O.J. Simpson: Older, grayer, wider, looking good in shackles

Like almost everyone besides the Brown and Goldman families, I spend no time thinking about O.J. Simpson and his starring role in one of the most painful chapters in Los Angeles criminal history.

His acquittal at the end of a traumatic 1995 murder trial featuring a defense “dream team” that ran roughshod over subpar prosecutors, was followed in 1997 by a civil trial in which he was found liable for the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

Then he moved to Florida and was periodically back in the news -- a road rage trial, a lawsuit against him for stealing a satellite television signal from DirecTV and so on.

By the time he went on trial in 2008 for the armed robbery and kidnapping at a couple of sports memorabilia dealers who were selling some of his onetime possessions, I had already tuned out the anti-social antics of this man. I found the very mention of his name revolting.

Still, I remember feeling a small bit of satisfaction that he was found guilty of those crimes and sentenced to between nine and 33 years in prison.

He’s been an inmate of a Nevada prison for four years now, serving time for something he did in California. That’s how I look at it, anyway.

Wednesday morning, I turned on the television, and there he was -- older, grayer, wider. I watched for a little while as he tried to wheedle a Clark County judge into giving him a new trial in the kidnapping and robbery case. He’s claiming that his attorney Yale Galanter had done a poor job representing him in 2008.

He had no idea that his pals were carrying guns the night they went to retrieve the objects that Simpson believed were his.

I watched for about 20 minutes before I had to turn off the TV.
Before I did, though, I really had only one thought: That guy sure looks good in shackles.

Correction: An earlier version of this post said that O.J. Simpson did not testify in either trial related to the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend. In fact, he testified in the 1997 civil trial.

Twitter: @robinabcarian
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