June 9, 1997
The System Worked?
The False Comparisons Between McVeigh and O.J.
Last week, the Albany (N.Y.) Times-Union (and most every newspaper in the nation) announced with banner headlines that a federal jury voted to convict Timothy McVeigh of bombing the federal building in Oklahoma City. This verdict came as little surprise, as the evidence was overwhelming, and the federal judge, Richard Matsch, kept a tight rein on the trial. His decisions particularly annoyed the defense, which sought, like O.J. Simpson�s successful defense team, to win the case by sowing seeds of doubt based simply on questioning the quality of the evidence and suggesting that the bombing was part of some other conspiracy in which McVeigh played no part. Indeed, unlike the O.J. trial, the McVeigh defense couldn�t muster a plausible alibi for McVeigh on the day of the bombing.
But I am falling into the trap that nearly all local rip-and-read newspapers and their wire services fell into. Comparing O.J. and McVeigh is absurd, because the Simpson and McVeigh trials were not about the same thing. One was a domestic violence case; the other an act of terrorism. One was a relatively straightforward murder case; the other the worst incident of terrorism to occur on American soil. Interestingly enough, the latter crime was perpetrated by an American, not a Palestinian or Muslim extremist as far too many are prone to believe.
The most annoying element of the McVeigh verdict, however, was the assertion, succinctly summarized in a Times-Union headline, that "This Time, The System Worked." The only logical conclusion one can draw from this thinking is that the system worked because the defendant had been found guilty. Under this logic, if the system didn�t work, the defendant would be found innocent, and would be freed.
Clearly, the system worked in both the O.J. and McVeigh cases. The system isn�t the problem here — it�s the outcome of the O.J. case with which many of us (including myself) are uncomfortable. But one cannot and must not judge the quality of a criminal justice system simply because the outcomes do not conform to our individual preferences. A system based on popular opinion and media distortions of what is said in court would lead to arbitrary justice and mob rule.
Indeed, to question the outcome of the O.J. trial in terms of whether "the system worked" is to put oneself in an uncomfortable position. Where were these most vocal critics of the O.J. verdict when kangaroo courts held show trials in Mississippi to acquit whites clearly guilty of killing blacks? Or when such courts convicted blacks for various crimes with flimsy evidence in sham trials? These are cases in which the system didn�t work � the system was arbitrary, capricious, and corrupt, and it took years and a great deal of litigation to make such courts conform to basic standards of justice. Where is the outcry today when a poor defendant is assigned an underpaid, overworked public defender, who, because she has hundreds of cases to handle, recommends a plea-bargain rather than going to trial? Why, instead of decrying the flaws of a system that allows rich guilty people to go free, don�t editorial writers and Sunday-morning pundits decry the flaws of a system in which the innocent poor are convicted of crimes they may very well have not committed? A loud national outcry against these "systems" would be much more appropriate than absurd comparisons between a high-profile murder and a higher profile act of hateful terrorism.
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