Orenthal James Simpson was born on July 9, 1947. He was a football star at USC and went on to be the first pick in the 1969 NFL draft. Throughout the years, he would be the recipient of numerous awards, including the NFL MVP of 1973 and Best Offensive Player of the Year. He eventually retired from football in 1977 after playing 11 seasons and left for the Hollywood industry. In the next decade, OJ's face would appear in a number of Hertz commercials, as well as movies such as "Capricorn One" and "The Naked Gun." Nevertheless, life would begin turning sideways for him when he divorced Nicole Brown Simpson in 1992.
In 1995, three years after the divorce, OJ's ex-wife and her friend Ronald Goldman would be found dead in an LA apartment. They were the victims of murder, and OJ Simpson was the main suspect, accused of murdering her out of jealously and based on a history of domestic violence. When notified of this accusation, OJ attempted to flee. Hiding in the back of his friend AC Cowling's car, they drove down the highway with police cars and helicopters trailing closely behind.
Allegedly, OJ was said to have a gun pointed to his head and would pull the trigger if the police got too close, which resulted in them only being able to follow a significant distance behind. His fans, however, who heard about the chase, lined up along the side of the roads and on the bridges overlooking the highway to cheer him on. Eventually, he would be arrested in Brentwood, California, and taken into court.
The trial began on January 24, 1995. OJ's attorney team was, in colloquial terms, "stacked." People called the group the "Dream Team," including people such as F. Lee Bailey, Robert Shapiro, and Alan Dershowitz. Their main argument was that the police and investigators were racist and that they had planted evidence to frame OJ. Dennis Fung, the criminologist in charge of this case, revealed that after further investigation, it did appear as if proper protocols were not enforced at the crime scene. The DNA test of the drop of foreign blood left at the crime scene also came out not only similar to OJ's, but also to 170 million other people.
What's more, during the trial, tapes were released of the head detective Mark Fuhrmann making racial slurs and boasting about police brutality during the investigation, despite his previous denials. Soon, it became clear that this was more than just a simple murder trial. It was a trial of race. While most of OJ's supporters were African American, the majority of those believing him to be guilty was, unsurprisingly, white. At one point in the trial, OJ was asked to try on the rubber gloves that were "dropped by the killer" at the crime scene. Johnie Cochran, his defense attorney, challenged that "if it doesn't fit, you must acquit." The gloves turned out to be much too small for OJ's hands.
Eventually, after eight months of trial and more than 150 testimonies, OJ Simpson was found innocent. The whites were horrified. The blacks, ecstatic. While the judgments of this trial may still be up for debate, one thing was clear: racial inequality was still a present and prominent factor in American society.
This post was so insightful, and I really enjoyed how you analyzed Simpson’s trial not only in a legal manner, but pointed out the racial aspect that played into it as well. I want to add on to your post by providing a nuanced view on Simpson: 13 years after the trial, Simpson published his book If I Did It, practically confessing to the murder (he wrote about how he would have hypothetically committed them). What frustrates me is that the double-jeopardy law ensured that he could not be brought forth for the same charges. It also reminds me of The Great Gatsby, in which F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals the darker side to the supposed meritocracy offered by the American Dream. Through the characters of Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson, he shows that despite climbing the social ladder, their ill fates are inevitable as they have not been guaranteed status like OJ Simpson was, with his reputation as America’s sweetheart.
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https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Did-Confessions-Killer/dp/0825305934
This post was very interesting, as I had previously heard so much about this NFL star's murder case, but I did not know the actual details of what had taken place. It turns out that this was not the only legal trouble that Simpson got into. In 2007, he was also involved in an armed robbery, and was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison, with eligibility for parole after 9. In 2017, Simpson was granted parole and freed.
ReplyDeleteI found this post very interesting and am more knowledgeable about the importance of this trial now that I realize that it was a trial more about racial rights then if OJ actually committed the murder. Interesting fact, it’s alleged that Simpson confessed to the murder during the trial: There were rumors that the former Buffalo Bills running back confessed his guilt to a spiritual advisor named Rosey Grier while in jail and on trial. Nevertheless, the defense barred the prosecution from calling Grier to the stand, since their conversation was held in confidence.
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https://hermoments.com/oj-simpson-trial-facts/
Super interesting post! I had heard of the famous OJ Simpson trial as early as 7th grade in Mr. Hayman's class (shout out to Mr. Hayman) but never knew that there was a racist side to the trial. I had always thought that Simpson was definitely guilty (affirmed later on in his book mentioned in Stella's comment) and that was that but there seems to be another side to the case. The fact that detective Mark Fuhrmann made racist remarks seemed to me to be a huge factor in the judge's decision. As this took place in the 90s, I'm sure that race was more important of a factor because of the civil rights era right leading up to the trial. It's interesting to think about how Simpson's trial would have played out otherwise had he been acquitted in the modern day with modern beliefs of race.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.biography.com/news/oj-simpson-trial-timeline