A radio show calls from Chicago and the producer asks me if I will go on the air and talk about the issues in the O. J. Simpson trial.
Actually, I say, there is a very interesting issue I am now researching for a column.
Great! says the producer.
It's about the exclusionary rule, I say, and the Fourth Amendment and warrantless searches and House Bill 666, recently passed, and how the Simpson case has dealt with all these issues.
Uh, right, the producer says. OK, you'll be on with our host in just two seconds.
And in two seconds I hear this screaming in my ear.
OK, SO THE JURY HAS NINE AFRICAN-AMERICANS ON IT AND O. J.'S GOING TO GO FREE RIGHT? AM I RIGHT?
Huh? I say.
NINE AFRICAN-AMERICANS ON THE JURY! IT'S ALL OVER! FORGET IT!
Well, I don't think you can exactly say . . .
YOU MEAN HE'S NOT GOING TO GO FREE?
Actually, I do think he might go free, but . . .
RIGHT! HE'S GOING TO WALK! IT'S ALL RACE!
No, no, no, I say. I mean it's race and it's not race.
WHAT ARE YOU SAYING? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SAYING?
Back up a few steps, I say. O. J. Simpson has what's known in Los Angeles as a "downtown" jury. That's what they call a jury with many minorities on it.
This case could have been tried in Santa Monica, which is next door to Brentwood, where the murders were committed, while downtown L. A. is miles away. And Santa Monica would have given Simpson a jury with many fewer minorities, maybe none at all.
SO WHAT HAPPENED?
Well, instead of letting the case proceed to a preliminary hearing in Santa Monica, Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti brought it downtown to be heard by the grand jury. The grand jury meets only downtown.
WHY'D HE DO THAT?
Because grand jury proceedings are secret and the prosecution would not have had to reveal its strategy.
OK, SO IT WENT TO A GRAND JURY.
But a judge found that the grand jury had been polluted by exposure to the 911 tapes. So then Garcetti was forced to go to a preliminary hearing.
SO WHY DIDN'T HE GO BACK OUT TO SANTA MONICA AND GET A WHITE JURY?
He couldn't. It would have looked like "jury shopping," like he was trying to avoid blacks and get whites.
BUT YOU SAID RACE DOESN'T MATTER!
I said it does and it doesn't. Black jurors find black defendants guilty every day in America. Black people are disproportionately the victims of crime in this country.
SO HAVING A BLACK JURY DOES NOT HELP O. J.? THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE TRYING TO TELL US?
No, it does help to this extent: As the defense attorneys have said, they have at least nine people on the jury who can understand how a black man might be wrongly arrested by the Los Angeles police. They have at least nine people on the jury who could believe that a black man might be the object of a police conspiracy in Los Angeles.
SO YOU THINK THAT'S THE REASON O. J.'S GOING TO WALK?
Distrust of the police obviously helps the defense theory that no matter how damning the blood and other evidence is, it is all part of a conspiracy to get O. J. Simpson.
But that is not the main thing the defense has going for it.
WHAT IS? HURRY, WE GOT TO GO TO TRAFFIC!
Look at Simpson. Does he look threatening? Does he look like a monster? Sure, you can hear him shouting on the 911 tapes, but maybe he was drunk that night. And there is no evidence he was drunk on the night of the murders.
Call it charisma, call it star power, call it whatever you want, it is tough to look O. J. Simpson in the face -- as the jury does every day -- and say: This is the face of a brutal, savage killer.
SO YOU SAY HE WALKS?
I may change my mind. But as of today, I say, yeah, he walks. Now, do you want to hear about the exclusionary rule?
SORRY, BUT WE'RE OUT OF TIME! THANKS AND NOW LET'S GO TO TRAFFIC-CHOPPER ONE!