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O.J. ‘Workbook’ Puts Trial Watchers In The Jury Box

Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee)

March 10, 1995, Friday

O.J. ‘Workbook’ Puts Trial Watchers In The Jury Box

BYLINE: By Doug Mason News-Sentinel entertainment writer

SECTION: DETOURS; Pg. 6

LENGTH: 906 words

“Garbage in, garbage out.”

That’s how defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, in his opening statement at the O.J. Simpson murder trial, described the laboratory process that led to a DNA match between Simpson’s blood and blood found at the murder scene.

The Simpson defense team claims that sloppy police work tainted the blood and makes the DNA match suspect.

The book “Trial of the Century: You Be the Jury,” published in January, be-fore the Simpson trial began, comes up with the same argument and some of the same wording.

“Trial of the Century” is an “interactive guide” to the Simpson trial written by lawyers Robert J. Walton and F. LaGard Smith. It contains questions from the actual questionnaire given to potential jurors, as well as mock trial arguments and testimony for both the defense and the prosecution, a glossary of legal terms and other guides to help trial-watchers better understand the American ju-dicial process.

Smith, a law professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., wonders if Cochran read “Trial of the Century” before preparing his opening statement to the jury. He points out a mock defense statement on page 156:

“Scientific tests are only as good as the people who use them,” the authors have written. “Or to put it another way garbage in, garbage out.”

Despite that word-for-word match, Smith says there is nothing prescient.about the sometimes close similarities between the actual trial and the arguments written for “Trial of the Century.”

“We have a rather fixed body of evidence (in the Simpson trial),” he.says. “There are only so many ways it can be handled. We figured out a logical way, and so did they (the defense and prosecution teams). We pretty much pegged it.”

Smith specializes in criminal law, criminal procedure and trial practice and teaches a course on professional ethics. He is also the author of numer-ous(Christian books, including devotionals and issue books on such hot-button issues as abortion, gay rights and gender roles. He practiced law as a district attorney in Oregon and has taught at Pepperdine for 23 years.
Smith considers “Trial of the Century” to be “up a notch from the hype and sleaze that has been accompanying the trial.”
Still, Smith says he was at first wary about having his name on the book.(Co-author Walton, an Arizona lawyer, has his name featured prominently in raised gold letters on the book’s cover. Smith’s name appears underneath in smaller, plain letters.
“When I was first approached with the idea (for the book), I said the only way I was going to do it was if I was in charge of every word so that there was no chance of hype or sleaze getting in there,” Smith says.

“At the earliest stages I was content to be a ghostwriter When it was fin-ished, and I knew that it was high-class, then I consented to have my name on it. By that time, it got in there in little, tiny letters.”

Smith’s wife has family in Tennessee, and the couple visited the area for several weeks last month. They spent time in Cookeville before moving on to Mur-freesboro, where The News-Sentinel caught up with F. LaGard Smith.

The author says “Trial of the Century” is educational but not astechnical as a law school-level text, and he says it’s “more fun than a normal workbook.

“It tries to involve readers as if they were actually jurors in the trial It takes them through the entire trial, giving opening statements, closing argu-ments, juror instructions, the actual verdict forms the jury will complete,” Smith says.
“The idea is to keep them (readers) from being merely passive couch(potatoes. It involves them in the process so that they can understand the terminology, ob-jections, trial strategies and behind-the-scenes information they wouldn’t nor-mally get.”
Smith has been following the trial and has little good to say about the Simp-son’s so-called “Dream Team” of defense lawyers, the Los Angeles district attor-neys who are prosecuting the case or Judge Lance Ito.

“I give them a D, a C-minus at best,” says Smith, switching to his law- pro-fessor mortar board.

“I teach trial practice. Frankly, I’ve got law students who have done better (than the Simpson trial attorneys) Both sides are just totally lacking in pro-fessionalism, it’s just embarrassing.

“Part of the reason for writing the book is to help understand the criminal justice system in America (but) there’s a better picture in the book than in the real trial. WE wanted to introduce something we were proud of, but there’s not much reason to be proud of this case.”

Smith believes all the participating attorneys have been seduced by the TV camera and the high celebrity profile of the case and that includes Judge Ito.

“(Ito is) wanting to come across as this incredibly fair and impartial ju-rist, which he is. But that doesn’t mean he has to let the defense whine all the time. (The trial) has broken down into a sad debacle.”

Because his book is partially titled “You Be the Jury,” Smith won’t say(whether he considers Simpson guilty or innocent, and he won’t predict the outcome of the trial, except to say that he thinks the jury will be “imminently fair” and will be able to reach a consensus.

“I’ve gone out on a limb personally, and (co-author) Bob Walton disagrees he thinks it will be a hung jury. (But) I think the case will be resolved, either guilty or not guilty.”
cover story

LOAD-DATE: July 31, 1996

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

GRAPHIC: (Color) Defense attorney Robert Shapiro, left, joins Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark in a sidebar conversation during O.J. Simpson’s double-murder trial. Associated Press (photo not sent to library) (Color) Trial of the Century O. J. SIMPSON (Color) O.J. Simpson’s defense attorneys Robert Shapiro, left, Johnnie Cochran, second from right, and F. Lee Bailey, right, confer with their private investigator Bill Pavelic, during cross-examination of a Los Ange-les police detective in Los Angeles Criminal Court. Associated Press (photo not sent to library)