Youth Opinion : So, Do You Still Want to Be a Lawyer?

How was the O.J. Simpson murder trial and the quick not-guilty verdict seen by law students? JIM BLAIR, with the help of ERIN AUBRY, talked with students at several law schools and one high-school law magnet.

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DAN McCLOSKEY

Second year, Pepperdine School of Law, Malibu.

I was very disappointed because I think in the average criminal case the defendant has maybe just a fraction of this amount of evidence against him and they’re convicted on that. In this case they had overwhelming evidence of his guilt and it didn’t matter. I think jury selection is just messed up. At least in this city if you have a white jury from the Valley they have no problem letting white police officers beat up black guys in the street and if you get a black jury from the right part of town they have no problem letting a man kill his wife and somebody else when there’s overwhelming evidence--in both instances--of the guilt of the people. I think that’s really depressing.

I still want to be a lawyer. I still there’s a lot of good to be a done and I think reforms can be instituted that will make this kind of result less likely. And I also don’t think this case is representative of the average criminal trial by any means at all.

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JESSICA D. VILLAFLOR

Second year, Pepperdine

Contrary to what a lot of people think, I was happy that the vote was in in four hours. This doesn’t dissuade me from [joining] the legal profession. I was never fully convinced he was guilty. The jury are the people who have been there for the past [several] months and were best qualified to hear the evidence.

So I’m still hopeful of the legal system. I hope they catch who did it, [though] I’m probably in the minority of people who don’t think he did it.

I don’t think people will be able to separate this trial from the legal profession, although people should recognize that [in] criminal cases and civil cases you just can’t tell how they’re going to go. A lot of people [had] a lot of distate about the profession even before this case.

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PAMELA BENFORD

Third year, Southwestern School of Law, Los Angeles

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I’m interested in going into criminal law. The verdict reassured me that this is what I wanted to do, because I felt that the burden wasn’t proven. [All] you need is a reasonable doubt and I think that’s what was evident there.

A lot of people are saying that the race card was played and I think that if anyone’s going to look at the system they’re going to have to [recognize that] that’s an integral part of what’s going on. Perhaps the trial would not have been as dynamic if it wasn’t a black man accused of killing a white woman. I do think that was significant. And I think that people had to look beyond that. The outcome of the trial wasn’t necessarily [determined by] race because it came down to the facts and the law and when people look at it that way they’ll see that law is not as bad as people would like to think it is.

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JANEEN YOSHIDA

Second year, Western State University College of Law, Fullerton

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I don’t know if you could even call the law a profession after this. The lawyers on both sides of the case behaved anything but professionally. They were obnoxious at times and loud and anything but dignified. It seems that this type of conduct in the court room is based solely on a winner-take-all attitude rather than a dignified search for the truth. I know that not all attorneys advocate this kind of behavior but it’s sad when the most celebrated attorneys in our community are the ones who do this kind of thing.

I think that the jury probably did not consider the prosecution’s case as well as they should have, although there can certainly be an argument made that reasonable doubt was raised. I don’t necessarily think they came to the wrong conclusion but I think that there were probably some emotions at play in there considering they did come back so quickly.

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SHEREE HUDNALL

Junior, Dorsey Law and Public Service Magnet High School

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I thought he was not guilty, but I thought that the jury might bend over backwards to convict him just to prove the point that even though they were mostly black and female they could be impartial.

There are a lot of issues tied up in this case--the black man/white woman thing, for example. I thought that the jurors might have been split; they sided with OJ’s race, but also with the fact that Nicole Brown was a woman and a mother.

I’m biracial myself--my father’s black and my mother’s white--but I haven’t experienced any kind of racial conflict in my family relationships. Unfortunately, I think there will be more racial hostility now between blacks and whites. I think whites will feel more threatened, especially white women.

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MARTY BEAN

Second year, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles

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When I was little kid, I always thought that the law was a very noble profession, but now, not only from this trial but from other trials as well, lawyers are perceived as mercenaries. I can’t believe that Johnny Cochran and the other defense team [members] don’t believe that OJ did it. I think that everyone perceives them as knowing that he did it, but that he took the case and did all the things--whatever it took win.

I think that what a lot of us are trying to do now is focus on the good aspects of the law--that law can be a great tool for social justice. It was lawyers who were a big part of the civil rights reforms. There are so many good things you can do as a lawyer that we have to present to the community the good things lawyers can do. I think working for the prosecution in a case like this seems like a much more noble profession; but if you want to be a defense attorney you can still represent indigent clients and clients who are relying on the facts and not just a lot of dirt thrown up in the air.

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ANTHONY ARZILI

Second year, Southwestern University School of Law

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My perception of the profession hasn’t really changed much. I think it was rather clear that money will get you the best representation and I felt the defense team was zealous and did everything in their power to represent Mr. Simpson. That’s how it should be in every trial. I think everyone should be able to afford that sort of representation.

I think there’s a disparity in [pay]. Usually the best prosecution attorneys leave and become defense attorneys. We need to do do something about them. We need to maintain those people and that would allow more for prosecutors to have an equal chance at prosecuting cases, going up against these experienced, high-paid lawyers that obviously were much more talented than the prosecution.

I think there’s much more to the legal profession than just O.J. Simpson. [The Simpson case] is an abberation in many ways, I would think. You need to look at a lot more cases to get a better feeling of how our legal system works.