. (There
was
, right from the beginning, in the Rodney King case.) Even at the end, when the defense had succeeded in inventing a racial issue in the Simpson case, LAPD intelligence reported there was absolutely no indication of a possible riot in the event of a conviction. Garcetti himself has never suggested that the fear of a riot was even one of the reasons for transferring the case downtown.
Another related reason given by some for Garcetti’s transferring the case downtown is that a verdict there would have more “credibility” with the black community than one in Santa Monica. It’s been written in more than one book on this case that Garcetti actually told reporters this. But such a remark from Garcetti to reporters would have unquestionably been mentioned in the local and national media, which it wasn’t. And when I checked with the DA’s office of public affairs, they, too, had no record of Garcetti ever saying such a thing. This reason for the case being transferred downtown was simply one which I believe many people assumed at the time was Garcetti’s motive, and some have apparently come to believe that Garcetti actually said it.
It should be added parenthetically that since Garcetti has been pummeled unmercifully, and to his decided political detriment, for not trying the case in Santa Monica, if either of the aforementioned reasons set forth in the two previous paragraphs had, in fact, been his motive for transferring the case downtown, what conceivable reason would he have for keeping them a secret? Either of the two reasons would have been far more palatable to his constituency than those he
has
publicly given.
You may wonder why I am devoting so much time to this procedural matter. Even with the terribly incompetent handling of this case by the prosecution (see Chapters 4 and 5), since it nonetheless did prove Simpson’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, if the case had been tried before
an average
jury in Santa Monica, the very strong likelihood is that the verdict would have been guilty. The Simpson jury was not an average jury. If it was, we should start packing our bags for Madagascar. Our jury system is perhaps the most priceless legacy we inherited from our legal ancestors, the British. The Simpson jury defiled that legacy.
One final point before we get into the next reason for the not-guilty verdict in the Simpson case. Those with a smattering of legal knowledge have assured anyone who will listen that even if the Simpson case had been filed in Santa Monica, the defense would have made a change of venue motion to have it transferred downtown. Such a motion, the argument goes, would
Nothing, however, is more personally odious to me than the DA’s office saying that one of the factors considered in transferring the case downtown was that the downtown courthouse could better accommodate the media. Apart from the fact that there is just as much space near the Santa Monica courthouse for the TV trailers and their apparatus as downtown, since when is justice not the
only
concern? Since when should justice be jeopardized in any way at all by media considerations? If our society doesn’t take
murder
, the ultimate crime, seriously, what do we take seriously anymore?
Many have said Garcetti wanted the case transferred downtown because his own office is there, and being a politician running for reelection who never met a TV camera he didn’t like, he knew he wouldn’t get the same radio and TV exposure if all the cameras and reporters were out at the Santa Monica court. My guess on this view is that it is wrong.
One reason for transferring the case downtown, which has gained currency among some, is that Garcetti feared that if Simpson was convicted by a mostly white jury in Santa Monica, it might have caused a riot in the black community. But at the time the case was transferred downtown, there wasn’t the slightest hint in the black community of a possible riot over the case. (There
was
, right from the beginning, in the Rodney King case.) Even at the end, when the defense had succeeded in inventing a racial issue in the Simpson case, LAPD intelligence reported there was absolutely no indication of a possible riot in the event of a conviction. Garcetti himself has never suggested that the fear of a riot was even one of the reasons for transferring the case downtown.
Another related reason given by some for Garcetti’s transferring the case downtown is that a verdict there would have more “credibility” with the black community than one in Santa Monica. It’s been written in more than one book on this case that Garcetti actually told reporters this. But such a remark from Garcetti to reporters would have unquestionably been mentioned in the local and national media, which it wasn’t. And when I checked with the DA’s office of public affairs, they, too, had no record of Garcetti ever saying such a thing. This reason for the case being transferred downtown was simply one which I believe many people assumed at the time was Garcetti’s motive, and some have apparently come to believe that Garcetti actually said it.
It should be added parenthetically that since Garcetti has been pummeled unmercifully, and to his decided political detriment, for not trying the case in Santa Monica, if either of the aforementioned reasons set forth in the two previous paragraphs had, in fact, been his motive for transferring the case downtown, what conceivable reason would he have for keeping them a secret? Either of the two reasons would have been far more palatable to his constituency than those he
has
publicly given.
You may wonder why I am devoting so much time to this procedural matter. Even with the terribly incompetent handling of this case by the prosecution (see Chapters 4 and 5), since it nonetheless did prove Simpson’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, if the case had been tried before
an average
jury in Santa Monica, the very strong likelihood is that the verdict would have been guilty. The Simpson jury was not an average jury. If it was, we should start packing our bags for Madagascar. Our jury system is perhaps the most priceless legacy we inherited from our legal ancestors, the British. The Simpson jury defiled that legacy.
One final point before we get into the next reason for the not-guilty verdict in the Simpson case. Those with a smattering of legal knowledge have assured anyone who will listen that even if the Simpson case had been filed in Santa Monica, the defense would have made a change of venue motion to have it transferred downtown. Such a motion, the argument goes, would
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