Quote from ges:
Wrong! "Not guilty" is not at all the same thing as 'innocent'. The court doesn't find you 'innocent'. And no matter what the idiotic jury decided, it was clear to any rational human mind that OJ was guilty.
g
Well since I tried to get you on a technicality, a dirty trick since I knew what you meant, I will concede.
Now, of course, I must ask you what the opposite of guilty is and whether or not by finding someone 'not guilty' you are implying that they possess this opposite property. Keep in mind the law's usage of language here because it is by design that they do not proclaim innocence. It is one thing to arrest someone, charge them, charge them*, and try them and say, "alright - you are not guilty." Politically speaking this is better than, "oops, you are innocent - our bad."
*charge them = lawyer fees, time out of work (oh, yeah but if you don't want to pay we'll give you an attorney! chuckle..chuckle)
But yes, I agree OJ is most likely not innocent. But then again, who is? Surely his crimes weren't the most horrific ever committed. Lots of folks get away with murder and probably even more get convicted without ever having actually committed a crime. Above all though, I think OJ's case was one for the ages. In the plain view of an attentive nation a man was found 'not guilty' for two reasons, (1) bungling officers of the law & (2) the possession of enough capital to take advantage of this bungling. And what did this attentive nation learn from this display? Not much. It seems most people are content with arguing whether OJ was actually innocent or guilty, whether the jury was stupid or dutiful, whether or not Marsha Clark deserves a good bang in the ass...
all very substantive and worthwhile debates to be sure.
"...and the home..of the...blind..."
play ball,
RLB