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Kirt and others: I watched the verdict with my Advanced Writing class at 1 on tuesday, and thought you and other readers of the list might be interested in some of their responses. Many women were aghast that OJ was acquited, and several expressed their dismay that in this case the "judicial system just didn't work." The one African-American student in the class was the only person who saw race as an issue at all. She and I were the only ones who found it conceivable that perhaps the police/Mark Furman did plant or tamper with evidence (I grew up in Mississippi in the 1960's when the police wwere complicit with much worse actions.). Part of our discussion did focus on the setting, however--how do people who were living in Los Angeles during the Rodney King trial and the subsequent riots understand the police-tampering-with-the-evidence argument? How does the context, the historical as well as physical setting affect the jurors as well as others in assessing/being swayed by this part of the defense's argument? Sue Simmons Bowling Green State University ------------------------------