20 years ago today
- Thread starter hatfieldms
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Crazy times in LA. OJ, Rodney King. Didn't matter whether they were guilty or innocent, no LA jury was going to convict.
Saw something interesting yesterday. There's a new book out from one of Jay Leno's Tonight Show staffers. Said that Jay always refused to have any of the defense lawyers on his show because he believed OJ was guilty.
Saw something interesting yesterday. There's a new book out from one of Jay Leno's Tonight Show staffers. Said that Jay always refused to have any of the defense lawyers on his show because he believed OJ was guilty.
I don't blame the jury. If you watch the special that aired on NBC last week, the jury had no choice but to acquit. It was the worst prosecuted case ever. Total incompetency.
That "jury" never listened to another word either side said after it had been established that Mark Furhman had dropped some N-bombs at some point prior to the trial. The prosecution was absolutely incompetent but they could have produced a video of Simpson committing the crime after that and at best got a hung jury.
It was a perfect storm......
The man indeed all but confessed by word and deed prior to his arrest and left behind enough evidence to still convict him even if 90% of it was thrown out. On the other side all the defense had going was a far-fetched and frankly impossible conspiracy theory that to have happened would have required the immediate complicity of dozens of people many of whom were complete strangers. So what happened?
As I said it was the perfect storm of a popular black celebrity, an incompetent starstruck judge, incompetent prosecutors, a racially sensitive jury, and unlimited money to buy a defense team who knew exactly how to exploit all of the above. Thus, the outcome had nothing to do with the evidence in the case. As someone said earlier, they could have had a video of OJ slicing up his victims and he still would have walked. Sad, sad situation. Not just the outrageous miscarriage of justice but also how it divided Americans along racial lines.
The man indeed all but confessed by word and deed prior to his arrest and left behind enough evidence to still convict him even if 90% of it was thrown out. On the other side all the defense had going was a far-fetched and frankly impossible conspiracy theory that to have happened would have required the immediate complicity of dozens of people many of whom were complete strangers. So what happened?
As I said it was the perfect storm of a popular black celebrity, an incompetent starstruck judge, incompetent prosecutors, a racially sensitive jury, and unlimited money to buy a defense team who knew exactly how to exploit all of the above. Thus, the outcome had nothing to do with the evidence in the case. As someone said earlier, they could have had a video of OJ slicing up his victims and he still would have walked. Sad, sad situation. Not just the outrageous miscarriage of justice but also how it divided Americans along racial lines.
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Makes you wonder, under the same circumstances, what the verdict would be in 2014. Seems like gay rights has the public's attention as opposed to the 90's when African-American rights were at the media forefront. The general public and the jury might not have been so sympathetic towards OJ.
I don't agree. The only burden the defense has is to convince the jury that there is a reasonable doubt that OJ did it. When the prosecution, in their infinite wisdom, decided to let Simpson try on those gloves in open court, and then they put a known racist (and the one who found the glove that didn't fit) on the witness stand, that's all you need for reasonable doubt.
If they had produced a video of him committing the crime, then Simpson would've been convicted.
He's guilty as hell, but the outrage should've been at the feet of Clark and Darden. They were completely out of their league.
If they had produced a video of him committing the crime, then Simpson would've been convicted.
He's guilty as hell, but the outrage should've been at the feet of Clark and Darden. They were completely out of their league.
I remember them announcing the verdict at school when I was in middle school.
Half the class cheered and the other half moaned.
Half the class cheered and the other half moaned.
OJ is probably the only innocent man ever to put police into a high speed chase to apprehend him and threaten to kill himself with a gun in the process. I would have hated to see his reaction if he had actually been guilty. Jeez.
One reason was to keep central LA from becoming a war zone like it was after the Rodney King case verdicts. But I think there would have been riots all over America.
I think Simpson might have been convicted had the Rodney King arresting officers not been acquitted. The aftermath from that case had direct implications on the OJ case.