June 12, 1994 is a date we will all remember for a long, long time
On a Sunday, June 12th, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered. Stabbed to death outside of her condo on Bundy Drive. Police suspected Orenthal James Simpson, Nicole's former husband and he promised to turn himself in on June 17, 1994. Instead he failed to appear and that led to the famed "slow-speed chase" in the white Bronco. Over 95 million people watched that chase on their televisions. Eventually, he was tried in what many call "the trial of the century" and he was acquitted. It was a trial that changed our culture and society in many ways, even though when all is said and done, it was just another case of rich person's justice.
Somehow in my mind, I transposed the events of Sunday, 6/12/94 with those of 6/10/94 in my life in a recent blog entry. I sit corrected.
So where are the main players in the drama that was the case of the People of California against Orenthal James Simpson?
O. J. is in prison in Nevada for multiple felony convictions and won't become eligible for parole until 2017 at the earliest. He continues to owe tens of millions of dollars to the family of Ron Goldman stemming from a civil suit. His NFL pension is exempt from being garnished for that judgment.
Lead prosecutor Marcia Clark is an author and occasionally does legal commentary for television networks.
Christopher Darden, Clark's co-counsel, is in private practice in Los Angeles. He has done television commentary on legal matters as well.
Robert Kardashian, O.J.'s friend and one of his attorneys, died in 2003.
Robert Shapiro continues to practice law, and is co-founder of the websites www.legalzoom.com and www.shoedazzle.com.
F. Lee Bailey has been disbarred by Florida and Massachusetts, and was denied admittance to the Maine State Bar Association.
Alan Dershowitz remained a professor of law at Harvard Law School until his retirement in 2013.
Johnnie Cochran, who became even more famous with the phrase "if it doesn't fit you must acquit" died in March of 2005. His law firm, The Cochran Law Firm continues to operate in Los Angeles.
Barry Scheck runs the Innocence Project and is a professor of law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City.
Mark Fuhrman pleaded no contest to one count of perjury for lying on the stand during the trial. He retired from the LAPD, and is now an author and occasional guest on Sean Hannity's TV show.
Bottom line here is that anyone who was more than a few years old in 1994 will always remember the O. J. Simpson murder trial.
* * *
Eileen DiNino lived in Reading, PA. She was 55 when she died in a Berks County jail cell this past Saturday. Why was she behind bars? Because she failed to pay over $2,000 in fines and court costs related to the truancy of some of her seven children.
That's right, she was sentenced to spend 48 hours behind bars to wipe out a debt of $2,000 for the truancy of her children and now she is dead. She's dead, but apparently debtor's prisons are alive and well in the United States.
In the state of Washington, when they read you your rights, they aren't being entirely accurate. Does this sound familiar? "You have the right to remain silent. If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult with an attorney before any questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you*, before questioning."
Well, most jurisdictions used to include the language "without any expense" where the asterisk is in that rights warning. It's no longer true in many places. California requires a $50 registration fee in order to get a public defender. Tack on another $30 if you need a payment plan for any fines and another $300 if you fail to pay your fine when due.
In Washington, if you're convicted of a felony, it's going to cost you whatever they fine you, plus whatever the time behind bars is, and then another $600 for reimbursement of court costs. $600 for each felony charge you're convicted of.
Fail to pay and you can wind up in the modern version of debtor's prison. This is just plain wrong. It is a de facto tax on the poorest members of our society. We shouldn't have debtor's prisons.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Today is the 90th birthday of the senior President Bush. He did a tandem parachute jump. One of the news reports about the jump said something about him no longer having the use of his legs. I had not heard that. I checked, and it turns out he uses a wheelchair or scooter due to a form of Parkinson's. Sad to hear that.
Charlie Sheen took one of his longtime friends, Tony Todd, to a birthday breakfast at Norm's. Wonder which one they went to, since the old one at Lincoln and Colorado is gone now.
