Though he was found not guilty in a criminal trial of murdering his
wife, a civil jury recently decided that In Cold Blood and Baretta star Robert Blake had "intentionally caused the death" of Bonnie Lee Bakley, and ordered him to pay $30 million to her four kids. Isn't the justice system weird? This is exactly the same scenario
that played out in the O.J. Simpson case - Simpson was found not guilty
of killing his ex-wife and her boyfriend, but a civil jury still decided
that he needed to pay over $30 million in damages to the families of
the pair. Another similarity between the two cases is that both men are
broke, and will most likely never pay more than a tiny fraction of
the ordered restitution. Some feel that these cases only went ahead because their subjects were famous, and that the suits never would have be pursued against normal citizens. Whatever the case, Blake's money trouble (he already owes the IRS) just got a whole lot worse.
