Two weeks ago Tuesday, just after one, I was on the road, dropping off equipment in Bethesda, Maryland. Bethesda is a thoroughly white community, in a thoroughly liberal white county, in a liberal northeastern state. Most people I knew considered the whole OJ trial a joke, and were just waiting for him to be convicted.

I was waiting at a red light when the words not guilty were read. "Holy shit!" I assessed. Immediately, the radio was drowned out. Horns from cars around the intersection started blaring. A Federal Express truck drove through, the driver laying on the horn. As I jumped out of my car when I reached my destination, I shouted to a bunch of people sitting at a bench eating lunch. "Not guilty!" Their eyes rolled.

Inside my destination, a clerk ranted about the trial. The jurors were stupid, he said. They didn't understand DNA, he said. They just wanted to go home, he said. It was clear who he blamed.

But can we blame the jurors? Jury selection happened so long ago, but one must remember that the prosecution and the defense helped pick them. OJ even had a jury selection consultant. Marcia Clark had one too, but chose to ignore the consultant's advice. Clark is no spring chicken to trials - she asserted that she could convince black females, as she had in the past. Her past rapport didn't seem to be evident with the 10 black females on the Simpson jury.

Can it be said they didn't understand? Possibly. Commentators, experts, and even other trial attorneys had trouble following some of the DNA and other blood evidence entered by Clark. Coverage indicated that jurors stopped taking notes after some of the testimony, and one of the 'Dream Team' attorneys commented that if he had been trying the case, he wouldn't have spent 7 months presenting evidence, or nearly as much time on the complex evidence as Clark did.

Were the jurors snowed under by the Dream Team? The defense had 9 attorneys, each with a specialized element to lead. Some (Barry Sheck, F. Lee Bailey) infuriated people in the court. Others (Robert Shapiro, Johnnie Cochrane) led, and presented convincing arguments, leading one to believe Simpson. The County of Los Angeles spent more than $9 million trying this case - Simpson most likely spent nearly that amount in attorney's fees alone. He got his money's worth - each was top dog in their field. Clark and Christopher Darden may be good, but they were simply out gunned.

Did they just want to go home? They had been sequestered for more than nine months, making a measly $5 a day. Most people who had business to attend to or other things to do, opted out or was tossed out of the jury. In the end, most were female, or retired. Had they been discussing the issues before the case was given to them? Possibly. These people didn't have much else to do. Shut off from the outside world, the eventual jury foreperson, Mrs. Robertson, taught the jurors to crochet. The jurors were humans too. After failing to believe the prosecution had proved its case (the initial straw poll indicated only 2 jurors believed it had), the jury called it all over and decided to go home. Should they have gone over all the evidence again? In a short trial, of course they should have. But here, even the closing arguments lasted a week. They knew what they were doing.

However, can one truly say, as the store clerk said, that this case will be historically important. Not for statutory or constitutional reasons, or even scientific reasons; it will be important because it exposed the public almost every aspect of a murder case, in excruciating detail. In the final score, the public saw much more than the jury did. We knew Mark Furman took the 5th, and of all the legal wrangling that held things up. Rosa Lopez was never heard by the jury. That sealed envelope that was handed to Judge Ito the first days of the trial never reappeared.

I saw my first juror on TV 3 hours after the verdict was read. CNN had an in-depth interview on with one later. It saddens me a bit that they'll be making lots of their role. I'd like to see one book with one chapter from each of them. That I'd buy. Actually, I think what they have to say is important. In the end, what they said was the only thing that mattered.

© Trincoll Journal, 1995.