JLo's appearance at the World Cup opening ran into a snag when the elevator lifting she and Pitbull to the stage froze below stage level. She was afraid to try to clamber up onto stage on the skyhigh heels she was wearing, but Pitbull gave her a hand up. You think they'd test these things and have contingency plans. Maybe next time she'll wear shorter heels.
I wonder who will win the pissing contest between Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and Donald Trump over a big "Trump" sign on the Donald's new building in Chi-town. I'm picking the mayor.
I happen to agree with the results of a recent taste test where Coca-Cola from Mexico competed against the U.S. version. The Mexican Coke won hands down. Cane sugar makes a better soft-drink than high-fructose corn syrup.
Kim Kardashian's new mansion will have a room solely dedicated to caring for her butt, filled with equipment for working it out and pampering it. That's...indulgent.
Kudos to LeBron James for his great business sense. He took a small share in a start-up in 2008 in return for promoting the product. Now he's earned $30 million from that deal, a deal to promote Beats Headphones. Smart guy.
* * *
June 13th in History:
1927 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh receives a ticker-tape parade down 5th Avenue in New York City.
1944 – World War II: German combat elements - reinforced by the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division - launch a counterattack on American forces near Carentan.
1944 – World War II: Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England. Only four of the eleven bombs actually hit their targets.
1952 – Catalina affair: A Swedish Douglas DC-3 is shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 fighter.
1955 – Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, is discovered.
1966 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
1969 – Governor of Texas Preston Smith signs a bill into law converting the former Southwest Center for Advanced Studies, originally founded as a research arm of Texas Instruments, into the University of Texas at Dallas.
1970 – "The Long and Winding Road" becomes The Beatles' last U.S. number one song.
1971 – Vietnam War: The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.
1977 – Convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison three days before.
1978 – Israeli Defense Forces withdraw from Lebanon.
1981 – At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager, Marcus Sarjeant, fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
1982 – Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid.
1982 – Riccardo Paletti, was killed when he crashed on the start grid for the Canadian Grand Prix
1983 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune (the furthest planet from the Sun at the time).
1994 – A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.
1996 – The Montana Freemen surrender after an 81-day standoff with FBI agents.
1997 – A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
1997 – Uphaar cinema fire, in New Delhi, India, killed 59 people, and over 100 people injured.
2000 – President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea meets Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, in the northern capital of Pyongyang.
2000 – Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.
2002 – The United States withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
2002 – Two 14-year-old South Korean girls are struck and killed by a United States Army armored vehicle, leading to months of public protests against the U.S.
2005 – A jury in Santa Maria, California acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.
2007 – The Al Askari Mosque is bombed for a second time.
2010 – A capsule of the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, containing particles of the asteroid 25143 Itokawa, returns to Earth.
2012 – A series of bombings across Iraq, including Baghdad, Hillah and Kirkuk, kills at least 93 people and wounds over 300 others.
Famous Folk Born on June 13th:
Charles the Bald
Charles the Fat
Winfield Scott
Frances Burney
W. B. Yeats
Basil Rathbone
Paavo Nurmi
Red Grange
Ralph Edwards
Don Budge
Helmut Lent (shot down 102 Allied aircraft during WWII, one of only 27 recipients of the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. I hate him for being a Nazi but I can still admire his military achievements)
Paul Lynde
John Forbes Nash, Jr.
Ralph McQuarrie
Joe Roth
Stellan Skarsgard
Tim Allen
Ally Sheedy
Hannah Storm
Paul De Lisle
Laura Kightlinger
Leeann Tweeden
Steve-O
Jennifer Nicole Lee
Chris Evans
Kat Dennings
Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen
Somehow in my mind, I transposed the events of Sunday, 6/12/94 with those of 6/10/94 in my life in a recent blog entry. I sit corrected.
So where are the main players in the drama that was the case of the People of California against Orenthal James Simpson?
O. J. is in prison in Nevada for multiple felony convictions and won't become eligible for parole until 2017 at the earliest. He continues to owe tens of millions of dollars to the family of Ron Goldman stemming from a civil suit. His NFL pension is exempt from being garnished for that judgment.
Lead prosecutor Marcia Clark is an author and occasionally does legal commentary for television networks.
