The People vs. OJ Simpson

[rocket surgeon]

Racial issues are written as racial issues but without specifically mentioning that Rodney King was beaten senselessly by the LAPD (all acquitted) and captured on video just two years prior, and the subsequent racially tinged riots, seems to cover over that the OJ Simpson trial was just the perfect venue for the people to reassert their "power" in a complex scheme of racial triumph.

great point!  the juxtaposition pf these two played a huge role and probably neutered the prosecution somewhat.  however, the prosecution still butchered this case.  they were playing NOT to lose because of the racial element.  all they had to do, among a few other things, was point out that o.j. himself didn't feel any allegiance to his race until he NEEDED them.  what a surprise!  al cowlings was one of the few holdovers.  otherwise, everyone he hung around with was....

as for his defense-well that's why they called it the "dream team"

oh, and i wonder how o.j. is doing finding nicole and ron's real murderer

[jsglow]

20+ years has been a long time in the development of race relations.  While Shaq might be the best example, what the younger generation doesn't understand is that today's black celebrities don't have to deny their 'blackness' the way OJ carefully did.  He was essentially a white man with a suntan and lived in a white man's world all for the purpose of maximizing his marketability to the white community.  At the same time he had somehow avoided alienating the black community along the way.  Today, more folks embrace the differences among people and the complete disassociation with one's roots isn't as necessary.

Another example of this might be Bill Cosby, regardless of his skin color.  Bill's image was carefully crafted to be the doting father.  Of course his real life story doesn't match that in one important way.

[MerrittsMustache]

great point!  the juxtaposition pf these two played a huge role and probably neutered the prosecution somewhat.  however, the prosecution still butchered this case.  they were playing NOT to lose because of the racial element.  all they had to do, among a few other things, was point out that o.j. himself didn't feel any allegiance to his race until he NEEDED them.  what a surprise!  al cowlings was one of the few holdovers.  otherwise, everyone he hung around with was....

as for his defense-well that's why they called it the "dream team"

oh, and i wonder how o.j. is doing finding nicole and ron's real murderer

Playing the race card against Cochran was not going to end well for the prosecution. He was a master spin-artist and story-teller. He would have eaten them alive if they took the trial in that direction, especially given the make-up of the jury.

In addition to the huge mistake of having the trial in LA, the prosecution's two biggest mistakes were jury selection and failing to understand that the jury did not understand what DNA evidence actually meant. It was a very foreign concept at the time and went right over their heads (especially since they didn't have CNN to explain it to them like the general public) and instead they bought in to the defense team's well-told, though often conflicting, tales. For the most part, the jurors were looking for a reason to acquit and they found one.

[mu03eng]

I was in junior high in Tampa at the time of the trial, and while I wasn't paying that close of attention (far too many sports to play) I remember all the racial tensions it stirred up as a white kid going to a school where I was far in the minority. I think the show did a good job of showing just how f%&ked up the racial environment was back in that day. It's still not ideal but it really has come a long way. Someone mentioned how white OJ had to act, that's 100% true and now we've gotten to the point where people are upset because people who aren't black are "acting black"...it's progress.

What I think people miss with the trial(with the benefit of hindsight) is that while DNA was pretty new and may have flown over their heads, I think the jury was set to overlook the DNA. Given the political and racial elements of the environment of the time they were going to overlook a lot of stuff to find OJ not-guilty. The biggest mistakes the prosecution made were in not better handling the jury environment(they just got pissed as time went on and identified with OJ) and were Mark Furman.

The one complaint I have about the show(other than Cuba as OJ, I don't think people realize how physically intimidating OJ was) was that I don't think they drove home exactly how awful Furman was as a human being and as a witness. Never should have put him anywhere near the witness stand. And again I wasn't paying attention at the time I guess but at the end of the series they said Mark Furman was a commentator on Fox News, wha?????

Overall I thought it was a very good show and I especially enjoyed that at least once an episode something so crazy would happen(that actually happened) that my wife would say WTF they didn't make that up? Good stuff

[jsglow]

I was in junior high in Tampa at the time of the trial, and while I wasn't paying that close of attention (far too many sports to play) I remember all the racial tensions it stirred up as a white kid going to a school where I was far in the minority. I think the show did a good job of showing just how f%&ked up the racial environment was back in that day. It's still not ideal but it really has come a long way. Someone mentioned how white OJ had to act, that's 100% true and now we've gotten to the point where people are upset because people who aren't black are "acting black"...it's progress.

