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From the perspective of public opinion, the biggest loser in the trial of People v. O.J. Simpson' was not the prosecution. It was not Judge Ito. It was the jury.
A survey recently done in a judicial district in Los Angeles asked respondents to rate the performance of the various participants in the OJ. Simpson trial.2 The pool surveyed was very conservative. They identified themselves as 55% Republican; 59% "conservative," and 15% "very conservative."3 When asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement that California should make convicted criminals do manual labor in chain-gangs, 74% expressed agreement.4
This is how those survey respondents rated the performance of the Simpson trial participants: Judge Ito, 70% good or excellent; Marcia Clark, 79% good or excellent; Johnny Cochran, 58% good or excellent; the jury, 30% good or excellent.5
These results demonstrate the perils befalling a jury that follows instructions. Following instructions has always been a perilous venture for a jury. There is an honorable and long tradition of jury-bashing in American history. A dramatic example dates back to 1882 in Cincinnati.6 When a young stablehand who was put on trial for strangling his boss was found guilty of manslaughter instead of murder, there was a huge demonstration. A large crowd went to the music hall, where the judge of the Superior Court for that county in Ohio exhorted the assembled throng to drive from the community the jury that had returned that unpopular verdict, as well as the defense lawyer who had asked for it. The crowd then went to the jail, where they sought to lynch the defendant. They were driven away and then proceeded to burn down the courthouse. Then occurred a Cincinnati riot in which forty-five people were killed.
A subsequent grand jury investigation looked into the incident, and the grand jury concluded the real fault did not lay with the judge who exhorted the crowd, or with the newspapers that fanned the excitement. The real problem lay with the jury that returned a reprehensible verdict, and with the defense lawyer who argued for it. A young assistant prosecutor then led an unsuccessful effort to get that lawyer disbarred.
Incidentally, the name of that defense lawyer was Tom Campbell, and those riots in Cincinnati...