the Santa Monica court, and, absent the settlement that terminated it, the case was scheduled to be tried there. Another major case that was tried in Santa Monica was the Billionaire Boys Club murder case in 1987, which received extensive publicity and lasted several months. I return to the original statement I made in the
Playboy
interview that when the DA’s office transferred the case downtown it probably just wasn’t thinking of the enormous ramifications of its decision. It was a monumental blunder, one that all by itself was a reason for the miscarriage of justice in the Simpson case.
A JUDICIAL ERROR
JUDGE ITO ALLOWS THE DEFENSE TO PLAY THE RACE CARD
A July 25, 1994,
Newsweek
poll, a month and a half after the murders, found that a minuscule 12 percent of American blacks felt that Simpson had been framed by the LAPD because of his race. Close to 90 percent of all blacks, then, did not feel that racism was an issue in the case. And the reason they didn’t was that it was obvious to virtually everyone that race had nothing to do with this case. The Rodney King case was a racial case. This was simply a case of a man who happened to be black murdering his former wife and her male friend. Nothing more. Nothing less. Even John Mack, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Urban League, said (in a statement to reporters on July 17, 1994) he didn’t view the Simpson case as a racial case. Yet near the end, after the defense had fabricated the race issue at the trial, poll after poll showed the majority of American blacks, including Simpson’s jury, felt Simpson had been framed by the police because of his race. A
Los Angeles Times
poll of blacks in Los Angeles County showed that an astonishing 75 percent of them believed Simpson was framed.
The Simpson defense team has been receiving the blame from the American people for fraudulently injecting race into the case. And they deserve all the blame they are getting, and then some. But thus far, Judge Ito has gotten a free ride on this issue. Not here however. I blame Ito 100 percent for allowing it all to happen, for permitting race to be a big issue at the Simpson trial. In considerable part because of it, and because the prosecutors were totally inept at dealing with it once it became an issue, Simpson is now a free man.
It wasn’t as if Judge Ito hadn’t been warned. I thought Chris Darden did an excellent job of forewarning Ito. In a January 13, 1995, pretrial hearing to determine whether the defense should be allowed to ask Detective Mark Fuhrman if he had ever used the word “nigger” in the previous ten years (this was months before the now infamous Fuhrman tapes surfaced) Darden, although overstating his case somewhat, nonetheless made this eloquent appeal to Ito: “[The word ‘nigger’] is the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language. It has no place in this case or in this courtroom. It will do nothing to further the court’s attempt at seeking the truth in this case. It will do one thing. It will upset the black jurors. It will…give them a test, and the test will be, whose side are you on, the side of the white prosecutors [a partial misstatement, since Darden himself is black] and the white policeman, or are you on the side of the black defendant and his very prominent and capable black lawyer? That’s what it’s going to do. Either you are with the man or with the brothers….
“There is a mountain of evidence pointing to this man’s guilt, but when you mention that word to this jury or to any African-American, it blinds people. It will blind the jury…to the truth…it will impair their ability to be fair and impartial…. Mr. Cochran wants to play the ace of spades and play the race card…
but you shouldn’t allow him
to play that card…. It’s the prosecution’s position that if you allow Mr. Cochran to use this word and play this race card, not only does the direction and focus of the case change, but the entire
Playboy
interview that when the DA’s office transferred the case downtown it probably just wasn’t thinking of the enormous ramifications of its decision. It was a monumental blunder, one that all by itself was a reason for the miscarriage of justice in the Simpson case.
A JUDICIAL ERROR
JUDGE ITO ALLOWS THE DEFENSE TO PLAY THE RACE CARD
A July 25, 1994,
Newsweek
poll, a month and a half after the murders, found that a minuscule 12 percent of American blacks felt that Simpson had been framed by the LAPD because of his race. Close to 90 percent of all blacks, then, did not feel that racism was an issue in the case. And the reason they didn’t was that it was obvious to virtually everyone that race had nothing to do with this case. The Rodney King case was a racial case. This was simply a case of a man who happened to be black murdering his former wife and her male friend. Nothing more. Nothing less. Even John Mack, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Urban League, said (in a statement to reporters on July 17, 1994) he didn’t view the Simpson case as a racial case. Yet near the end, after the defense had fabricated the race issue at the trial, poll after poll showed the majority of American blacks, including Simpson’s jury, felt Simpson had been framed by the police because of his race. A
Los Angeles Times
poll of blacks in Los Angeles County showed that an astonishing 75 percent of them believed Simpson was framed.
The Simpson defense team has been receiving the blame from the American people for fraudulently injecting race into the case. And they deserve all the blame they are getting, and then some. But thus far, Judge Ito has gotten a free ride on this issue. Not here however. I blame Ito 100 percent for allowing it all to happen, for permitting race to be a big issue at the Simpson trial. In considerable part because of it, and because the prosecutors were totally inept at dealing with it once it became an issue, Simpson is now a free man.
It wasn’t as if Judge Ito hadn’t been warned. I thought Chris Darden did an excellent job of forewarning Ito. In a January 13, 1995, pretrial hearing to determine whether the defense should be allowed to ask Detective Mark Fuhrman if he had ever used the word “nigger” in the previous ten years (this was months before the now infamous Fuhrman tapes surfaced) Darden, although overstating his case somewhat, nonetheless made this eloquent appeal to Ito: “[The word ‘nigger’] is the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language. It has no place in this case or in this courtroom. It will do nothing to further the court’s attempt at seeking the truth in this case. It will do one thing. It will upset the black jurors. It will…give them a test, and the test will be, whose side are you on, the side of the white prosecutors [a partial misstatement, since Darden himself is black] and the white policeman, or are you on the side of the black defendant and his very prominent and capable black lawyer? That’s what it’s going to do. Either you are with the man or with the brothers….
“There is a mountain of evidence pointing to this man’s guilt, but when you mention that word to this jury or to any African-American, it blinds people. It will blind the jury…to the truth…it will impair their ability to be fair and impartial…. Mr. Cochran wants to play the ace of spades and play the race card…
but you shouldn’t allow him
to play that card…. It’s the prosecution’s position that if you allow Mr. Cochran to use this word and play this race card, not only does the direction and focus of the case change, but the entire
Similar Books