What I think people miss with the trial(with the benefit of hindsight) is that while DNA was pretty new and may have flown over their heads, I think the jury was set to overlook the DNA. Given the political and racial elements of the environment of the time they were going to overlook a lot of stuff to find OJ not-guilty. The biggest mistakes the prosecution made were in not better handling the jury environment(they just got pissed as time went on and identified with OJ) and were Mark Furman.

The one complaint I have about the show(other than Cuba as OJ, I don't think people realize how physically intimidating OJ was) was that I don't think they drove home exactly how awful Furman was as a human being and as a witness. Never should have put him anywhere near the witness stand. And again I wasn't paying attention at the time I guess but at the end of the series they said Mark Furman was a commentator on Fox News, wha?????

Overall I thought it was a very good show and I especially enjoyed that at least once an episode something so crazy would happen(that actually happened) that my wife would say WTF they didn't make that up? Good stuff

Totally agree with part 1 of this.  The prosecution really never had a chance once the jury was selected the way it was.  They also made a mistake of going on waaaaaay too long.  Those folks just wanted to go home. 

Not so sure about your Fuhrman analysis.  Johnnie found one example of Fuhrman using the 'N word' and successfully widened that fissure into the Grand Canyon.  It's a reality that the prosecution had to deal with as Fuhrman was a very key component in the discovery of evidence the night of the murder.  Recall that he personally escorted Lang and VanAter to the Rockingham location because he had been there before on prior OJ matters.  And he was the one that found the glove.  With the backdrop of today's police misdeeds (Baltimore, Chicago, Manitowoc, the list goes on), the work that LAPD did that night was actually very good.  Any departure from procedure (like the blood vial custody issue) was trivial and a red herring. 

OJ did it.  This was a case purely centered on jury nullification.  God himself could have been a witness and testified and it wouldn't have mattered.

[4everwarriors]

Simple motive, very simple case to try and get a conviction. Yet, Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden managed to fook it up. Kato Kaelin also knew da truth and played dumber than he is. To gain a not guilty verdict, da jury bought da bs that da cops planted OJ's blood at da crime scene. Unfookin' believable, ai na?

[ChicosBailBonds]

Simple motive, very simple case to try and get a conviction. Yet, Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden managed to fook it up. Kato Kaelin also knew da truth and played dumber than he is. To gain a not guilty verdict, da jury bought da bs that da cops planted OJ's blood at da crime scene. Unfookin' believable, ai na?

Kato has said since, he knows OJ did it.

[Golden Avalanche]

20+ years has been a long time in the development of race relations.  While Shaq might be the best example, what the younger generation doesn't understand is that today's black celebrities don't have to deny their 'blackness' the way OJ carefully did.  He was essentially a white man with a suntan and lived in a white man's world all for the purpose of maximizing his marketability to the white community.  At the same time he had somehow avoided alienating the black community along the way.  Today, more folks embrace the differences among people and the complete disassociation with one's roots isn't as necessary.

Another example of this might be Bill Cosby, regardless of his skin color.  Bill's image was carefully crafted to be the doting father.  Of course his real life story doesn't match that in one important way.

This is the generational divide many may not fully comprehend. 1994 saw nothing like Instagram or Twitter or Facebook. Mobile phones were in their infancy. People didn't scroll the internet reading TMZ. Heck, valets and waiters and baristas and gym employees weren't yet incentivized to spy and expose celebrities for a $1,000 wad of cash.

You could craft an image in careful means, in multiple aspects of the citizenry, and not worry as much about it being considered fake or contrived. And, at the time, television was the most powerful avenue to do so and OJ had perfected it all to a tee. For him to be involved in a controversy like this quite literally brought the country to a standstill.

[4everwarriors]

Kato has said since, he knows OJ did it.

Kato was a classmate in high school with da Mrs. 4ever. He made an appearance at da 25 year reunion and was treated like some fookin' rock star. Coulda absolutely buried OJ at da trial, but pussied out, ai na?

