People vs. O.J. Simpson? Not According to the Evidence

It’s after 11 o’clock here in the office on Friday night, and I’m almost afraid to go home. Surely, we have time before midnight for one more bizarre twist in the O.J. Simpson saga. Surely there must be one more emotion that hasn’t been tapped before this most unforgettable Friday finally slips away from us.

How many feelings can be tapped from one story?

You wanted shock? How about the LAPD announcing that O.J. was on the lam?

You wanted sinking despair? How about the nagging feeling that Simpson was going off to kill himself?

Anger? How about L.A. Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti ripping a judicial system that glossed over Simpson’s spousal abuse history?

Pathos? How about Simpson’s friend reading what sounded like O.J.’s suicide note?

Incredulity? How about freeway standees cheering and waving to O.J. as he passed by with police in pursuit, as if No. 32 were eluding tacklers at the Coliseum?

Anxiety? How about the ever-present danger during the surrealistic freeway crawl that Simpson would either shoot himself or that law enforcement would force a conclusion that would end in his death? And as darkness fell, weren’t you praying for relief? Luckily, we got it when O.J. surrendered peacefully.

Yes, easily identifiable emotions bubbled up all day long.

But the thought that recurred in my mind most often as the day unwound was the death penalty.

Strange, huh? I’d been thinking about it much of the week, after it became clear Simpson was the only real suspect in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman. And I was thinking even more about it as Californians reacted to Simpson’s day on the lam.

I may be wrong in imputing too many of my feelings to the general public, but wasn’t there an overwhelming sense that we wanted O.J. to survive the day? Wasn’t there a palpable pathetic sadness to his flight to avoid prosecution--a hapless flight that went around in circles at 40 miles an hour on empty freeways as a reportedly numbed O.J. sat in the back seat and watched his world go by? Wasn’t there the feeling that, even mindful of what crimes he may have committed, we didn’t want O.J.’s life to end with a bullet in his head?

And, finally, wasn’t there that great rush of exhilaration when we knew O.J. wouldn’t die on Friday? Why was that? Doesn’t it translate to our deeply held feelings about the redemptive possibilities of life?

If you shared those feelings about O.J., how would you feel about the State of California executing him? If the polls are correct, many people who cheered O.J.’s safety on Friday support executions. Were they rooting for a nonviolent end to Friday’s insanity just so O.J. Simpson could go to trial and, if found guilty, be executed?

I know I’m getting ahead of myself. Prosecutors haven’t said whether they’d seek the death penalty. Furthermore, Simpson hasn’t entered a plea, been tried or convicted.

But I’m not stretching that far. Prosecutors have said the case at least qualifies for death-penalty consideration. If they believe their case is strong, we must consider the possibility that Simpson could be convicted.

Would you vote to send O.J. Simpson to the gas chamber? Can you picture him in the chair?

If not, why not? If you support it for anonymous men in Florida or Arkansas or Georgia or California, why not for O.J. too?

If the charges are true, he would be a double killer who apparently was trying to get away with his crime. How can you describe the crimes as anything but heinous, especially considering his children are left without their mother? How can anyone not be sickened by imagining the deaths of the former Mrs. Simpson and Goldman?

All the ingredients would be there. . . .

And yet does that square with what you were thinking as you watched the events Friday? Did you want him brought in alive so he could get his just deserts in the gas chamber, or were you hoping that he wouldn’t kill himself so he could salvage something of himself, even if it meant being behind bars for the rest of his life?

Maybe this is too heavy for a Friday night that has now passed midnight.

I hope it’s clear this isn’t a column about O.J. Simpson’s guilt or innocence. It’s a column about how you and I feel-- really feel--about the death penalty.

Maybe I’m all wrong, but I didn’t sense any bloodlust for O.J.’s hide during this long, long Friday. I sensed a public sorrow for two young people who died, and a different kind of sorrow for O.J. Simpson.

I didn’t sense a public that--at least on that day and for that man--favors the death penalty as much as it says it does.

When all was said and done, and when Friday had ended with no one else dead, I sensed a relieved public that favored life over death for someone who may have killed.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.