The Mysteries of O.J. Simpson (1995) The O.J Simpson trial in 1995 serves as a remarkable case that has greatly impacted America to this day. Numerous factors were involved in this historical trial that caused it to be a monumental moment in the history of our country. 1995 was a year full of theories and suspicion centered on the mysteries of a single person’s life. The trial was a crucial moment in history because it caused a division involving people that supported O.J.’s innocence and people that were against O.J. which ultimately led to racism dividing America. Many Americans were determined to prove O.J.’s guilt through the evidence found prior to the murders and actions of Simpson following the murders. Prior to the murders, many red …show more content…
was innocent which may have been for various reasons. First, there was a rumor that Fuhrman planted the evidence on Simpson to make him look guilty and the officer’s past gave people reason to come to that conclusion. Fuhrman’s reputation of being racist did not help him with succeeding in the investigation. Majority of African Americans believed “the trial was plagued by speculation of police tampering with evidence in order to set up Simpson” (Overman 1). After this possibility was brought to the public eye “jurors were left doubting Fuhrman's credibility and, more important, the validity of the evidence from his investigation” (“The Trial of the Century” 4-5). Secondly, Simpson’s fame and popularity gave him the upper hand during the trial and “prior to these sorry events, Orenthal James Simpson was one of America's most beloved sports heroes” (“O.J. Simpson” 1). African Americans quickly jumped at the idea that racism was the reason for O.J. being investigated as the main suspect. America began to split between opinions and “across the U.S., many black Americans believed that O.J.'s case was yet another case of a black man being framed by bigoted police—only this time, the black man had the power and fame to fight back and win in court” (“If It Doesn’t Fit, You Must Acquit” 3). People’s past love for O.J. caused many to look past the truth because they didn’t want to believe he had evilness in him to commit a crime so …show more content…
Regarding Simpson’s case, “among the general public, opinion on O.J.'s guilt was (and, as of 2005, remained) deeply divided along racial lines, with approximately two thirds of black Americans believing that O.J. was innocent and two thirds of white Americans believing that he was guilty” (“If It Doesn’t Fit, You Must Acquit” 2). The divided opinions between whites and blacks prove that race played a significant role within this trial. America was at a true dividing line throughout the entire case. Whites typically believed in Simpson’s guilt because of the evidence found and suspicious actions that did not add up, and blacks mainly believed in his innocence and were determined that the evidence was planted. Some even “speculated at the time that if Nicole had been African American, the country would not have been so interested and conflicted about the outcomes of the various trials” (Overman 2). The year of 1995 still remains major a turning point in the history of America regarding racial issues and the validity of accusing people of crimes. Another aspect that triggered tension between whites and blacks were the unfair juries and the ruling that followed. Regarding the all black jury, “doubts persisted about the trial, and some claimed that the mostly black jury engaged in jury nullification. Subsequently, in a civil trial with a mostly white jury, Simpson was
The book that I am going to introduce is Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O.J. Got Away With Murder, written by Vincent Bugliosi, and was published on June 17, 1996. We all know that Nichole Simpson and Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death and their bodies were discovered on June 12, 1994 early morning. It was said that after a car chase, O.J. was found with $9,000 I cash, his passport, disguise, and a gun. O.J. Simpson who is her ex-husband was acquitted October 3, 1995, for their deaths in a trial that riveted the nation and divided people along racial differences. In 1997, he was ordered to pay a little over $33 million for their deaths. O.J. Simpson is still serving time in prison for things like kidnapping, robbery, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, and numerous other charges. Mr. Bugliosi sums up five reason why the case was lost. Those five can be labeled as the jury, the change in venue or settings, the judge allowing the defense to play the race card, the stupidity of the prosecution throughout the trial, and lastly the summation of what should really have been done. But in honesty when the media started reporting about this case it was already falling apart.
There were racial views that took place during this trial. The whites who believed he was guilty assume that if there were enough accusations, Simpson would be convicted, and the African Americans who thought he was not guilty assume that here's another black man drawn into the criminal justice system. Both groups have not moved an inch regarding their position on the case since the verdict was released. Both races saw the same program played out on American television, but they both had very different views about it. And in both cases, their views were influenced by their experiences with race and their experience with the criminal justice
This essay is purposed for the evaluation of the provocative case, The State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson, more commonly referred to as O.J. Simpson. On the 12th of June, 1994 the homicide of Nicole Simpson, O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife, occurred at her home. Reports of a body sprawled out the front of Nicole Simpson’s house were made through a 911 call. On arrival, police made the discovery of Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman’s dead bodies outside the house. The review of this investigation will be achieved through; Assessment of the key aspects of the process of investigation. Evaluation of the main investigative flaws made throughout the investigation. Identifying strategies to prevent these flaws from happening in
The prosecution called 78 witnesses with Allan Park, O.J.’s limo driver, being the best witness they had placing O.J. within the timeline of the murders(Geis & Bienen, 2016). The crime happened sometime after 10 pm before O.J. had left for LAX to travel to Chicago for a business meeting(Geis & Bienen, 2016). Allan Park testified that he was at O.J. Simpson’s house and knocked on his door at 10:25 pm but there was no response(Geis & Bienen, 2016). Mr. Park stated he did not see O.J.’s white Bronco anywhere and assumed he was not home yet(Geis & Bienen, 2016). At 10:56 pm, Mr. Park saw O.J. enter the front of his home(Geis & Bienen, 2016). Mr. Park noticed O.J. was very anxious and was
The New York Times bestseller book titled Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O.J. Simpson Case examines the O.J. Simpson criminal trial of the mid-1990s. The author, Alan M. Dershowitz, relates the Simpson case to the broad functions and perspectives of the American criminal justice system as a whole. A Harvard law school teacher at the time and one of the most renowned legal minds in the country, Dershowitz served as one of O.J. Simpson’s twelve defense lawyers during the trial. Dershowitz utilizes the Simpson case to illustrate how today’s criminal justice system operates and relates it to the misperceptions of the public. Many outside spectators of the case firmly believed that Simpson committed the
The OJ Simpson case has been hailed "The Trial of the Century." One of the longest running court trials in history, this case was filled with conspiracy, controversy, and the power of celebrity. The biggest part of the trial was the evidence. The submission of the blood samples, the DNA testing, and the articles of clothing made the case what it was. Amidst all the accusations of planted evidence and conspiracy plans against Simpson, the jury and Judge Ito had to try to sift through and find Simpson guilty or not guilty.