[jsglow]

This is the generational divide many may not fully comprehend. 1994 saw nothing like Instagram or Twitter or Facebook. Mobile phones were in their infancy. People didn't scroll the internet reading TMZ. Heck, valets and waiters and baristas and gym employees weren't yet incentivized to spy and expose celebrities for a $1,000 wad of cash.

You could craft an image in careful means, in multiple aspects of the citizenry, and not worry as much about it being considered fake or contrived. And, at the time, television was the most powerful avenue to do so and OJ had perfected it all to a tee. For him to be involved in a controversy like this quite literally brought the country to a standstill.

Very well said.

[jsglow]

Kato was a classmate in high school with da Mrs. 4ever. He made an appearance at da 25 year reunion and was treated like some fookin' rock star. Coulda absolutely buried OJ at da trial, but pussied out, ai na?

Not correct at all.  Kato testified fully and truthfully about what he knew and experienced that night as I recall.  None of his testimony in any way conflicted with the facts and I don't think he had any additional evidence to provide.  If someone is aware of specific info Kato withheld I'm all ears.  And I believe what Kato has said since is that he's firmly convinced that OJ did it.  Well, da. 

On the other hand, there was strong suggestion that an accomplice may have 'cleaned up' after OJ left for Chicago.  The most likely party was his daughter Arnelle.  It is speculated that she might have run the washer and failed to reset the house alarm in the wee hours of the morning.

[MerrittsMustache]

Kato has said since, he knows OJ did it.

Johnnie Cochran told Harvard Law classes that O.J. did it.

[jsglow]

Here's another interesting tidbit.  Prosecutors were fully within their rights to file the case in Santa Monica (the actual jurisdiction for the crime) rather than LA.  The composition of the jury would have likely been considerably different than the 9 black, 1 Hispanic, 2 white composition that actually heard and decided the case.

[MU82]

Mrs. MU82 and I very much enjoyed the show - way more than we thought we would. We didn't have time to watch it when it was first being aired, so I kept DVRing the episodes. Finally, about 6-7 episodes in, we watched. We were so enthralled that we binge-watched them over just a few nights.

It was a compelling, true story - well-told and mostly well-acted.

I am 55, so I obviously was an adult when it was all going on, but I was surprised at how little I remembered. Many times, I'd find myself saying, "Oh yeah, that was how that happened ... " Looking back at how the trial captivated America, especially black America, is really eye-opening.

Clark and Darden came through as incompetent and overly emotional. I thought those two characters were especially well-acted. Cochrane's character also was acted superbly.

Travolta was over the top but actually better than I thought he'd be. Nathan Lane was OK in his relatively limited role. Schwimmer was not convincing at all - but I did get a kick out of the portrayal of the then-young Kardashian girls.

Initially, I had trouble getting past Cuba Gooding as O.J. First, and most obviously, O.J. was physically imposing. Cuba? A relative shrimp. It was as if Jonah Hill were to play Babe Ruth.

As the season went on, though, I thought Cuba did a good job. I thought he was especially good in the latter episodes, portraying a Juice who actually had convinced himself he was innocent.

All in all, it was one of the past year's best TV shows. Interesting, thought-provoking and quite often entertaining.

[jsglow]

Personally, I largely avoided the show.  Fred Goldman had suggested that it failed to make any attempt to capture the victim's story and that he was not even asked for an interview.  I'm skeptical of a 'documentary' these days that might have an agenda (not saying this one did) in the aftermath of Making a Murderer.

For those of you that watched it, do recall that it's not a trial transcript.

[wadesworld]

Kato has said since, he knows OJ did it.

I believe this is false.  I watched an interview with Kato where the interviewer brought up an article that said the author spoke to Kato and Kato said that without a doubt OJ did it.  Kato said that he had never even been asked for an interview from the author so he has no idea where the author got that from, but that he truly believes OJ did it, but he cannot prove it.

Another question on the show.  Obviously I knew about the glove fiasco and trying it on in court.  Is that really how it happened?  Court went to recess and Robert Shapiro was able to walk up to the unattended glove on the witness stand and put it on with nothing else on his hands?  That doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense...

Also, my first reaction to it "not fitting" was that he had a latex glove on over his hands, so of course it wouldn't fit.  Why wouldn't the prosecution raise this issue?  And how could Shapiro walk up to it with no gloves on and try it on?

