[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 79 (Tuesday, June 21, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
O.J. SIMPSON TRAGEDY POINTS UP IMPORTANCE OF THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 
                                  ACT

  (Ms. NORTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, many Americans seem confused about how to 
respond to the Simpson family tragedy. O.J.'s life is indeed cut from 
the cloth of Greek tragedy, complete with the tragic flaw that may have 
brought his downfall. That flaw, however, may have brought death to 
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
  A jury will decide O.J.'s guilt or innocence. He has, however, 
already confessed to crimes that were never punished--repeatedly and 
sometimes brutally beating his wife. This domestic violence against 
Nicole may have led to her death. If so, the only possibility for 
prevention was with the police she summoned and the courts that were 
her only recourse. They failed Nicole. And they failed O.J., whose 
life, too, is now all but over, however the case comes out.
  Let us not compound these failures. Let us remember Nicole and the 52 
percent of all women in the first half of the 1980's who were murdered 
by their partners. Let us make certain that the Violence Against Women 
Act remains a part of the crime bill.

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