O.J.

UPDATE: O.J. will serve a minimum of nine years in the booty farm. It's about what was expected. But other than the Goldman and Brown families, I really can't understand why anyone else would be happy about that development. I still think the resentment over the not guilty verdict in the 1995 murder trial has more to do with O.J.'s sentence than anything he might have done in that Las Vegas hotel room last year. Which in no way resembles justice.

O.J. Simpson is certainly not the most sympathetic character. But goodness, his future seems mighty bleak:

Nevada prison officials refuse to discuss where Simpson might be assigned, but numerous reports indicate that he will be sent to a maximum security prison in Ely, Nev. And that could make his life even worse. It houses a concentration of incarcerated members of the Aryan Warriors, a white supremacist gang that reportedly manages its operation in part from within the prison walls.

Asked whether Simpson would receive any special treatment either because of his notoriety or the doubt surrounding his acquittal on charges of murdering his former wife and her friend (both white) in 1995, a prison system spokesman said, "When he comes to us, he is not a celebrity. He is an inmate."

This just seems excessive to me. But, you know me, I lean toward leniency.

I don't know that the crime Simpson was convicted of (a questionable conviction at that; Lester Munson notes that the jury "was clearly angry" at O.J.) merits sending a 61-year-old man to prison for no fewer than 18 years.