He said he was impressed by the tolerance of Cambridge authorities toward protesters during the trial.

"They're lucky they can demonstrate and speak out because if it were any other country, they'd be shot or arrested," he said.

Others saw subtle traces of elitism in the outcome of the trial.

"I think if the girl were Mexican, the case wouldn't be like that," said Said Khoury, a Cambridge taxicab driver who lives in West Roxbury.

"I've been living here for 15 years, and [a person] who has money, who has power, they can get away with it," added Khoury, while navigating his cab through the streets of Cambridge on Monday.

Maxon Chaperon, a taxi driver from Haiti who has lived in the U.S. for 14 years, offered his own reaction yesterday.

"The previous jury was baloney--justice is not fair, nowhere, even here," he said.

Some who had protested the original conviction and were elated by Zobel's announcement on Monday said they doubted the ability of the jurors to make a valid decision.

Lorraine B. Lasen, who held a picket sign on Monday afternoon saying "Liberty for Louise," said the earlier verdict of second-degree murder was "unfair, possibly because the jury didn't get a grasp on all the medical evidence that was presented to them."

Others, however, viewed popular conclusions with skepticism.

"Everybody is offering an opinion on something they really don't know anything about," said Philip Cronin '53, who was a classmate of Zobel at Harvard and was president of The Crimson while Zobel was assistant sports editor.

"A lot of people are offering opinions without really knowing what the evidence was," Cronin said, adding that it was "presumptuous of the world at large to comment on a case they didn't hear."

Woodward's defense attorney, Harvey A. Silverglate, who has formerly sued the University on behalf of students alleging misconduct by Harvard police officers, agreed.

"There are a lot of people commenting on this case who don't let facts get in their way," he said.

More to Come?