Spousal Killings

* Re Alan Dershowitz’s column, “Wives Also Kill Husbands--Quite Often,” Commentary, July 21:

This is yet another blatant attempt to manipulate public opinion and reject the facts in the O.J. Simpson case. Dershowitz complains in his article that the government and the media have manipulated the figures to show that wives are the primary victims in spousal murders. Dershowitz then does some fancy manipulation of his own to support his conclusion. He neglects to take into account that many women who kill their husbands do so only after years of physical battering.

What does this article have to do with the facts of the O.J. Simpson case? Nicole Brown was not Simpson’s wife. Indeed it was Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman who were brutally murdered, not O.J.

The facts will show if Simpson is innocent or guilty. Bring on the facts; let’s go where the facts lead. An innocent person has nothing to hide.

WALTER WEBER

Saugus

* I read with great interest the column by Dershowitz. Of course it would have been relevant if he had included in his statistics the percentage of women who kill their husbands in self-defense or after years of physical abuse, and the percentage of men who kill their wives for “like” reasons. This data could explain why some women get more lenient sentences, but, of course, it would not serve Dershowitz’s media goals.

The first thing I learned in college (in Boston) was that data can be easily manipulated. I see they’re still teaching that.

ILONA J. SAARI

Studio City