[MerrittsMustache]

Another question on the show.  Obviously I knew about the glove fiasco and trying it on in court.  Is that really how it happened?  Court went to recess and Robert Shapiro was able to walk up to the unattended glove on the witness stand and put it on with nothing else on his hands?  That doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense...

Also, my first reaction to it "not fitting" was that he had a latex glove on over his hands, so of course it wouldn't fit.  Why wouldn't the prosecution raise this issue?  And how could Shapiro walk up to it with no gloves on and try it on?

According to a Vanity Fair fact-checking article...

Shapiro tried on the crime-scene gloves in evidence during a courtroom break.

True. So did Cochran, according to Lawrence Schiller’s American Tragedy. But the defense just planned “at some time in the future” to have O.J. put on the gloves before the jury.

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/03/people-v-oj-simpson-episode-7-recap

[MU82]

Personally, I largely avoided the show.  Fred Goldman had suggested that it failed to make any attempt to capture the victim's story and that he was not even asked for an interview.  I'm skeptical of a 'documentary' these days that might have an agenda (not saying this one did) in the aftermath of Making a Murderer.

For those of you that watched it, do recall that it's not a trial transcript.

I definitely know that it embellished some things, and I absolutely don't take it as anything close to gospel.

It still was good entertainment, and an interesting look back at a huge event that happened in my lifetime. That's all I'm saying.

[jsglow]

I definitely know that it embellished some things, and I absolutely don't take it as anything close to gospel.

It still was good entertainment, and an interesting look back at a huge event that happened in my lifetime. That's all I'm saying.

I hear ya.  Chick watched it.

[WellsstreetWanderer]

Always wondered what was in the garment bag that Kardashian walked out of OJ's house in hand. And  why he was not stopped and questioned

[warriorchick]

Always wondered what was in the garment bag that Kardashian walked out of OJ's house in hand. And  why he was not stopped and questioned

Don't know if this was based on the truth or not, but there was a scene in the miniseries where days later, Robert Kardashian very nervously opens up the garment bag and looks through it.  He finds nothing and looks relieved.

One of the most interesting parts of the miniseries was the depiction of Robert Kardashian's slow realization that O.J. did it.  He went from being a guy who could never imagine his best friend committing this crime to one who ran to the courthouse bathroom and vomited after the verdict was read.  Of course, most of this did not play out in the press at the time, but my most distinctive memory of watching the verdict was the look on Robert Kadashian's face.  He stood there, stunned,  as the rest of the defense team hugged OJ and each other.

[GooooMarquette]

Kato was a classmate in high school with da Mrs. 4ever. He made an appearance at da 25 year reunion and was treated like some fookin' rock star. Coulda absolutely buried OJ at da trial, but pussied out, ai na?

Did Kato ask to spend a few nights/years on your couch afterwards?

[jsglow]

Sometime watch the verdict YouTube once again.  Bob's reaction is obvious.  He knew the truth in his soul.

[MomofMUltiples]

Vox.com also has a very good episode by episode fact check guide featuring a reporter who covered the trial. As my husband and I watched, there were many places where we both said simultaneously "that did not happen" and sure enough, it was a dramatization to show an event while saving story time. For example, the first assistant DA did not collapse in the courtroom, but he did leave the trial for health reasons. Other things that seemed preposterous really did happen, like the redecoration of OJ's home for the jury tour (and overall, the jury tour of the crime scenes in general - who does that?

It's important to remember that this was a dramatization - not a documentary - but overall it did a good job of depicting the circus around the trial and the racial views of the day. And OJ really was a god in those days. Even white folks had a hard time believing he did it - until later when he stupidly commited armed robbery to steal some of his sports memorabilia back from a dealer at a Las Vegas show.

[warriorchick]

Did Kato ask to spend a few nights/years on your couch afterwards?

I remember back in the day People magazine ran an article on Kato and it had a few pictures of him from Nicolet High School.  In one, he was wearing a sweatshirt with the school name on it, but his arm was covering part of it so all you could see was "Nicole".  There was also an action shot of him on the football team in which he was throwing a block for someone wearing a number 32 jersey.  Eerie.