All eyes are on O.J. Simpson who is getting ready to stand trial. And jury picks have officially begun. However, where, oh, where will you find a juror who is actually unbiased regarding O.J. I mean, this is O.J. (killer) Simpson we are talking about. This is a man who probably wishes he were convicted of murder back in the day because life on the outside has been unbearable. Most people hate him, some love him but it isn’t going to be easy to find a juror who has absolutely no opinion of the football star/actor who fell from grace.

Five-hundred prospective jurors were questioned and many confessed that they couldn’t put aside how they felt about the 1995 acquittal on Simpson’s double-murder charges of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. And anyone who says they have no feelings on the subject matter are probably lying. So, what’s a Judge to do?

Judge Jackie Glass personally lectured the jurors on the subject. “If you are here thinking you are going to punish Mr. Simpson for what happened in Los Angeles in 1995, this is not the case for you,” said Glass. “If you’re looking to become famous because of your service in this case, write a book, then this is not the case for you.”

Good luck with that one!

Simpson faces a dozen charges including felony kidnapping, armed robbery, conspiracy, burglary, coercion and assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the alleged robbery of two sports collectibles dealers last September in Las Vegas.

If convicted, he could be a jailbird lifer. And the likelihood of this happening due to his last trial is a high possibility. It’s very rare to get lucky in the hot seat twice.

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Once upon a time in New York, a black man named John White was found guilty of fatally shooting a white teen. However, in December, 2007, one of the jurors came out of the courtroom closet, so to speak, stating that he helped convict the man for shooting and killing the boy but felt pressured by other jurors and the judge to change his vote to guilty during a deliberating session.

Convicting White (54) of second-degree manslaughter in the August 2006 shooting of 17-year-old Daniel Cicciaro, Jr., the man faces a prison term of five to 15 years and remains free on bail. Defense attorneys argued that White feared a “lynch mob” had come to attack his family when a group of white teens came to White’s house to confront his son.

Juror Francois Larche said that during a long weekend where the jurors were stuck in a room trying to come to a decision, he endured a lot of “pressure” by fellow jurors and the judge to close this case and go home.

“I thought about my family and the families of the other jurors,” Larche said. “It was not worth it in the end.”

Jury forewoman Maureen Steigerwald denied that the judge, a 12-hour deliberating session on Saturday — the fourth day of deliberations — or the holidays played a role in the jury’s decision.

However, if one juror is feeling badly about his final decision, this brings up a big problem. Although this case was closed (until the appeal) several months ago, the juror’s statement should still be mentioned today. With a man’s life at stake, better instructions and possibly a time limitation (that exclude weekends and offer break periods) may need to be considered. After all, sending someone to prison for many years to wrap up a case isn’t a fair deal. But then again, who ever said the law was always fair?

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