A knife was reportedly found buried near O.J. Simpson’s home and the LAPD is running tests on it.
You might ask how could this affect O.J. now?
The answer is that it (probably) won’t at all.
Pursuant to the “double jeopardy” clause in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Los Angeles County District Attorney would not be permitted to retry O.J. for the murder of Ron Goldman and/or Nicole Brown Simpson. You can’t try to convict someone twice for the same crime. The reason for this rule is to protect citizens from potential government abuse. If the government (which has more money and attorneys than you) could take you to trial 15 times for the same crime you didn’t commit, you’d be pretty miserable and probably pretty broke, win or lose.
The double jeopardy rule is a firm rule. Even if OJ admitted to the murder now, they couldn’t put him on trial again. If God came down from heaven and let us know that OJ did it, they still couldn’t put him on trial again.
Does that mean that if there is new evidence, OJ will not have to worry about a new trial at all? Not quite …
If it turns out that OJ hired someone else to commit the crime, or that someone helped OJ to commit the crime, that would be conspiracy. That is considered a completely separate crime from murder, so they could definitely try him on that.
Andrew J. Botros is an attorney with the Law Office of Nancy J. Bickford, APC, a San Diego law firm and has represented many professional athletes in divorce and paternity cases. He is a board certified divorce attorney, certified by the California State Bar’s Board of Legal Specialization. The Law Office of Nancy J. Bickford, APC, specializes in high-asset and high-income family law matters.
