LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – For a moment it seemed that it had never gone away, and that America’s most notorious criminal trial had emerged from a time warp to confound and divide the country once again. OJ Simpson was back, and with him came a numbingly familiar circus of publicity-grabbing lawyers, pneumatic blonde girlfriends and slavering media pursuers.
There was even a car chase of sorts, mimicking Simpson’s celebrated flight in a white Ford Bronco along the freeways of Los Angeles as police sought to arrest him for double murder in 1994.
This time Simpson, now 60, was in a grey Dodge Avenger and the television helicopters were pursuing him away from jail, not towards it. His release from custody in Las Vegas after an armed confrontation in a casino hotel room has not only stirred a media and internet frenzy; it is forcing Americans to relive one of their most painful and divisive legal fiascos.
Twelve years after a majority black Los Angeles jury dumb-founded much of white America by clearing Simpson of charges that he murdered Nicole Brown, his ex-wife, and Ron Goldman, her friend, the former American football star is once again facing serious charges including kidnapping, conspiracy and robbery with the use of a deadly weapon.
