Final Round of Simpson Jury Selection Launched

Warily questioning prospective jurors on emotionally charged topics such as racism and spousal abuse, lawyers launched the final round of jury selection in the O.J. Simpson civil trial Tuesday, seeking to cull a panel from a pool of 102 candidates.

Nearly all of the first 14 candidates to face questions had brushed up against some of the volatile issues running through the case. A flight attendant said she donated hotel shampoo samples to a battered women’s shelter; a park ranger described watching an abusive boyfriend beat her mother for years. A postal worker said she was once arrested for swearing at a police officer; a nurse acknowledged he had heard talk of Los Angeles police treating blacks more aggressively than whites.

During one pointed exchange, lead plaintiff attorney Daniel M. Petrocelli asked a young black woman whether Simpson’s color could have affected his treatment by police after the slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman.

“[Race] could be a problem for some people,” she answered. “You know.” Then she paused. She looked up at Petrocelli, who is white. And she amended her answer. “You don’t know,” she concluded.

Other potential jurors expressed bewilderment and some frustration at how race came to dominate a homicide trial. “The media and the people talking, they make it into a racial thing,” one black woman said. “It’s a bad thing, but it’s happening.”

Despite their sense that the Simpson case had pitted blacks against whites, all the jury candidates interviewed Tuesday promised that they would not be influenced by racial politics or social pressures. “My job would be to judge this case, not worry about what the nation would think of it,” said one woman, a white store manager who looked to be in her 30s.

The 12 panelists interviewed in detail--two of the potential jurors were dismissed after private conferences with the judge and attorneys--were about evenly divided between black and white people. Four of them had indicated Simpson was “probably guilty” during earlier questioning, and the remainder had insisted they had no opinion, although one woman had said she “prayed he didn’t do it.”

The candidates included two postal workers, a stage manager of a nonprofit theater and a former court clerk who now helps her father run a homeless shelter. Several mentioned their advanced education: one woman said she was pursuing a master’s degree in psychology, another said she had taught in nursing school, and a few said they had graduated from college, including a man who studied mathematics and another with a degree in chemistry.

The plaintiffs have long said they are looking for well-educated jurors with analytical minds and an ability to grasp the science behind DNA technology. The criminal trial jury that acquitted Simpson included just two college graduates.

Simpson--who limped into the Santa Monica courtroom favoring one leg--did not attempt to make eye contact with the jury prospects, although he did glance at one woman who proclaimed that she did not consider him a celebrity despite his Hall of Fame football statistics and his film and television credits. Looking relaxed and cheerful in his first court appearance in weeks, Simpson chatted with reporters during lulls in the proceedings until a bailiff admonished him not to consort with the press while jurors were watching.

Fred Goldman, whose lawsuit attempts to hold Simpson responsible for the murder of his son, also watched the day’s proceedings. His daughter, Kim, came to the morning session. The Brown family has not attended any of the court sessions so far.