Cut to the Chase

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On this night in 1994, O.J. Simpson led the police on a slow–speed chase.

Many Americans were watching coverage of the NBA Finals. Houston and New York were tied, 2–2, when they tipped off Game 5 in Madison Square Garden that Friday night, and it was an exciting game. The score was tied at the end of the third quarter. On top of that, it had been a close series.

The NBA Finals were being carried by NBC, the network for whom Simpson had been an NFL analyst, and, when Simpson, a passenger in a white Ford Bronco driven by his friend and ex–teammate Al Cowlings, began leading the Los Angeles police on the chase on the freeway, NBC gave it split–screen coverage with the game.

Actually, the game got the short end of the stick while the chase was in progress. The game was shown in a smaller portion of the screen while the chase was in a larger portion of the screen.

NBC's affiliate in Los Angeles didn't even show the split screen. It just showed the chase — until after Simpson surrendered to police. Then it showed the split screen — when there really wasn't a reason to show what was happening in the yard of Simpson's estate.

By that time, the truly dramatic part of the chase was long over.

When the chase was in progress, though, there was a lot of drama. Viewers learned that O.J. had a gun with him.

June 17, 1994, would have been a rather dramatic day in sports even without the NBA game. The New York Rangers celebrated their first Stanley Cup in more than 50 years. Arnold Palmer played his final round at the U.S. Open. In baseball, Ken Griffey Jr. matched Babe Ruth's record for most home runs before June 30. But that Bronco chase is what people remember.

Shortly before, one of Simpson's defense attorneys appeared on TV to read a rambling letter from Simpson to the media, in which Simpson told those closest to him, "Don't feel sorry for me. I've had a great life." He urged them not to remember "this lost person." Many who heard the letter being read believed it was a suicide note. Simpson's lawyer urged him to give himself up, as he had promised (but failed) to do earlier in the day.

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I have heard it said that the image of that Bronco was one of the most memorable moments on TV in the last half century — exceeded only by TV coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the scene of Simpson's eventual acquittal, the Challenger explosion and the death of Osama bin Laden.

The O.J. case polarized the nation by race. Whites overwhelmingly thought he was guilty of the crimes; blacks overwhelmingly thought he was innocent.

Twenty years later, blacks are more inclined to say he was guilty, CNN reported recently.

But 20 years ago tonight, the nation sat transfixed in front of its television sets watching the Juice's slow–motion run. Americans would take sides later. Twenty years ago tonight, they were wondering how it would end.

Remembering the Simpson-Goldman Murders

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It is still vivid in memory.

It's been a couple of decades, but, in many ways, it seems as if it happened yesterday.

Sometime during the evening hours of June 12–13, 1994, the ex–wife of former pro football star O.J. Simpson, Nicole Brown Simpson, was murdered in the courtyard of her southern California townhouse. The body of a young man, Ron Goldman, was found a few feet from her.

They had both been stabbed repeatedly. Nicole's head had nearly been cut off her body.

The bodies were found shortly after midnight, about half an hour after a Chicago–bound airplane on which O.J. was a passenger left Los Angeles International Airport.

There were a lot of other details that emerged in O.J.'s trial, which came to be regarded as the trial of the century. It was also — as far as I can tell — the public's first real introduction to DNA evidence.

But, on that mid–June day in 1994, what was widely known was that Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman were dead. From outward appearances, Goldman was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. He worked as a waiter at the restaurant where Nicole had dined with her family that evening, and her mother had left her glasses there. Nicole called the restaurant and was told that they would be brought to her home. Goldman, who was working in the restaurant that night, apparently volunteered to take the glasses when he finished work.

The assumption at the time was that Goldman had interrupted the attack on Nicole.

It was revealed later that Ron and Nicole were friendly. They had been seen riding together in Nicole's car, and the exact nature of their relationship remains uncertain to this day.

As for the DNA evidence, people had to be educated about that by the prosecution when O.J.'s trial got under way in 1995. But all of that was still in the future on this day 20 years ago.

O.J., of course, was acquitted of the murders — but was later held liable in a civil trial. Years later, he was convicted of an apparently unrelated offense in Nevada and given a sentence that, while not a life sentence, was expected to wind up being a life term, given O.J.'s age. After recent legal rulings, though, O.J. could be released as early as 2017.

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But that wasn't the end of it.

I guess it was to be expected that the 20th anniversary of the murders would bring new revelations, and it has. The National Enquirer, for example, recently published an article claiming to tell why O.J. killed Nicole.

Goldman's sister recently told the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles that forgiveness for the murder of the brother to whom she was especially close is not possible for her.

Last month, Lili Anolik suggested in Vanity Fair that the Simpson trial was the first reality TV show. It was a point I hadn't considered before, but it made sense.

Or perhaps it was more like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. The trial brought forth a string of witnesses for the prosecution who could have been a 1995 version of the cast of Desperate Housewives with all achieving a certain amount of rather short–lived fame. It was established during the trial that at least one of Nicole's friends/house guests had a cocaine problem, and it was suggested by the defense during the trial that drug dealers could have committed the murders and that their actual target had not been Nicole but rather her friend.

By the time the trial began, the murders themselves were almost afterthoughts; the human tragedy was mostly ignored. Ron and Nicole were vivid as people only in the memories of those in the court — and outside the court — who knew them. To everyone else they were props in a courtroom drama.

There was a wide range of human wreckage left in the wake of those two deaths.

