A prosecutor said Friday that O.J. Simpson was fairly convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping, responding to the football legend's appeal in a sports memorabilia case. Clark County District Attorney David Roger filed a brief with the state's top court challenging Simpson's appeal of his conviction on 12 charges related to a confrontation with dealers of sport mementos in a Las Vegas hotel room. Simpson was convicted in October and sentenced in December to nine to 33 years in state prison. He is housed at a medium-security prison in Lovelock, about 145 kilometers east of Reno. Roger outlined eight reasons to uphold the conviction in a 46-page brief, arguing among other things that the court didn't remove two black women from the jury pool because of their race. The jury didn't include any black members. In the document, Roger said the women were removed, in part, because prosecutors believed they wouldn't convict Simpson despite the state's evidence because of their religious convictions. “Prosecutors feared that a minister, whom many believe possesses a higher moral authority, could influence and sway jurors who might otherwise be inclined to convict and punish,” the brief said. “Indeed, the state's apprehension ... had nothing to do with her racial background and everything to do with her ministerial position.”
