Racial Harmony in America: O.J. Did What?
Posted: September 25, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere | Tags: Appeal, Criminal justice, Michael Cherry, murder, Nevada District Courts, Nicole Brown Simpson, O. J. Simpson, Ronald Goldman, Supreme Court of Nevada 1 CommentSimpson was just a wealthy abuser who got away with murder
Janell Ross reports: Black and white Americans seem to agree on very little these days, if it has anything at all to do with race and the criminal justice system. But new data from a Washington Post-ABC News poll has identified an issue once regarded as a key barometer of America’s racial divide where that divide has been closed.
We’re talking, of course, about O.J. Simpson.
The share of Americans who believe that Simpson was “definitely” or “probably” guilty of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman is moving in the same direction across racial lines. A majority of both sides agree that he was at least “probably” guilty,” and never before have black and white Americans been closer to agreement.
Now to be clear, 20 years after the jury announced its June 1995 not-guilty verdict in Simpson’s criminal trial, white and black opinion on this matter remains pretty divided. A full 83 percent of white Americans said that they are “definitely” or “probably” sure of Simpson’s guilt. By contrast, 57 percent of black Americans agreed.
[Read the full story here, at The Washington Post]
But what’s noteworthy here is that both figures have reached an all-time high and are moving in the same direction, despite two successive summers in which questions of possible police misconduct and systemic racial disparities in the criminal justice system — issues very real in the Simpson case — have occupied the headlines.
The Washington Post‘s astute polling team points out that part of the change might well be driven by technical changes. The specific wording of the question about Simpson’s guilt changed just slightly over the course of the 21 years that The Post-ABC poll has queried Americans on this issue. Also, in 1997, a civil jury found Simpson liable for the deaths of Brown Simpson and Goldman. (Notice those 1997 uptick in the trend lines up above. Read the rest of this entry »
Apple Stands Up to The Feds: Formally Appeals eBooks Antitrust Ruling, Asks for Monitor to be Suspended
Posted: February 26, 2014 Filed under: Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Appeal, Apple, Competition law, Denise Cote, E-book, IBooks, United States Department of Justice Leave a commentApple has formally appealed the Department of Justice’s ebooks antitrust case, via the Associated Press. Previously, Apple has only officially complained about the power of the appointed monitor — now they are asking for the entire case to be re-evaluated.
Apple said that the ruling is a “radical departure” from modern antitrust law.
Apple claims it was ignorant of any inter-publisher price fixing and that Apple setup iBooks through legal arrangements without knowledge of any behind-the-scenes collusion.