The image that stays with me is of the streams of blood that could be seen on the pavement outside Nicole's townhouse in the news reports 20 years ago — and the children who were left without a mother. At some point, O.J. was awarded custody of his children, and they moved to Florida.

Those children are adults well into their 20s now. I often wonder what their lives were like after their mother was killed and their father was accused of the crime.

All I know is that the oldest, Sydney, was arrested in connection with a school incident nearly 10 years after her mother's death and sentenced to 50 hours of community service. Last I heard, she was waiting tables in Atlanta.

I think her brother is still in Florida.

The Bottom Line on O.J.'s Sentence

I've seen a number of articles that try to boil down the probable prison time for O.J.Simpson.

As you probably know, Simpson, 61, was given his prison sentence today. He was convicted on armed robbery, kidnapping and assault charges in Las Vegas on Oct. 3 — the 13th anniversary of his acquittal in the 1994 murders of his ex-wife and her friend.

These things aren't always clear to those who don't work in courtrooms on a regular basis. A judge's sentence can seem to be ambiguous — even, at times, to appeals courts that deal with these kinds of issues on a routine basis.

CNN reports that Simpson will spend "at least 15 years in prison" but "could become eligible for parole in about nine years."

ESPN says Simpson was sentenced to "at least nine years in prison and the likelihood of as many as 19 years."

The Associated Press played up the sensational angle, pointing out that the sentence was "33 years behind bars with eligibility for parole after less than a third of that."

It can get a little baffling.

I think the clearest, most reasonable assessment of the judgment could be found in Melissa Arseniuk's account in the Las Vegas Sun.

Simpson will spend at least nine years in prison in Nevada, Arseniuk writes. The sentence means "the former football star could remain incarcerated until he is 94 years old if denied parole."

And all the other possibilities in between.

The one thing you can count on is that Simpson will be at least a 70-year-old man before he is free again.

My personal opinion is that no parole board will keep Simpson in prison for 33 years. At some point, public opinion will contend that keeping an elderly man in prison for a non-fatal offense amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

But I'm also inclined to think that — assuming he lives that long — Simpson will spend more than nine years in prison.

And here's one more guess.

Unless Simpson develops severe health problems that rapidly lead to his death, I believe he will eventually be free again.

I find it hard to believe we've heard the last from him.

Life in Prison Might Not Be Likely for O.J.

Lester Munson, an attorney from Chicago who writes about legal issues in sports for ESPN.com, says O.J. Simpson may be more likely to be sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison than he is to receive a life sentence for his role in the robbery and kidnapping case that resulted in his conviction on 12 counts by a jury in Las Vegas Friday.

But, for a 61-year-old man, a 10- to 15-year sentence could mean imprisonment for life anyway. It might not be formally declared a life sentence, but, realistically, that's what it may turn out to be.

At the very least, as Munson acknowledges, "Simpson probably will be into his 70s before he returns to freedom."

Simpson's attorney has insisted the verdict will be appealed. But the legal system is set up a little differently in Nevada. Unlike most states, where there are two levels of appeal — an intermediate appellate court and the state's supreme court — only one level of appeal (the supreme court) exists in Nevada.

"So Simpson has only one chance to persuade a group of judges he should be freed," writes Munson.

Furthermore, the arguments that Simpson's lawyers probably will offer in their appeal don't seem likely to succeed, Munson says.

One such argument is that the racial composition of the jury was the "result of systematic elimination of African-Americans." But, as Munson points out, the judge ruled that the original panel of potential jurors was "an accurate reflection of the racial population" in Clark County, Nevada, and "it is unlikely the Supreme Court will second-guess her rulings."

It was impossible to ignore the racial element of the murder trial in the 1990s. The victims were both white, and the defendant was black. But, "[w]ith the possible exception of the selection of the jury, race was not a factor" this time, says Munson. The participants in this case were "remarkably diverse," he writes, making racism a much more difficult claim to make in an appeal.

The second argument likely will suggest that the judge made an error by allowing prosecutors to talk to the jury about the civil judgment against Simpson in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend, Ron Goldman.

The prosecution argued that it was Simpson's "enduring rage against the Goldmans that caused him to plan and execute the robbery" — in an effort to prevent them from acquiring his sports memorabilia and selling the items to obtain a portion of the $33.6 million judgment.

The judge in the case kept prosecutors from introducing witnesses on that issue, but she permitted audiotapes of Simpson "raging at the Goldmans and their efforts to collect from him."

Therefore, Munson writes, "It will be difficult for Simpson's lawyers to succeed on the issue when the justices of the Supreme Court hear the tapes of Simpson himself describing how the robbery would prevent the Goldmans from obtaining his things and selling them."

The anti-O.J. partisans might not feel as satisfied with a sentence of 10 to 15 years in prison as they might have with a life sentence.

But, in the end, it may be nothing more than a matter of semantics.

O.J. Might Get Life in Prison After All

It may not have happened the way his detractors believed it should have more than a decade ago.

But you have to appreciate the irony of the timing.

Exactly 13 years after O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ron Goldman, a jury in Las Vegas found him guilty of 12 charges, including kidnapping and armed robbery, in a matter involving sports memorabilia that Simpson said had been stolen from him.

Simpson will be sentenced in two months, on Dec. 5. The 61-year-old former NFL All-Star could be sentenced to life in prison. His attorney says the verdict will be appealed.

"We're absolutely thrilled to see that the potential is that he could spend the rest of his life in jail where the scumbag belongs," Goldman's father, Fred Goldman, told CNN. "Right now there is not much more to say other than we're going to wait to find out what else happens."