Judge’s Gag Order in Simpson Case

I was astonished to read your editorial “Fair, but Also Open” (Aug. 31), which admonishes Judge Lance Ito for proposing a gag order on anyone connected with the O.J. Simpson case that would prevent them from discussing it outside court. The Times is against this? Amazing.

If any case has ever needed a gag order to ensure a fair and open trial, it’s the Simpson case. Outside of court, we have seen a media feeding frenzy resulting in rumors reported as fact, monies paid out to witnesses for television interviews and unrelenting coverage commented on by an untold number of “experts,” who seem more intent on promoting themselves than finding out the truth.

The Times is as much a part of this media assault as the “tabloid press” you attempt to distance yourself from.

By issuing a gag order, Ito is forcing the media to focus attention on the facts of the case as presented in court. What could be fairer than that? By issuing a gag order to keep evidence under seal before it is presented in court, he is ensuring that the relevance and context of the evidence is maintained. What could be more open than that?

Frankly, I believe that The Times should get its priorities straight. The only newsworthy testimony by anybody in this case is that which is given in court. Any interviews of participants outside of court, by members of the sound-bite headline-seeking media can only serve to hurt Simpson’s chance to get a fair trial.

CHRISTOPHER WARD

Los Angeles

* With each new pitiful, desperate and silly motion it files, the Simpson defense team is doing a consummate job of convincing much of the public, the amorphous jury pool, that Simpson is indeed guilty. Even those who may have initially believed in his possible innocence are not likely to be fooled by Robert Shapiro’s daily dose of mean-spirited dissemblance. The case is also exposing, for all to see, the pathetic absence of morality that characterizes the criminal lawyers, their strategies and their defendants in high-profile cases of celebrities.

PATRICIA McCARTHY

Burbank

* Our society must be going mad. Within two minutes of listening to radio news recently, I heard that the judge is considering spending $30,000 a day to sequester the jurors in the Simpson case for perhaps six months or more. Following that was information that bus fare will be raised to $1.35. Hard-working people will have to pay more to get to work while taxpayers, including the same hard-working people, spend $30,000 per day to make sure one person gets a fair trial. Whatever happened to common sense and rational thinking?

FRANCES R. HOWELL

Los Angeles