In 1920, Oscar Micheaux directed the silent film Within Our Gates which conducts an in-depth examination of race relations and discrimination within the United States. One of the outcomes of the film is a blatant failure of justice resulting in the lynching of an African American couple, The Landrys. Seemingly, time has not altered the inherent absence of justice concerning the treatment of Black men and women in situations where criminal activity is suspected, legitimately or otherwise. Evidence is found with the killings of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and many other Black victims who died at the hands of police who are tasked with upholding justice and fail to do so. However, what was the popular sentiment toward failure within the legal system between 1920 and 2015? While not representative of this entire time span, in 1962, Robert Mulligan’s film To Kill a Mockingbird focuses on race relations and an African American male wrongly accused of rape who is ultimately killed in a suspicious police shooting. Within Our Gates and To Kill a Mockingbird each offer a presentation of a gross miscarriage of justice that is obvious to the omniscient viewer, but the reaction the films garner from the audience varies from outrage to resignation due to the implementation (or lack thereof) of a visual stimuli, telling of the time period in which the films were produced.
According to American history, prejudice is shown through the courtroom’s jury when making decisions to send the alleged African Americans to jail. On March 24, 1931, nine African American lives were jeopardized with the false accusations of rape that further scrutinizes the nation’s controversial look upon justice. Referring to Abigail Thernson and Henry Fetter when talking about The Scottsboro Trials it states, “Represented by unprepared out of date counsel who had no more than a half an hour consult
In an attempt to counter the racist claims of the defense, the jury was selected and was mostly African American females (Gaines 2001). The district attorney of Los Angeles believed that an all white jury would be ineffective if Simpson were to be found guilty (Thernstrom & Fetter 1996). This outcome of the jury selection upset the Caucasian population because they felt as though the jury selection gave Simpson the upper hand in the trial regardless of the fact that the jury was majority female. The defense counsel was able to control the jury, in a sense through instilling in their minds that the LAPD was in fact racist. At the trial’s conclusion approximately 83% of blacks believed that Simpson was guilty, whereas only 37% of whites believed that Simpson was guilty (Thernstrom & Fetter 1996). These allegations also pushed the evidence collected from the crime to be discredited as well.
August 9th 2014, Ferguson Missouri, an unarmed black teen Michael Brown was shot, and fatally wounded by a white police officer by the name of Darren Wilson. As a direct result of deciding not to indict Officer Wilson, the black community was out raged! Riots, looting, and damage to businesses soon followed the judge’s ruling. The trial was unlike normal trials which were treated with more expedience in the process, the grand jury in Officer Wilson case met for three months and 25 days. (Buchanan, et. al. 2014)
Racial prejudice against McMillian is shown when the case was moved to a predominantly white county, therefore excluding other African-Americans from participating in the trail. Another example of racial prejudice against McMillian is shown when the court determines him to be guilty, despite hundreds of alibis proving his innocence and faulty allegations (Stevenson, 2014, p. 49-52, 66). These two examples show how racism plagues the American criminal
The memory of incidents such as O. J. Simpson’s high profile criminal trial, the assault of Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1992, and the 2009 arrest and charging of Harvard Professor Henry Gates for racial profiling still freshly linger in the minds of many Americans. The people’s perceptions of justice in these situations continue to represent how the criminal justice system is viewed in present times, and continue defining racial disparity in America (Mauer, 2011).
against a black person, held more weight truthfully in the jurors eyes, a problem we are still
In 1995, O.J. Simpson, a popular sports player and public figure, was accused of the double homicide of Ron Goldman and his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson. Within the following months, the trial became increasingly popular as the celebrity’s case deepened. Due to its popularity, the case revealed many aspects that shocked and confounded the public. Consequently, the issue of race arose within what was viewed as the most shocking component of the trial: the verdict. As the infamous O.J. Simpson verdict reached America, the reaction caused a polarizing effect on the racial view of Simpson between white and black communities.