Attorney: Simpson believes he was 'railroaded'
10/11/2008LOS ANGELES O.J. Simpson, locked in jail and pondering his future, feels hopeful he will win a new trial on appeal because he believes jury interviews show he was absolutely railroaded, his lawyer told the Associated Press.
Attorney Yale Galanter said he and colleague Gabriel Grasso have spent extensive time with Simpson discussing his case and found him alternately melancholy and hopeful.
He is really very hopeful now, especially after the jury interviews. He knows that he was absolutely railroaded, Galanter said Friday by telephone from Miami.
Simpson and co-defendant Clarence C.J. Stewart were convicted Oct. 3 of 12 charges, including armed robbery and kidnapping, after a hotel room confrontation last year with memorabilia dealers. They face up to life in prison at sentencing Dec. 5.
Defense lawyers for both men filed motions Friday seeking a new trial.
Simpson s lawyers cited judicial errors and insufficient evidence, faulting Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass decisions during jury selection, her limitations on cross-examination of witnesses and her instructions to jurors.
Stewart s lawyers alleged misconduct by the jury foreman in a separate filing and said Stewart should not have been tried alongside Simpson.
Galanter said he and Simpson believe that jury foreman, Paul Connelly, intimated that he thought Simpson should have been imprisoned 13 years ago in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
He should not have been on that jury, said Galanter, who also cited the foreman s comment that he kept jurors deliberating for 13 hours into the night because he feared one of them might suffer some mishap on the way home and be unable to return.
He commandeered that jury and took over, Galanter said.
Connelly has said he was consistent in agreeing with Simpson s murder acquittal.
Simpson, who is being held at the Clark County jail in a 7-by-14-foot cell, has little contact with other people, Galanter said.
His few visitors can t see him in person. They talk to him via a live closed-circuit video hookup in which Simpson, in his cell, talks into a microphone and looks into a camera. The visitor does the same.
He is allowed two hours of visitation every two weeks, Galanter said. So far the only acquaintance who has visited is his friend Tom Scotto, whose wedding took Simpson to Las Vegas in September 2007.
But the lawyers, who have unlimited contact visits with their client, make sure one member of the defense team visits every day. Galanter has returned home to Miami, but Grasso, whose practice is in Las Vegas, is a consistent visitor.
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