OJ Complains of Double Jeopardy

This week Robert Blake got "OJ'd". No, OJ didn't slit his throat, but he had the same legal experience that OJ did. He beat the criminal charges, but got hammered for $30 million in the civil trial. OJ doesn't think that's fair:

O.J. Simpson on Friday questioned the system that allowed both him and actor Robert Blake to be found liable for murder after being acquitted in criminal court, calling it "double jeopardy."

"I still don't get how anyone can be found not guilty of a murder and then be found responsible for it in any way shape or form," Simpson said in a phone interview from his Florida home. "... If you're found not guilty, how can you be found responsible? I'd love to hear how that's not double jeopardy."

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but even I know there's a difference between criminal and civil liability. Given the lower burden of proof in civil trials, such an outcome as you had in the OJ and Blake cases is very possible. Is it fair? According to the way the law is currently structured, yes.

If you want to find an good example of what I felt was double jeopardy, you need only look at the original Rodney King case (the beating, not the many criminal prosecutions since then). All of us who lived in Southern California in 1992 well remember the riots. Some people think the riots occurred because of the beating, but if fact nobody rioted after King got his hat handed to him by the LAPD. The riots occurred after the four police officers charged in the case were acquitted in a Simi Valley trial.

Following the riots, the Federal government scrambled to appease the rioters, and decided to file federal civil rights charges against the officers - violations which allegedly occurred during the acts for which the officers had already been acquitted. The government eventually got their pound of flesh and the officers spent time in the federal pokey. In other words, the officers were not guilty of excessive force, but did violate King's civil rights during their non-criminal acts.

Sure.

Although I understand there is a difference between state and federal law, this whole thing smacked of double jeopardy to me and I was surprised that the case wasn't overturned on appeal.

I guess OJ and Blake are lucky their murder victims were white woman. As you know, it's impossible to violate the civil rights of white people, so these guys don't need to worry about the Feds coming after them.