"The Magician" by Sol Stein - Stanilas Simpson

"No one enters suit justly, no one goes to court honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity" (The Bible, Isaiah 59: 4). The events of the trial for Stanilas Urek, a character in Sol Stein's novel The Magician, are parallel in many ways to the events of the O.J. Simpson trial. Both Urek and O. J. had extremely talented lawyers working in their defense, both defense teams effectively made evidence provided by the prosecution to seem biased or unreliable, and both accused criminals are acquited despite the vast mounds of evidence pre…