Christopher Darden, Clark's co-counsel, is in private practice in Los Angeles. He has done television commentary on legal matters as well.
Robert Kardashian, O.J.'s friend and one of his attorneys, died in 2003.
Robert Shapiro continues to practice law, and is co-founder of the websites www.legalzoom.com and www.shoedazzle.com.
F. Lee Bailey has been disbarred by Florida and Massachusetts, and was denied admittance to the Maine State Bar Association.
Alan Dershowitz remained a professor of law at Harvard Law School until his retirement in 2013.
Johnnie Cochran, who became even more famous with the phrase "if it doesn't fit you must acquit" died in March of 2005. His law firm, The Cochran Law Firm continues to operate in Los Angeles.
Barry Scheck runs the Innocence Project and is a professor of law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City.
Mark Fuhrman pleaded no contest to one count of perjury for lying on the stand during the trial. He retired from the LAPD, and is now an author and occasional guest on Sean Hannity's TV show.
Bottom line here is that anyone who was more than a few years old in 1994 will always remember the O. J. Simpson murder trial.
* * *
Eileen DiNino lived in Reading, PA. She was 55 when she died in a Berks County jail cell this past Saturday. Why was she behind bars? Because she failed to pay over $2,000 in fines and court costs related to the truancy of some of her seven children.
That's right, she was sentenced to spend 48 hours behind bars to wipe out a debt of $2,000 for the truancy of her children and now she is dead. She's dead, but apparently debtor's prisons are alive and well in the United States.
In the state of Washington, when they read you your rights, they aren't being entirely accurate. Does this sound familiar? "You have the right to remain silent. If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult with an attorney before any questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you*, before questioning."
Well, most jurisdictions used to include the language "without any expense" where the asterisk is in that rights warning. It's no longer true in many places. California requires a $50 registration fee in order to get a public defender. Tack on another $30 if you need a payment plan for any fines and another $300 if you fail to pay your fine when due.
In Washington, if you're convicted of a felony, it's going to cost you whatever they fine you, plus whatever the time behind bars is, and then another $600 for reimbursement of court costs. $600 for each felony charge you're convicted of.
Fail to pay and you can wind up in the modern version of debtor's prison. This is just plain wrong. It is a de facto tax on the poorest members of our society. We shouldn't have debtor's prisons.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Today is the 90th birthday of the senior President Bush. He did a tandem parachute jump. One of the news reports about the jump said something about him no longer having the use of his legs. I had not heard that. I checked, and it turns out he uses a wheelchair or scooter due to a form of Parkinson's. Sad to hear that.
Charlie Sheen took one of his longtime friends, Tony Todd, to a birthday breakfast at Norm's. Wonder which one they went to, since the old one at Lincoln and Colorado is gone now.
JLo's appearance at the World Cup opening ran into a snag when the elevator lifting she and Pitbull to the stage froze below stage level. She was afraid to try to clamber up onto stage on the skyhigh heels she was wearing, but Pitbull gave her a hand up. You think they'd test these things and have contingency plans. Maybe next time she'll wear shorter heels.
I wonder who will win the pissing contest between Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and Donald Trump over a big "Trump" sign on the Donald's new building in Chi-town. I'm picking the mayor.
I happen to agree with the results of a recent taste test where Coca-Cola from Mexico competed against the U.S. version. The Mexican Coke won hands down. Cane sugar makes a better soft-drink than high-fructose corn syrup.
Kim Kardashian's new mansion will have a room solely dedicated to caring for her butt, filled with equipment for working it out and pampering it. That's...indulgent.
Kudos to LeBron James for his great business sense. He took a small share in a start-up in 2008 in return for promoting the product. Now he's earned $30 million from that deal, a deal to promote Beats Headphones. Smart guy.
* * *
June 13th in History:
313 – The Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the
Great and co-emperor Valerius Licinius granting religious freedom throughout
the Roman Empire, is posted in Nicomedia.
1373 – Anglo-Portuguese Alliance between England
(succeeded by the United Kingdom) and Portugal is the oldest alliance in the
world which is still in force.
