At long last, O.J. Simpson has landed where, in the minds of most Americans, he absolutely belongs: Behind bars. May it be the last we hear from him.

Last week Simpson, whose fame as a football star ultimately was eclipsed by his reputation as a murderer who got away with it, was finally convicted last week - in Las Vegas, not Los Angeles; for armed robbery, not for murder. It came on the 13th anniversary of the most famous acquittal in many of our lifetimes - Simpson's "not guilty" for the killings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

It is beyond ironic that Simpson could spend the rest of his life in prison - sentencing is set for Dec. 5 - for a relatively piddly robbery of some of his old sports memorabilia following the so-called murder "trial of the century," which riveted the nation for the better part of a year.

If the 1994 killings and the 1995 trial were unforgettable for the utter brutality of the crime, the white Ford Bronco police "chase," the so-called Dream Team legal representation, the "if it doesn't fit, you must acquit" defense in regard to the blood-stained glove found at the scene, the way the issue of race hung over every aspect of a circus trial, the recently completed legal proceedings lasted not even two weeks and produced just about anything but "courtroom drama," in a chambers that was far from packed with a conviction that elicited a barely audible "ho-hum" across the land.

No doubt many a young person - you could be a high school freshman now if you were born the year of the killings - has little appreciation for just how big a celebrity Simpson once was.

If Americans fretted over the seemingly unbridgeable racial gulf that the 20th century Simpson trial exposed - as far as many white Americans were concerned, it was one of the all-time miscarriages of justice, while many black Americans cheered the verdict as a just one, for a change - Americans were more preoccupied with pondering the candidacy of potentially the nation's first black president as the 21st century Simpson trial unfolded.

Indeed, race didn't even come up this time, just Simpson's criminal stupidity for putting himself, in his sixth decade, in such a spot. In fact it is impossible to feel sorry for the Juice, who long ago forfeited any faith that he was a decent human being, even if he were innocent of the murders. His 2006 attempt to capitalize financially upon the killings with a book entitled "If I Did It" sealed that deal.

Did Simpson get a fair trial this time? Did the Las Vegas jury really convict him for the 2007 armed robbery, or for the 1994 alleged murders? Would it even be possible to seat a jury anywhere in America whose members didn't have the killings in the back of their minds? Would a life sentence, effectively, really be appropriate just for this crime?

Hard to say for sure.

What is certain is that O.J. Simpson never had the good sense to just go away voluntarily. Now he will, involuntarily. There is a certain justice in that, delayed but not denied.

Peoria Journal Star