Zacarias Moussaoui's Sentence

I've been waiting for someone to bring up OJ's name.

A Fox News military analyst Thursday (May 4, 2006) reacted to the life sentence for by calling for an end to the American constitutional right to a trial by a jury of one's peers and substitution of "professional juries" to handle criminal cases.

David Hunt, a retired U.S. Army colonel who appears regularly on Fox News, said on "Dayside" said that the jurors in the case "missed it" because they failed to give Moussaoui the death penalty because of his role in the 9/11 tragedy.

"I think it's time to get professional jurors. We've had O.J. SImpson, this guy, and others," Hunt said, adding that he understands the legal issues involved.

Hunt may "understand" on some level the constitutional issue of the right to a trial by a jury of one's peers, but he certainly does not appreciate the importance of having a jury that is separate from the government that is doing the prosecuting. His comment makes one wonder exactly what American freedoms he thought he was protecting during his years in the U.S. Army.

It had to happen because OJ really did it.

Did he? I really have no tangible reason to believe so, but suspect its quite possible. Its a gut feeling more than anything.

However. And this is a huge however. I was recuperating from major surgery at the time the OJ trial was held and watched every single second of it (except for the 2-3 minute bathroom breaks). If I had been a juror, I would not have found OJ guilty based on all the testimony offered. The state did not prove him guilty. Period.

If you're gonna believe in the rule of law and the Constitution, you have to believe in juries.