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June 23, 2008

O.J. jury questionnaire in question

Posted: 09:45 AM ET

LAS VEGAS, Nevada – A routine status conference for the O.J. Simpson robbery trial was a real eye opener for me on Friday afternoon.

Judge Jackie Glass told prosecutors and attorneys for O.J. Simpson that she has never seen such a lengthy juror questionnaire with so many questions. She put the attorneys on notice that they have a choice...stick with the questionnaire and stick with her requirement that "jury selection will not go on for a significant amount of time."

Judge Glass concluded by warning "if you don't want this, we can throw the jury questionnaire out the window"...and thus have more voir dire time face-to-face with jurors. Jury selection could be the most critical aspect to this case, so attorneys are going to have to think about Judge Glass's words carefully.

The other point from this status check that caught my attention: in denying one of Simpson's co-defendant's renewed motion for severance Judge Glass told attorneys "the only way they (co-defendants) won't go to trial together is if you pick up the phone" and work out a deal.

Hmmm. Could plea deals still be worked out? The big question all defendants need to consider here...will they be willing to serve time? Sources tell me any plea deal for Simpson and his two co-defendants would include jail time along with pleading to felonies. The defense, at least for O.J. Simpson, says no formal offers have been made, but jail time is not an option.

Jury selection for this case begins here on September 8th and at this point all jurors will begin the process by filling out the lengthy questionnaire.

Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent

Filed under: Trials


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margaret bench   July 1st, 2008 12:41 am ET

who cares about OJ? he is such old news-i watched the murder trial everyday of Nicole Simpson while recooping from knee surgery-and after what 13 years my knee has forgotten the pain and suffering of the incident-why can't we stop the pain and suffering of the public by OJ. just convict him of somthing-lock him up and throw away the key-he enjoys this publicity and quite frankly i sick of him and anything about him in the future-he is a thug-a murderer-a conartist-and a manipulater.please put an end to his name ever being mentioned again to the public-unless of course he dies from old age-now that would be some worthy news don't you think?

LARRY   July 2nd, 2008 2:36 pm ET

OJ WILL GET A HUNG JURY IF THERE IS ONE BLACK JURY ON THE PANEL OF JURYS,BECAUSE THEY STICK TOGETHER.THAT IS WHY OBAMA GETS ALL OF THE BLACKS VOTES.

Frank Malone   July 4th, 2008 4:21 pm ET

Without any doubt, to have had such a long questionairee to complete before passin dentence on the O.J. Simpson case was completely ridiculous. In essence, they were filling out a form in which they had to prove that they were worthy to judge the murderer while he sat during his trial with complete indefference at the proceedings that were going on. Isn't it really bizarre that the potential jurors were put on trial before they could assemble and come to a final decision on such an obviously cruel and vivious character.

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