O.J. Simpson Found Guilty

Photo Credit: Annie Leibovitz

A jury convicted Orenthal James “O.J.” Simpson on all twelve counts of armed robbery and kidnapping late Friday night. He was then handcuffed and taken into custody. He'll be sentenced December 5.
Simpson, 61, faces a possible life sentence for a six-minute confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers last year at a down-market casino hotel.
Simpson's attorneys pledged to appeal. His longtime lawyer, Yale Galanter, cited jury selection as one basis for a new trial. None of the jurors were black.
Prosecutors painted Simpson as masterminding the alleged robbery of two sports collectibles dealers in a hotel room last year. The Hall of Fame running back rounded up five cohorts friends and told two of them to bring guns.
Simpson has said he and his associates were trying to retrieve stolen mementos from collectibles dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley in the Palace Station hotel room.
"We may quibble with how it was done, what was done," said Simpson attorney Galanter in his closing argument. "You may all say he didn't use common sense. But the real issue is whether he had criminal intent to commit a crime."
Prosecutors, however, say the group stole up to $100,000 in footballs, plaques and baseballs at gunpoint from the dealers, who had been tricked into thinking they were meeting a wealthy buyer.
Simpson maintains he never saw guns during the alleged robbery or asked anyone to bring one, although nearly everyone in Room 1203 testified to seeing at least one pistol. Two men -- Michael McClinton and Walter Alexander -- told jurors they carried a .45-caliber Ruger and a .22-caliber Beretta, respectively, at Simpson's request.
Jurors also heard phone calls that Simpson made from jail, a voice-mail in which Alexander appeared willing to slant his testimony for money, and a secret exchange between investigators at the crime scene in which they mocked the double-murder acquittal.
At the end of his closing argument, the prosecutor displayed Simpson's mugshots on a screen overlaid with the word "guilty."
The 1995 case Simpson was involved in became a cultural flash point that drew huge courthouse crowds and polarized black and white Americans.