Reply #51: I don't think it's a racial issue.

[louis-t]

I didn't think it was a racial issue 13 years ago. The 1995 trial was a fascinating trial with colorful characters, tons of evidence, witnesses galore, prosecutorial and police misconduct and ineptitude. The timeline took place over a period of several hours and was full of twists and turns. It read like a crime novel or a movie script. Blake, Spector and the other guy haven't gotten nearly the press as OJ. Not because of race, but because there just isn't as much to report on. Blake's life has been sad for 60 years. He killed his star-obsessed wife outside a restaurant. Not much there. Spector is an oddball who somehow managed to shoot a washed up actress in his home. The end. These two got about as much attention as Bob Crane's murder, Phil Hartmann's murder, and a hundred other cases. You're focusing on the wrong issue when you ask if someone is "as eager to see blah blah behind bars". That's race-baiting. The OJ murder case was different somehow. It had the right combination of things that kept people's attention. I learned a lot about law from the case. I also learned how divided along racial lines our country is. Some black people thought OJ should be found innocent because of something LA cops did and their history of abuse. One has nothing to do with the other. I kept hearing that white people were against OJ because he was married to a white woman. I don't think that was an issue at all. I don't know anyone who thought he was guilty and should be punished because he was married to a white woman. I never heard it, I never saw any wink-wink, it just wasn't an issue. My family, many of whom are VERY right-wing, were divided down the middle on guilt or innocence (this includes the ones who are now practically suicidal over Obama's win). It was not a divide along party lines. I had a very right-wing aunt (now deceased) who said OJ would never kill his wife with his own kids in the home. I asked what makes him different from thousands of others who HAVE killed a spouse with kids in the home. We had great debates about the evidence. It consumed our lives for a year. I think the press played up the bi-racial marriage a lot more than the public did. I thought he was guilty, but I understood the verdict because of the misconduct. He was found "not guilty" and not "innocent".