VENTURA : Law Panelists Dissect Simpson Murder Trial

A prominent Ventura defense attorney, taking part in a forum Saturday on criminal trials, predicted that former football great O.J. Simpson will get a “jury pardon” and not be convicted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend.

Louis (Chuck) Samonsky, one of four speakers at the Ventura County Bar Assn. event, said the evidence points overwhelmingly to Simpson’s guilt but that will not make a difference.

“Jurors will not convict somebody they don’t want to convict,” declared Samonsky, citing Simpson’s popularity in central Los Angeles, where the case is being tried.

Other panelists--including a public defender, prosecutor and retired judge--agreed that in many ways the Simpson case is atypical of most criminal trials.

But Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald C. Janes said there are plenty of lessons to be learned from the so-called case of the century nonetheless. Janes said the case has exposed a number of areas where the criminal justice system needs to be reformed, including the proposed implementation of non-unanimous juries.

The Simpson case seems like “a big circus,” Janes said. But he added, “I think it’s more than that. It’s a call to action.”

But the final two panelists--county Public Defender Kenneth I. Clayman and retired Superior Court Judge James McNally--cautioned against making hasty reforms in the legal system because of perceived inefficiencies in the Simpson trial.

“I hope the public sees this as an aberration, sees this as theater and will not change the law” because of it, McNally said. McNally also said the Simpson case suffers from an “appalling lack of basic lawyering and an enormous [defense] reliance on the race card.”

Clayman, who oversees the county’s 40 public defenders, also warned against making constitutional changes in the justice system because of the Simpson case. “I hope it will not be a springboard for reform of the jury system,” he said.

In fact, Clayman said prosecutors have won a majority of the judicial rulings in the Simpson trial--a sign, he said, that the justice system is not tilted in favor of criminal defendants.

The forum was held at the Ventura College of Law.