Free His Name Is Ron by Kim Goldman

her finger, silently changing the meaning of the three intertwined circles to represent Ron, Dad, and Kim—always connected and bound to each other.
    On Thursday evening we were told that Simpson was going to be arrested for the murders. We knew that this meant that the police had “probable cause” to believe that Simpson had committed the murders. In the midst of our grief, it was tempting to accept this as a judgment, and to vent our rage. But throughout this nightmare we had been too distraught to pay close attention to the details of the police investigation, and we did not wish to disrupt the process.
    â€œLet the system work,” I counseled. “We’ll go through the system. We’ll hear all the evidence.”
    We did think it was absurd that Simpson would be allowed to turn himself in the following morning at ten o’clock. That was a joke. Only if you are a celebrity or wealthy do you get to “turn yourself in.” We askedourselves: Why don’t they just arrest him? Who is this person who gets the kid-glove treatment and makes these decisions for himself? No one suspected of with double murder should get special treatment.
    Throughout the week we had heard reports of people saying, “He’s O. J. Simpson, the sports hero, he couldn’t have done it.”
    Michael, as the family’s resident sports fan, had his own perspective on that. He loves to play sports and loves to watch events on TV, especially basketball, but he has never been one to put a sports figure on a pedestal. To Michael, a hero is someone who does a good deed, someone who gives to charities, someone who cares about other people. A hero risks his life to save another. A hero pulls a kid out of a burning building. A hero is a teacher who turns a kid’s life around. A hero is not someone who scores four touchdowns in a football game.
    On Friday morning, like much of America, we gathered anxiously in front of the television to watch the official arrest. The live coverage bounced between scenes at the courthouse and Parker Center Police Headquarters. Because the crime was a double homicide, the charge included “special circumstances,” and reporters discussed the impact of that. The only possible sentences for a person convicted of homicide with “special circumstances” would be life without parole—or death.
    Our frustration grew as the deadline was extended from 10:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. Then it was extended again, to 11:45. What was going on? we wondered.
    Finally, an extraordinarily tense-looking Commander David J. Gascon appeared on the screen and began to speak:
    â€œThis morning, detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department, after an exhaustive investigation, which included interviews of dozens of witnesses, a thorough examination and analysis of the physical evidence both here and in Chicago, sought and obtained a warrant for the arrest of O. J. Simpson, charging him with the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman.
    â€œMr. Simpson, in agreement with his attorneys, was scheduled to surrender this morning to the Los Angeles Police Department. Initially that was eleven. It then became eleven-forty-five. Mr. Simpson has not appeared.”
    There were audible gasps from those assembled as Commander Gascon continued: “The Los Angeles Police Department, right now, is actively searching for Mr. Simpson. The Los Angeles Police Department is also very unhappy with the activities surrounding his failure to surrender, and wewill be further looking into those activities, including anyone who may have intervened on his behalf…. Mr. Simpson is a wanted murder suspect. Two counts of murder, a terrible crime. We need to find him. We need to apprehend him. We need to bring him to justice. And we need to make sure that we find him as quickly as possible.”
    And so the supposedly great O. J. Simpson, the sports hero who “couldn’t have done