I was fascinated by the OJ Case… even braved the lines to attend a court session. Watching it was like watching the train wreck of train wrecks. You couldn’t believe a defendant so obviously guilty of multiple murder.. with blood evidence everywhere but up his nostrils (maybe it was).. was going to get off. And he did! The Kobe Case is just the opposite. Almost all the evidence available so far points to his innocence, remarkably so, but who knows what will happen?
The best anaylsis of the case I have read so far is by attorney Joanna Spilbor who writes on her excellent site The Kobe Bryant Case Why Prosecutors Should Dismiss It. She even urges the prosecutors to apologize to Bryant. But she doesn’t expect that. That would be, as she says, a “Hollywood ending.” And she even sees a downside in dismissal (which many are now predicting) for Kobe:
For one thing, he has invested a year of his life – and probably immense sums of money – in the hope of vindicating himself. Odds are, at trial, he would get that vindication. Granted, juries are unpredictable – but he could always waive his right to a jury trial and request that he be tried in front the judge. And there is just too much evidence for Bryant’s innocence, I believe, to convince twelve jurors he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
There’s another advantage, too, to going to trial: The accuser would have to take the stand, reluctantly or otherwise, and tell her story — thereby preserving her testimony for all eternity. Every discrepancy, every misstatement would be recorded for use against her in her civil trial. If her testimony was weak enough, the civil suit might disappear – or be settled for a pittance.
Will Kobe be on trial in Colorado on August 27? (People like me think he’s more needed in Athens.) The clock is ticking.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member