I think that those of you who are convinced that Aaron Hernandez will be convicted should review the O.J. Simpson case:
The substantial majority of Americans thought he was guilty–yet he got off.
I knew I’d heard that brilliant strategy somewhere before.
OJ was famous and popular in a way Hernandez is not: he was one of the best running backs ever, he was in the Naked Gun movies, and he seemed really nice. Hernandez isn’t the best tight end on his team and his background suggests he’s a complete dick. And I don’t think the evidence issues will be the same either. If DNA becomes an issue in this case - and at this point it doesn’t sound like they’ll need any - it won’t be the mystery it was to jurors in the mid 90s.
Yes he did. Of course, there was a racist cop who perjured himself on the stand, and a generally bungled prosecution in a circus trial involved, too. Oh…and a virtual Dream Team of defense lawyers…Cochran as the mouthpiece, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld (possibly the best two DNA defense guys in the business), Alan Dershowitz (leading constitutional law scholar/professor/appeals guy), Robert Shapiro, and F. Lee-freaking Bailey his damnself as the strategist.
Indeed. So far, the police involved in the investigation and the DA’s office appear to be taking things very professionally, unlike the LAPD, which didn’t exactly have the best reputation at the time (or much of the time since then).
That was before the age of social media. It’s unthinkable back then that OJ would have had photos floating around proudly showing off his illegally acquired/possessed handgun. And there was never the slightest hint he was involved in criminal gangs. And, as a more mature and retired NFL star, he was hardly known to be carousing or fighting with ne’er do wells at 3:30 in the morning with regularity.
Also in the hard to believe in hindsight category, OJ was fired from playing the Terminator because the producers didn’t think Americans would buy him as a killer.
There was a picture from his broadcasting career showing him in a certain pair of shoes.
Yeah, but they were kind of ugly.
At his bail hearing the judge denied bail because even though all the evidence was circumstantial, it was a very very strong case.
Unfortunately the only video I could find of it was from TMZ
From the article:
To be fair, that describes a lot of people in Gainesville, but knowing what we know now about Hernandez, yeah that doesn’t look good.
I’m legitimately starting to wonder if this guy isn’t somehow related to all shootings in the US since the early 2000s.
Yes, it does potentially describe a lot of people. But based on the way this has gone so far and this, from further down-
The story is developing a ‘Steve Sax is a suspect in every unsolved murder in New York City’ quality.
We’re already deeply into Biggest A-Hole in Pro Sports History territory by now, anyway.
When they make the movie about this, there’s going to be a scene where the detective figures out that the connection between 24 murders is that they all happened in cities where the Patriots were visiting.
Tim Tebow finally makes his way into the story, thanks to a 2007 bar fight. Shockingly, nobody was killed in this twist.
Eh, Tebow would have resurrected anyone that had been killed, then told Hernandez to say Ten Our Father’s and absolved him of his sins.
In a twist that would be strange in any other case but this one, the sheriff holding Hernandez has announced he will try to block any potential marriage between Hernandez and his girlfriend. Apparently that could potentially shield her from testifying.
What was Tebow doing in a bar, when he was 19 no less? Handing out Chick tracts?
Hernandez was only 17. No wonder the bar wanted to keep it quiet.
It was The Swamp (a bar across from *The *Swamp, or Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the UF football stadium). If it’s crowded they’ll pretty much serve you as long as you can see over the bar. I suspect that goes double for UF football players.
I think we’ve actually passed from “Pro Sports player is Criminal” territory into “Notorious gangster has sports playing alias”