Simpson Jury

Why write a book? The O.J. Simpson jury should be starring in the remake of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." LISA D. DAVIS Cheviot Hills

As testimony in O.J. Simpson's trial on robbery charges gets underway this week, one thing is already abundantly clear: When the former football star enters a courtroom, so does a debate about race. In jury selection last week, defense attorneys repeatedly tried to dismiss the mostly white jury pool and accused prosecutors of systematically excluding blacks. The allegation prompted Clark County Dist. Atty. David Roger to insist that his choice of jurors had "nothing to do with race."

Re "Maybe It Is a White Conspiracy," Commentary, Oct. 11: Karen Grigsby Bates postulates that because whites don't believe the jurors who say race had no place in the O.J. Simpson verdict that "Reasonable Black People" are beginning to think that a vast white conspiracy to keep blacks in their "assigned places" does indeed exist. Did Bates believe the Simi Valley jurors when they said race had nothing to do with their Rodney King case verdicts? These kinds of articles, which do nothing to suggest ways in which the races can come together, simply perpetuate racism.

After a contentious day of lawyers sparring with prospective jurors in O.J. Simpson's kidnapping-robbery trial Wednesday, the judge said it appeared a jury would be seated by Friday or even earlier. "The end is near, folks!" Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass announced to the remaining weary prospects, who must be questioned before lawyers begin to exercise preemptory challenges and choose the final panel. "There are people who thought it would take weeks to pick a jury," the judge said.

Re "Why Some Juries Judge the System," Commentary, Jan. 24: Now we know how team Simpson got O.J. off. Gerald Uelmen gave us the scoop in his column. It's there in black and white. He knew that blacks are suspicious of the "system." He knew that there is a 47% acquittal rate in the Bronx, versus 17% nationwide. He knew that he could confuse the vagaries of "jury nullification" and "reasonable doubt." He knew they could throw out untrue and unsubstantiated implications and allegations of wrongdoing on the part of everyone and the jury would likely buy it. Then the jury, not voting on innocence or guilt, would return a verdict based on their personal experiences of suspicion (with a little exploitation by the lawyers)

Listen to Gerald Uelmen's specious arguments (Commentary, Oct. 10): 1) "What we overlook is that the sequestered jurors saw a different trial than the television viewers." 2) " . . . The jury didn't even share . . . the public exposure of the racist rantings of Detective Mark Fuhrman." 3) " . . . The verdict of public opinion [is not] sanctified by an oath." He makes these arguments knowing that lawyers involved in the O.J. Simpson trial are under investigation by the State Bar of California for their behavior; he knows that his client was not under oath when he was coaxed by a member of the bar to proclaim his innocence; he knows that his team blemished several detectives, as having smeared blood on his client's floors, his car, along his driveway and planted a bloody glove.

Ladies and gentlemen of the O.J. Simpson jury, here is your private ice cream stock. And your special "Melrose Place" episodes. And your free concerts. And . . . Let's just say that three weeks into the Simpson murder trial, it appears that not all juries are created equal. In fact, not that they don't deserve it, but before it's all over, jurors in one of the most celebrated cases in American jurisprudence may be the most accommodated and most indulged group of dicasts ever.

With regard to the questionnaire that the Simpson case jurors have to fill out before they are selected (Oct. 1), I would think the prosecution and defense would be so grateful to have jurors that they would go out of their way to be kind and gracious to them and thank them for giving up their time and families for the length of time it will be to have this trial. If I were presented such a questionnaire to fill out, I would tell them what they could do with their questionnaire and go back home to my family.

O.J. Simpson's defense team warned jurors Thursday not to be taken in by a case that they described as a giant con game, built on multiple conspiracies involving police planting evidence, scientists fuzzing data, photographers doctoring snapshots and federal agents shading testimony in an all-out effort to get Simpson.

Nobody with half a brain has been fooled by Barry Bonds the last six years. The league found his cheating acceptable because 1) he was filling the seats and selling the product, 2) he was innocent until proven guilty, and, 3) steroids are the Major League Baseball version of "don't ask, don't tell." KEVIN H. PARK Tarzana An open letter to major league managers and pitchers: Please don't let another record fall to Barry Bonds. Because the cheat already has the career record for bases on balls, give him a pass every time he walks up to the plate until the day he crawls under a rock somewhere.

Seven years after they won a civil lawsuit, relatives of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman have collected almost none of the $33.5 million in damages awarded. In Santa Monica Superior Court Tuesday, Goldman family attorneys tried again to make O.J. Simpson pay. What they got were two press credentials issued to the football Hall of Famer to cover the 1984 Olympics for a TV network -- value unknown.

Presented with conflicting images of O.J. Simpson--as a carefree millionaire murderer or a broken and impoverished outcast--jurors deliberated for more than two hours Friday without reaching a decision on punitive damages. In this final stage of the civil trial, the jurors must decide whether to punish Simpson for the slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman by ordering him to pay more damages to the victims' relatives. They have already ordered him to pay Goldman's parents $8.

Southland television viewers voted with their remote controls for the O.J. Simpson case Tuesday, as many turned away from President Clinton's State of the Union address to follow coverage of the verdicts in Simpson's civil trial. Local ratings issued Wednesday by Nielsen Media Research showed that viewing of Channels 2, 4 and 7 dropped around 6:15 p.m.

The only black woman on the O.J. Simpson civil jury was dismissed Friday at the defense's request, forcing the panel to scotch 14 hours of deliberations and start from scratch--and prompting the judge to warn that the trial was in danger of unraveling. Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki called the remaining jurors into court late Friday to deliver an address that was part lecture, part pep talk, part guilt trip.

Jurors in the O.J. Simpson civil trial deliberated for six hours Wednesday, asking for a magnifying glass and a photo of a blood vial to help them as they review the case. The requests may signal that the jurors are focusing on the hotly contested blood evidence. The defense contends that former Los Angeles Police Det. Philip Vannatter opened a vial of Simpson's blood and daubed it on key pieces of evidence as part of a frame-up.

Testimony concluded in the O.J. Simpson civil trial Thursday with the promise that jurors will begin deliberations next week on the evidence delivered by 101 witnesses--from DNA scientists to grieving parents, from police detectives to the defendant himself. The jurors will be asked to weigh more than 2,500 exhibits and 41 days of testimony spread out over the past three months. Their job: to decide whether Simpson is responsible for the slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman.