The juice is not loose.

O.J. Simpson will remain incarcerated after the Nevada Supreme Court refused to overturn his convictions. Simpson was sentenced to nine to 33 years stemming from charges of armed robbery, conspiracy and kidnapping after storming a Las Vegas hotel room and taking property at gunpoint, according to NPR.

The court concluded that all eight of Simpson’s robbery and kidnapping appeal arguments lacked validity and rejected them. Simpson, 63, will remain at Lovelock Correctional Center. Simpson’s attorney Yale Galanter was not surprised, though he was disappointed, NPR reports.

Interestingly, the court found that Simpson’s co-defendant Clarence “C.J.” Stewart did have a valid appeal. Stewart’s lawyers successfully argued that Simpson’s fame affected Stewart’s ability to receive a fair trial. The court reversed Stewart’s conviction and ordered him to stand for a new trial.

According to NPR, Simpson’s main argument related to how the jury was selected. Simpson’s attorneys unsuccessfully argued that prosecutors wrongfully rejected two jurors purely because they were black.

Impartial juries have been one of the central components of the American justice system since its inception and guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. Impartiality is guaranteed not only by the Sixth Amendment, but under the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment (and perhaps also the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment).

Specifically, the Sixth Amendment says: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.”

For O.J. Simpson, it was yet another disappointment in what has been a continually disappointing decade.

Related Resources:

  • Impartial Jury (FindLaw)
  • Dr. George Tiller Abortion Trial Jury Selection Begins: Kansas Criminal Late-Term Abortion Law Violated? (FindLaw’s Common Law)
  • Googling Potential Jurors: The Legal and Ethical Issues Arising from the Use of the Internet in Voir Dire (FindLaw)

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