I'm kind of surprised at the ruling.
From the LVRJ:
The Review-Journal has learned that Judge Linda Bell rejected the notorious former football player’s contention that his trial lawyer in his 2007 robbery case, Yale Galanter, was ineffective, had financial and legal conflicts and misadvised the 66-year-old inmate.
Bell’s ruling comes six months after a week-long hearing where Simpson testified Galanter told him he could legally take his property back and would represent him for free.
Simpson is in the midst of serving a nine- to 33-year prison term after he was convicted of 10 charges for robbing two men of sports memorabilia in September 2007. He argued he was simply recovering his own property, including photographs, when he went to the Palace Station hotel room.
In a 100 page decision, Bell said “All grounds in the petition lack merit and, consequently are denied.”
Bell ruled, Simpson “failed to demonstrate that counsel experienced an actual conflict of interest that substantially impacted counsel’s performance at trial … that the State withheld exculpatory evidence … that appellate and trial counsel were ineffective or that any deficient performance by counsel resulted in prejudice,” the ruling stated.
In her ruling, Bell said the evidence was overwhelming against Simpson and there was no indication that it was close verdict.
“Mr. Simpson has failed to pinpoint significant errors that either alone or combined would have changed the outcome of his case,” Bell said. http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/oj-simpson-denied-new-trial-2007-robbery-case
I thought the judge would rule that Simpson would get a new trial- I thought she was a judge who wanted to be celebrity judge. The reason why I thought that was the hearing she had should never have happened as he had no case and the judge seemed sympathetic to Simpson.
But I am glad she came to her senses.
Simpson is guilty and he turned down a plea bargain that would have gotten him out of jail by now.
Now, maybe the news will be O.J. free for a couple of years.
No comments:
Post a Comment