When O. J. Simpson disappeared after his former wife's murder, the nation wondered.
When he was spotted roaming the freeways and streets of Los Angeles in his white Ford Bronco, the nation became riveted.
As O.J. Simpson was booked, charged and led to jail, many Americans wondered in awe and disbelief what fate had seemed to have befallen one of our celebrities.
All of America began to question the evidence, the Los Angeles Police Department, the man -- O.J. Simpson -- and if he is guilty or innocent.
National television news, local television news and the print media focused their attention, time and space upon this case of crime, murder, lust and intrigue. Interviews of friends of the deceased and the accused were shown and printed while theories were batted about.
Arraignment began and courtroom defenders and prosecutors became national stars, featured in People magazine while legal interpretive experts appeared on every television in the land.
The fundamental important issue that lurks behind all of the media attention and energy attached to this case has been left behind somewhere amid these theories and public opinions and legal experts and personal interviews and polls and visions and thoughts.
That issue is justice.
The idea that any man or woman in the United States is guaranteed the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty and to receive a fair and just trial has been pushed to the informational wayside by the consistent media banter and supposition surrounding this case.
Pundits have examined the case in a racial light. They have questioned the amount of coverage given to both Simpson and the case due to the fact the he is black and the victims of the murders were white.
They have also examined the case in a domestic violence viewpoint, condemning O.J. Simpson's actions before he has even been tried.
Too often in recent legal cases, issues other than justice, innocence, guilt and the pursuit of evidence have been examined and used to decide guilt or innocence.
Whether it was the Bobbitt case with its domestic violence implications or the Menedez case with its child-abuse implications, the media and public opinion have turned the cases into a referendum on a national societal issue as opposed to a narrower legal issue.
In the Simpson case, two people were murdered. Not specifically a white person or a woman or a man, but two human beings.
There has been one person charged with committing these murders. Not specifically a celebrity or a black man or a white woman, but one human being.
Let justice be blind in this case and let the evidence decide its outcome.
Any other theory, or opinion, or issue that does so would be an unfortunate interloper in our court system and remove the impartiality that should be a hallmark of our legal system.