Two words: It’s over.

Nearly everyone gathered around their radios and TVs on Tuesday to hear the long awaited verdict. Would O.J. be playing golf this afternoon or stamping out license plates?

Jeff Stein, a Marshalltown lawyer and a professor at Iowa State, said he had planned to bring his old TV that sat in his office to his journalism class at 12:10 so that he and his students could hear the verdict.

Upon entering his office, he discovered a small crowd of faculty members already tuned in. Stein said he watched the polling of the jurors and by the time he walked down the stairs of Hamilton Hall, word of the verdict had already reached the students.

“I am not a bit surprised. I had anticipated that a quick verdict would be in his favor,” Stein said. “These folks [the jury] have been thinking about this for a very long time.”

Polk County District Attorney John Sarcone agreed with Stein.

“When you do this type of work, you are not surprised by verdicts,” Sarcone said.

Brennan Buckley, a senior in advertising from Marion had a different reaction.

“Until now, I never thought it was physically possible for my jaw to hit the ground,” said Buckley, who watched the verdict from the Maintenance Shop in the Memorial Union. Buckley said the packed M-shop was “dead silent” when the verdict was announced. “I think everyone else was shocked too.”

Stein said he was not sure the prosecution proved Simpson’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, “but once that glove didn’t fit, I thought he would be found not guilty.”

The glove not fitting was a “powerful image,” Stein said, “Virtually no one understands DNA … but everyone knows if clothing fits.” Stein said in a case of this magnitude jurors resort to their own knowledge and what they can relate to and understand. The defense may have convinced the jury of a reasonable doubt, but Sarcone said felt the prosecution had sufficient evidence to establish Simpson’s guilt.

Sarcone said it is going to take the jurors’ explanation of the reasoning behind their decision to help him understand the verdict.

Sarcone said that he occasionally contacts jurors to find out how the lawyers could have done better and what holes were left in their case.

Scott Sorheim, a sophomore in mechanical engineering from Mendota Heights, Minn., said he disagreed with the verdict but was not surprised. “O.J. had the money to pay his lawyers and they were going to create a reasonable doubt to get him off.”

Sarcone said that unless new evidence is introduced, he doesn’t expect the Los Angles Police Department to investigate the case further.

“Anytime in these cases, at least in this part of the country, investigators let the evidence take them to the individual,” Sarcone explained. “They don’t start with preconceived notions of who did it and see where it takes them. You have to follow every lead and eliminate suspects. I assume they looked at and explored every possible suspect.”

“O.J. Simpson could hold a press conference tomorrow and say, ‘ I got away with murder, literally,’ and nothing would happen,” Stein said, because of the double jeopardy law, which keeps people from being tried for the same crime twice.

Stein said he felt sorrier for the family of Ronald Goldman because they have no answer to why he had to die. “By all appearances, he [Goldman] was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. No one deserves to die, but he was an innocent bystander,” Stein said. “Her family [Nicole Brown Simpon’s] is somewhat blaming themselves for not seeing signs of the domestic abuse sooner.”

Sarcone suggested that the prosecution deserves a vacation. “I’d give them time off. They are good people and worked hard.” Sarcone also said that he didn’t feel the loss of the case would be detrimental to the careers of the prosecution. But he said that the win for the defense would certainly put them in high demand.