SIMPSON CASE INVADES MCVEIGH JURY SELECTION.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. The man on trial may be Timothy McVeigh Timothy James McVeigh (aka Oklahoma City bomber April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001), was a former American soldier who was convicted of eleven federal offenses and ultimately executed as a result of his role on the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing. , but it often seems like this is the third O.J. Simpson trial rather than the first Oklahoma City bombing See Terrorism "The Oklahoma City Bombing" (Sidebar); Venue "Venue and the Oklahoma City Bombing Case" (Sidebar). trial. During the first week of jury selection in the case, nearly every prospective juror juror n. any person who actually serves on a jury. Lists of potential jurors are chosen from various sources such as registered voters, automobile registration or telephone directories. was asked about the Simpson criminal and civil trials. The questions included how much they saw of the trial coverage and what they felt about the players and the verdicts. At one point, an attorney for McVeigh asked a jury candidate so many questions about the Simpson case that U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch snapped, ``We're not trying O.J. Simpson.'' And a jury questionnaire has at least three questions about the case, starting on Page 32 - Simpson's old football number. The Simpson case keeps coming up because it played such a big role in shaping people's feelings about the justice system, says William Pizzi, a former federal prosecutor who's now "Who's Now" was a daily series aired during SportsCenter throughout July 2007, in which viewers helped ESPN determine the ultimate sports star by considering both on-field success and off-field buzz. a professor at the University of Colorado University of Colorado may refer to:
``I think it was going to be a chance for people to see on television just how strong the system is,'' Pizzi said. ``It ended up being bitterly adversarial ad·ver·sar·i·al adj. Relating to or characteristic of an adversary; involving antagonistic elements: "the chasm between management and labor in this country, an often needlessly adversarial . . . , dragging out, a trial that seemed to have no focus and a jury that deliberated just a matter of hours. I suppose maybe they're trying to get a sense of whether (the Simpson trial) made the pool more cynical.'' All of McVeigh's jury candidates questioned about the Simpson case said they thought Simpson was guilty and that the criminal trial was a travesty. But they insisted they would not let that case sour their views of the courts in general or the prosecution of McVeigh in particular. ``This is our judicial system. It should be treated with respect,'' said juror No. 522, a retired Air Force man. Jurors in this trial, like those in Simpson's trials, are identified only by number. The judge in the McVeigh case has gone so far as to place the jury prospects behind a screen, out of the view of reporters. Despite claims by jurors that they won't let the Simpson case influence them, they still had strong opinions about that case - all negative. |
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