Racial issues arise in the O.J. case and in debate over a new bill
by Betsy Streisand, Ted Gest
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Civil rights leaders in Los Angeles were blunt: Both prosecutors and defense lawyers in the O.J. Simpson case had better be careful about raising racial issues. "I would hope that people would not forget the literal hell this community has gone through," warned Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack, referring to the riots that erupted when an all-white suburban jury acquitted police officers in the 1992 beating case of black motorist Rodney King. After meeting with the civil rights leaders, District Attorney Gil Garcetti sounded sympathetic. That might mean his prosecutors will be wary about challenging African-Americans as potential jurors when Simpson's murder trial begins, possibly in September.
The injection of racial issues into the Simpson case last week reflected on a smaller scale the problem that Congress is grappling with nationally as it struggles to pass a $30 billion crime bill: Many blacks do not believe they are treated fairly by the criminal-justice system. And neither Congress nor the courts are likely to change those perceptions anytime soon.
Pretrial maneuvering. In the Simpson case, it was the former football star's defenders who raised a racial issue in their effort to undermine the prosecution. (Among other gambits designed to generate sympathy, Simpson's backers offered a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of another suspect and created a toll-free phone line for citizens to report clues.) While he denied any racial motive, chief defense lawyer Robert Shapiro vowed to question the credibility of Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman, who made racist remarks in the course of seeking disability benefits when he tried to leave the police force in the 1980s. Los Angeles defense attorney Mark Werksman says the Simpson team, which now includes prominent black lawyer Johnnie Cochran Jr., is "trying to convince the public -- and potential jurors -- that Simpson is being framed because he is black."
That kind of ploy could intensify the divisions reflected in a new Field poll of Californians showing that 62 percent of whites but only 38 percent of blacks believe Simpson "very likely or somewhat likely" to be guilty of murder. Only 35 percent of blacks think Simpson can get a fair trial, compared with 55 percent of whites. Experts say jury selection could be crucial because whites generally tend to judge black defendants more harshly. "There is a risk that race will affect the verdict," says Cornell law Prof. Sheri Lynn Johnson, "but we don't know how Simpson's fame and image will intersect with racial stereotypes."
Yet it's far too early to project a Simpson verdict based on assumptions about juror biases. "If you can find people who believe in the criminal-justice system and that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty, you could easily have a jury of all whites acquit a black," says Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, a Los Angeles adviser to lawyers on jury selection. She says that a larger problem may be whether jurors can ignore pretrial publicity.
At the national level, racial sensitivities have delayed passage of the federal crime bill. It was only last week, after months of bitter wrangling, that Congressional Black Caucus members conceded that they lacked enough Senate votes to pass a "racial justice" provision that would have allowed defendants to challenge death sentences with statistics showing patterns of racial bias. Caucus members and congressional liberals are likely to accept a plan offered by the White House that addresses their concerns in a different way: President Clinton would name a commission to study the problem and possibly issue an executive order banning discrimination in federal death penalty prosecutions. Now, the bill is snagged on a debate over banning assault weapons.
Whatever twists and turns the Simpson trial and the crime bill take this summer, the racial schism over crime could get worse. "Discrimination permeates the criminal-justice system," says criminologist Coramae Richey Mann of Indiana University, and no celebrity trial or single piece of legislation will change that unfortunate fact.
