Watching the Simpson hearing on TV is not advised for people whose nervous systems can’t tolerate heavy doses of carping, quibbling, bickering and nit-picking.
It causes stress and confusion, especially in those who are not lawyers and believe that they possess common sense.
The purpose of the hearing appears simple enough: to determine if there is sufficient evidence for O.J. Simpson to stand trial for the murders of his ex-wife and a restaurant waiter.
But the hearing surprisingly has turned into something else. It appears to be a mini-trial in which Los Angeles homicide detectives are accused of being liars, perjurers, sneaks, intruders and bumbling incompetents.
After a couple of days of this, a viewer might wonder who the suspected fiends really are, O.J. Simpson or the cops?
That’s because O.J. Simpson’s lawyers are trying to prove that the cops cheated and didn’t follow the rules in the way they gathered much of their evidence against Simpson.
Which is a clever thing for the lawyers to do. If they succeed, potentially damaging evidence could be tossed out.
And if that happens, Simpson could be found innocent even if he truly is a foul murderer.
If that doesn’t seem logical to you, it just proves that you aren’t a high-priced defense lawyer like Robert Shapiro.
Shapiro has a wonderful gift for looking and sounding indignant.
On Wednesday, he sounded indignant because the detectives hadn’t kept itemized written records of just about everything they saw, said, heard or maybe smelled while they were ringing O.J. Simpson’s doorbell a few hours after the murders.
He seemed irate because the cops made notes on plain paper rather than on some official forms.
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There were moments when a viewer might have wondered whether this was an accounting or secretarial course or a hearing on two shockingly brutal murders.
The very fact that the detectives went to Simpson’s house in the first place seemed to offend Shapiro. They said they went there to tell him that his ex-wife had been murdered, his children had lost their mother, and once there they became concerned that he or someone else might have been harmed. Shapiro suggested that they wouldn’t have gone there if he hadn’t been a celebrity.
Well, maybe Shapiro is right. On the other hand, if Simpson wasn’t a wealthy celebrity, if he was merely a penniless, unknown creep accused of murder, would Shapiro and his high-priced legal team be in there defending him? Let us laugh.
Shapiro says the cops really went there for the dirty, devious purpose of finding clues and evidence and trying to solve the two murders.
That wouldn’t surprise me one bit. In fact, if the cops didn’t have their eyes peeled for clues and evidence, they should turn in their badges.
To hear Shapiro, you would almost think that the cops kicked down the gates of Simpson’s estate, smashed in his front door, dragged him from his bed and whipped a confession out of him.
Actually, a murder suspect has never been treated more gently.
When Simpson was invited to turn himself in-a courtesy that isn’t extended to most accused killers-he went on the lam and cruised around L.A., bleating that he might kill himself. Instead of shooting at him or running him off the road, the police just tagged along until he calmed down. Then they gave him some orange juice and took him away. John Dillinger should have had it so good.
Shapiro said that the cops violated constitutional rights when they entered his estate and rang his front doorbell. He said they didn’t follow proper police and legal procedures.
Maybe or maybe not. But I suspect that what bothers Shapiro most is that the cops did too good a job of being cops.
It appears that they found a great deal of incriminating evidence on Simpson’s estate, including the now-famous bloody glove.
If the scientific tests link the blood to the murder victims, Simpson could be up to his ears in trouble.
The cops also established that Simpson’s early alibi-he was home waiting for a limo when the murders took place-appears to be a lot of hooey. He could have been anywhere when the murders took place, including the scene of the murder.
And I’m sure it bothered Shapiro that the two homicide cops who testified were not a couple of clumsy, bumbling, mumble-mouthed louts, but sounded like very intelligent, competent and alert detectives.
Just the kind of detectives who can persuade a jury and make a suave defense lawyer sweat.
And that, more than any deep love of law and order, is what gave Shapiro fits.
Let him sweat.