O.J. Simpson's defense attorney expects him to get life
MIAMI (WSVN) -- O.J. Simpson's lawyer, Yale Galanter, said he expects a judge to order Simpson to spend the rest of his days in prison.
There has been speculation over how long Simpson will spend behind bars, and Judge Jackie Glass will make that decision Dec. 5. Galanter calls it a miscarriage of justice, but he said he and his client are resigned that no matter what they do, a life sentence is inevitable. "I hope that Judge Glass sentences him to the most minimal thing she can, but I'm just not hopeful that that's going to occur," Galanter said. "He'll probably be sentenced to life, yeah, I think he'll be sentenced to life, and then we'll do the appellate process, and we'll do what we have to do."
Monday morning, Galanter had just returned to Miami from Las Vegas, where Simpson is being held in prison, awaiting the sentencing phase of the trial. "I think Judge Glass is going to throw the book at him," Galanter said, "and I don't think there's a whole lot we can do to stop that."
As far as how Simpson feels about the likely chance for a lesser sentence, Galanter said his client is ready to accept the life sentence. "He's prepared," he said. "He's putting his full faith in the appellate system and the appellate process. That's really all he can do at this point."
During a news conference Sunday, jurors told the media how they came to the decision to convict Simpson on all counts. "We went first to all documentation that we had, video, tapes, voicemails," said Juror Michelle Lyons.
Galanter said the news conference only proved to highlight how unfairly the jurors considered the evidence. "There are two things about the juror conference last night. One is that they said they pretty much discounted all the witnesses," Galanter said, "and they relied on the tape, and that just belies common sense because the key witness who made over $200,000 for the tape, and the FBI said it couldn't be verified, so I think there were just some problems here, and hopefully the appellate court will be a lot more sympathetic than this jury was."
Galanter added the fact that O.J. Simpson happened to be the man on trial made it so his client could not even await sentencing at his home in Kendall, Florida. "If this was Joe Blow, he would have gotten pre-trial diversion, and he'd be back with his family now," Galanter said.
Kim Goldman, the sister of Ron Goldman, the man Simpson was accused of murdering along with Simpson's wife Nicole Brown Simpson more than a decade ago, appeared on several news shows calling Simpson's conviction delayed vindication for her family. "He got away with murder, and that's truly unfortunate, and it didn't stop him from getting away with other crimes, and this time he finally got caught," she said.
Galanter said he believes the jury in this case, which involved kidnapping and burglary charges of a sports memorabilia dealer at a Las Vegas hotel, came in with biases about Simpson's acquittal in the case of his wife and Goldman's murder. "A lot of people think the verdict 13 years ago as wrong. That it was a miscarriage of justice," he said, "and a lot of people think that this verdict was wrong. That's a miscarriage of justice. Two wrongs have never made a right."
Galanter said he speaks with Simpson everyday and said that Simpson's biggest concern now are his children.
It was always Simpson's biggest fear that his jury wouldn't listen to the evidence and convict him based on emotions from 13 years ago. Galanter said that Simpson's fears have now came to fruition but that this wasn't a surprise. In fact, Galanter admitted that hours before this verdict, based on the way things were going in court, he pulled his client aside and told him, "This is going to be a guilty verdict."
(Copyright 2008 by Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