1381 – The Peasants Revolt led by Wat Tyler
culminated in the burning of the Savoy Palace.
1525 – Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora,
against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and
nuns.
1625 – King Charles I of England marries Henrietta
Maria of France, Princess of France
1740 – Georgia provincial governor James Oglethorpe
begins an unsuccessful attempt to take Spanish Florida during the Siege of St.
Augustine.
1774 – Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's
North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: Marquis de Lafayette
lands near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental
Congress to train its army.
1805 – Lewis and Clark Expedition: scouting ahead of
the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the Great Falls of
the Missouri River.
1881 – The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic
Ocean ice pack.
1886 – A fire devastates much of Vancouver, British
Columbia.
1886 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria is found dead in
Lake Starnberg south of Munich at 11:30 PM.
1893 – Grover Cleveland notices a rough spot in his
mouth and on July 1 undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large,
cancerous portion of his jaw; the operation was not revealed to the public
until 1917, nine years after the president's death.
1898 – Yukon Territory is formed, with Dawson chosen
as its capital.
1910 – The University of the Philippines College of
Engineering is established. This unit of the university is said to be the
largest degree granting unit in the Philippines.
1917 – World War I: The deadliest German air raid on
London during World War I is carried out by Gotha G bombers and results in 162
deaths, including 46 children, and 432 injuries.1927 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh receives a ticker-tape parade down 5th Avenue in New York City.
1944 – World War II: German combat elements - reinforced by the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division - launch a counterattack on American forces near Carentan.
1944 – World War II: Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England. Only four of the eleven bombs actually hit their targets.
1952 – Catalina affair: A Swedish Douglas DC-3 is shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 fighter.
1955 – Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, is discovered.
1966 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
1969 – Governor of Texas Preston Smith signs a bill into law converting the former Southwest Center for Advanced Studies, originally founded as a research arm of Texas Instruments, into the University of Texas at Dallas.
1970 – "The Long and Winding Road" becomes The Beatles' last U.S. number one song.
1971 – Vietnam War: The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.
1977 – Convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison three days before.
1978 – Israeli Defense Forces withdraw from Lebanon.
1981 – At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager, Marcus Sarjeant, fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
1982 – Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid.
1982 – Riccardo Paletti, was killed when he crashed on the start grid for the Canadian Grand Prix
1983 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune (the furthest planet from the Sun at the time).
1994 – A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.
1996 – The Montana Freemen surrender after an 81-day standoff with FBI agents.
1997 – A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
1997 – Uphaar cinema fire, in New Delhi, India, killed 59 people, and over 100 people injured.
2000 – President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea meets Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, in the northern capital of Pyongyang.
2000 – Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.
2002 – The United States withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
2002 – Two 14-year-old South Korean girls are struck and killed by a United States Army armored vehicle, leading to months of public protests against the U.S.
2005 – A jury in Santa Maria, California acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.
2007 – The Al Askari Mosque is bombed for a second time.
2010 – A capsule of the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, containing particles of the asteroid 25143 Itokawa, returns to Earth.
2012 – A series of bombings across Iraq, including Baghdad, Hillah and Kirkuk, kills at least 93 people and wounds over 300 others.
Famous Folk Born on June 13th:
Charles the Bald
Charles the Fat
Winfield Scott
Frances Burney
W. B. Yeats
Basil Rathbone
Paavo Nurmi
Red Grange
Ralph Edwards
Don Budge
Helmut Lent (shot down 102 Allied aircraft during WWII, one of only 27 recipients of the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. I hate him for being a Nazi but I can still admire his military achievements)
Paul Lynde
John Forbes Nash, Jr.
Ralph McQuarrie
Joe Roth
Stellan Skarsgard
Tim Allen
Ally Sheedy
Hannah Storm
Paul De Lisle
Laura Kightlinger
Leeann Tweeden
Steve-O
Jennifer Nicole Lee
Chris Evans
Kat Dennings
Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen
posted by me at 1:47 PM
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