PERSPECTIVES ON THE SIMPSON TRIAL : A Walk On the Bright Side : Despite the naysayers and long, anguish-filled deliberations, the Simpson jury will do the right thing in the end.

There has been a rush to judgment in the O.J. Simpson case, not to judge O.J. Simpson, but rather to judge the O.J. Simpson jury. The “experts” tried and convicted this jury within a few days of its selection.

These jurors have been patronized, judged incapable of understanding well-explained scientific evidence and held to be susceptible to racial bias. It is not even open to discussion that they will not produce a verdict. All of these conclusions have been rendered before these 12 oppressed people even start their deliberations.

As a veteran of more than 300 civil and criminal jury trials, I predict it will be a surprise to these so-called experts when we all hear the actual post-trial explanations by the jurors themselves. Only then will we hear that a strong majority of them cut through all of the extraneous nonsense very quickly and concluded that Simpson was guilty despite evidence that the police investigation was flawed and was in one instance conducted by a bigoted officer who lied.

Some jurors will hold out for a while because of their strongly held (and valid) convictions that some of the Los Angeles police are out-of-control racists. Some of these holdouts are surely going to be black, which will be seized upon to prove that black people can’t fairly judge other black people. This will be said despite an almost 90% conviction rate of black defendants in Los Angeles by black jurors.

A few jurors will want to send a message to the police. Not a bad idea. This jury will surely discuss the Rodney King jury in Simi Valley and not want to repeat its performance. Cooler heads will finally prevail with logic: Two people were brutally murdered. The evidence of Simpson’s guilt is overwhelming. The idea of letting a murderer go free will finally persuade the holdouts to forgo the message and convict the killer.

I say this despite the first King trial where a white jury misfired, but this is a murder case and this jury will not buy into the defense that some massive conspiracy was conceived and executed on the spur of that tragic moment. The crime was too vicious and the defendant too prominent for a Fuhrman to recruit the necessary allies and to procure that rare glove. No, that defense is simply too bizarre to fly.

After a long, uncertain period of anguish, we will see a guilty verdict that this community can live with and accept. Certainly it will be a verdict that reflects our variegated democracy in action. Jury service is the only participatory democracy left in the United States.

Nobody said that democracy, jurors or scientists need be perfect. When a pupil gets 92% in school, we give him an A, but he still missed 8%.

Is it possible that this jury will make a mistake like the one made by that largely white jury in Simi? Yes, it is possible, but even if it does stumble, we should look upon this jury charitably. Many of these jurors have either been on the front lines, where police hatred and bigotry shows in constant disrespect or oppression. If these jurors seize the opportunity to strike back, well, that, too, is democracy. We should marvel at the high rate of fairness that these panels of 12 people have shown over the centuries.

Right or wrong, we should respect this jury’s sacrifice and its commitment. Let us accept the fiery arguments they will make for their own beliefs, right or wrong. Such passion is rare in a job that pays only $5 a day.