Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Lawyer Sees Simpson 'Confession'
> LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The lawyer who won a civil wrongful
> death suit against O.J. Simpson said Tuesday he
> believes the man acquitted of two murders is making a
> ``creeping confession'' in his public appearances.
>
> Simpson, responding to Daniel Petrocelli's new
> assertions for the first time, called the claim
> ``totally ridiculous'' and said the lawyer is trying to
> make news to sell his book.
>
> Petrocelli said that if Simpson believed a confession
> would win him public acceptance he would admit to the
> slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
>
> ``I don't think he will ever crack. He's a strong
> individual and a survivor,'' said Petrocelli, who
> represented the Goldman family. ``But public acceptance
> is important to him. He'd like to win back the public
> and if admitting it would get him there he might do
> it.''
>
> ``That's totally ridiculous,'' said Simpson, who
> insisted no such thought has ever entered his mind.
>
> ``I didn't do it, so I've never even thought about
> confessing,'' Simpson said in a phone interview with
> The Associated Press. ``It's certainly nothing I would
> ever consider.''
>
> He noted that Fred Goldman, father of Ron, had offered
> to forgive the $33.5 million judgment he won if Simpson
> would confess, and he had refused the offer.
>
> Petrocelli, in a telephone news conference with members
> of the print media from across the country, cited a
> recent TV interview in which Simpson jokingly wielded a
> banana as if it were a knife.
>
> ``That was astonishing behavior even if you're an O.J.
> believer,'' said the attorney.
>
> ``If he were truly an innocent man he would be
> incapable of jesting about this,'' said Petrocelli.
> ``It's his perverse way of making a creeping
> confession. Little by little, he acknowledges it.''
>
> Simpson said not only is there nothing to acknowledge,
> but also he's less and less concerned about public
> acceptance. He recounted advice given to him by one of
> his criminal defense attorneys, F. Lee Bailey.
>
> ``He said, 'O.J., don't let the public send you to an
> early grave like Sam Sheppard. ... Live your life. Take
> care of those kids,''' Simpson said.
>
> Bailey became famous representing Sheppard in a
> Cleveland murder case in the 1950s. The question of his
> guilt or innocence is still being debated long after
> his death.
>
> As for the banana incident, Simpson said it was reshot
> several times by a BBC crew interviewing him for a
> special on his life today. He said it was intended to
> show how some people perceive his image -- ``as a
> psycho murderer'' -- while the real Simpson is a benign
> personality.
>
> Petrocelli is on a tour promoting his new book,
> ``Triumph of Justice: The Final Judgment on the Simpson
> Saga.''
--
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