Racial Bias on Juries

Don Moery’s letter (Jan. 31) states, regarding the O.J. Simpson verdict, that “the court of public opinion is righting a wrong perpetrated by a flawed judicial system.” Let Moery reflect on the days when the “court of public opinion” lynched black men and burned white women at the stake.

It was my understanding that in America one was innocent until proven guilty. Simpson was acquitted by our jury system, therefore, he cannot be guilty. Get off his back and get a life.

I am a Caucasian woman who has experienced domestic violence. I do not condemn Simpson to the leper colony for his sad marriage.

Wake up, white and black America; the true name of this so-called public opinion is jealousy of a golden man who tripped but has not fallen.

JUNE O. HOUG

Monterey Park

* I find it fascinating that people in Southern California have suddenly noticed that racial bias is inherent in the United States justice system. The only thing that confuses me is that your letter writers seem to think that it only exists in the mind of black jurors (Jan. 31).

I must have missed the statistics on how many white-dominant juries acquit white defendants, especially when the victim is black, or the trial is in the South (see Medgar Evers). I suppose that, oh, let’s say the Simi Valley verdict (you know the one) merely reaffirmed their beliefs that groups of white people are far more fair-minded and impartial jurors than their minority counterparts. You are fooling yourself if you think justice has ever been colorblind; the color you see seems to reflect the color you have, black, white, or other.

ROBYN ROGERS

Irvine

* The Constitution has indeed been warped when a defendant in a double murder case can refuse to testify in a court of law and then months later plead his case on television. No defendant should have the right to refuse to testify and later create a video designed purely for profit. Certainly this is not what our Founding Fathers intended when they authored the 5th Amendment.

The very rights designed to protect defendants are allowing Simpson to exploit the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

ANGELA DOUGHERTY

Los Angeles