# What if OJ Simpson confessed at this point? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2010, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-oj-simpson-confessed-at-this-point/537477 "2010-04-27T01:08:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-oj-simpson-confessed-at-this-point/537477/21 "2010-04-27T14:04:03Z")
Even if someone came forth with a videotype showing OJ hacking Nicole & Ron to pirces, he can’t be tried again. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-oj-simpson-confessed-at-this-point/537477/22 "2010-04-27T14:17:46Z")
A smart killer will never say something self-incriminating. Of course, the great majority of them are dumber than a box of hammers: [Virginia executes killer who sent taunting letter - CNN.com](http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/18/virginia.killer.letter/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-oj-simpson-confessed-at-this-point/537477/23 "2010-04-27T15:01:07Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#): > > I’m a bit surprised at all the responses here. I thought that if major new evidence arises, a person can be tried again for a crime, even if they’ve previously been acquitted? Is that not the case? The Wikipedia link for that criminal term **AK84** posted doesn’t settle anything at all, because it says, > > Does that mean they can be tried again if the evidence is substantially different? [Double Jeopardy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_jeopardy#United_States) In the US the answer is no. A person cannot be tried for the same crime twice once a final judgement has been issued. In other words, once you have been acquitted, you can never be tried for that same offense again, no matter how much the evidence changes. A person also cannot be tried again if he’s been convicted. You can be tried again if no judgement was reached (hung jury) or if the first trial is found to have been fraudulent (e.g. it is discovered that jurors had been bribed) or if it’s under a different “sovereignty,” which basically means a crime that can be charged under different jurisdictions. This means, for example, that if a person commits a crime that occurs in two different states, he can be tried in both states. If he commits a crime that violates both a state law and a federal law, he can be tried both in the state court and federal court. The Rodney King cops were tried this way, and Timothy McVeigh could have still been tried in Oklahoma if he’d been acquitted opf the federal charges. The OJ Simpson case would not fall under any of those exceptions unless maybe it could somehow be proven that the first trial was fixed. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-oj-simpson-confessed-at-this-point/537477/24 "2010-04-27T17:26:40Z")
> [@Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution](#): > > No person shall be … subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb… Although as written the prohibition applies only to the federal government, the Double Jeopardy provisions have been held to apply to the states by incorporation through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-oj-simpson-confessed-at-this-point/537477/25 "2010-04-27T17:39:45Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#): > > I’m a bit surprised at all the responses here. I thought that if major new evidence arises, a person can be tried again for a crime, even if they’ve previously been acquitted? Is that not the case? The Wikipedia link for that criminal term **AK84** posted doesn’t settle anything at all, because it says, > > Does that mean they can be tried again if the evidence is substantially different? Autrefois Acquit means, “there is an acquittal”. Once you have been acquitted of a charge you cannot be tried again for the same charge or (I am not sure if this applies to the US, but does to many common wealth countries) even another charge arising out of the same fact which could have been placed on the original indictment but was not (this is what the wiki explanation means by substantially the same facts, see Conally v DPP (1964)). This idea is restated in the US in a more limited way by means of Double Jeopardy. Res Judicata, means “the matter has been decided” is a similar though not identical concept in civil cases, meaning that once a particular question or controvery has been decided, then it cannot be reargued. The point being, the OJ matter is a closed matter, he was aqcuitted in thr Criminal Trial and the Civil Suit has been decided. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-oj-simpson-confessed-at-this-point/537477/26 "2010-04-27T19:46:07Z")
I mean, if you read anything about the “trial” (like Mark Furman’s book), you realize what buffoons the prosecutors and jurors were. There was ample evidence linking OJ to the murders-his blood and DNA were found at the scene, and he had no good alibi for his whereabouts. Simpson’s lawyers successfully turned his trial into a trial of Capt. Mark Furman - but even at that, it would take astronomical odds to think that OJ was framed by the LAPD. I was not impressed withe the jury at all-most looked like they would have trouble reading a comic book.☹ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-oj-simpson-confessed-at-this-point/537477/27 "2010-04-27T20:41:31Z")
> [@](#): > > I was not impressed withe the jury at all-most looked like they would have trouble reading a comic book As the joke at the time went: “Knock, knock” “Who’s there?” “OJ” “OJ who?” “OK, you’re on the jury” As with all celebrity trials, they had a very difficult time finding jurors who weren’t already following the case in the news and who would thus have preconceived notions. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-oj-simpson-confessed-at-this-point/537477/28 "2010-04-27T20:55:36Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The Rodney King cops were tried this way, and Timothy McVeigh could have still been tried in Oklahoma if he’d been acquitted opf the federal charges. I thought that McVeigh’s Federal trial was only for the murders of the US Marshals who died in the bombing. A trial in OK would have been for the civilians who were killed. I know that in most cases of serial killers who have victims in multiple States, they’ll choose to have the first trial in a State where they think that there is the greatest chance of a death penalty conviction. Could the LA prosecutors have tried OJ only for Nicole’s murder and then had a second trial for Goldman’s in case they lost the first one? ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-oj-simpson-confessed-at-this-point/537477/29 "2010-04-28T01:14:53Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I mean, if you read anything about the “trial” (like Mark Furman’s book), you realize what buffoons the prosecutors and jurors were. There was ample evidence linking OJ to the murders-his blood and DNA were found at the scene, and he had no good alibi for his whereabouts. Simpson’s lawyers successfully turned his trial into a trial of Capt. Mark Furman - but even at that, it would take astronomical odds to think that OJ was framed by the LAPD. > I was not impressed withe the jury at all-most looked like they would have trouble reading a comic book.☹ I don’t think we need to relitigate the case, but I hardly think Furman, the successfully impeached detective who went to jail for lying on the stand in this case is an impartial observer of the scene. The state had two main pieces of evidence – Furman’s testimony and the DNA. I do 't know if Furman really was the racist rogue cop the defense suggested, but they sure as he’ll had enough evidence that a reasonable juror could come go that conclusion. As fir the DNA, they couldn’t establish proper chain of custody, so there was the possibility that it had been adulturated. Esp. Since Furman had the opportunity to do so if he sodesired. With these facts the case demanded acquittal. The prosecution made it’s errors in the case, but the poeple who lost it were the LAPD, period. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-oj-simpson-confessed-at-this-point/537477/30 "2010-04-28T01:44:11Z")
The robbery sentence he’s now working on in his cell in the Nevada desert is a make-up call, anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-oj-simpson-confessed-at-this-point/537477.md?page=1)