The Rashomon Effect

There are many factors that can influence a person’s interpretation of a situation. Cultural background, religion, prior experiences, or something as simple as a person’s mood can affect the outlook they have toward situations. Two individuals can witness the same event and have opposite reactions or interpretations of the incident. One instance of this can be illustrated by the observations of interaction between a group of friends and a man who was seemingly down on his luck.

The jury really didn’t seem to remember the most important piece of information which was that the defendant’s blood was actually found at the crime scene. Bugliosi said “From the moment O.J. Simpson became a suspect in this double murder case, it was in the air, perhaps as in no other case within

Simpson was acquitted of the murder of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman, but there were no cold hard facts that he was innocent. The jury consisted of nine black jurors, one hispanic, and two whites. Many believe that race had a huge part in Simpson getting off. Three years prior to the

Jeffrey Toobin writes about how Nicole Brown had called the police force at least eight times to report domestic violence. The eighth call, however, was the worst, where Nicole exclaimed “He’s going to kill me! He’s going to kill me!” when the police showed up. Confused at first, the officer John Edwards, “Shined his flashlight on Nicole’s face. Her lip was cut and bleeding. Her left eye was black-and-blue. Her forehead was bruised, and on her neck -unmistakably- was the imprint of a human hand,” (Toobin 120). This was one of many times that Nicole had called the police to report domestic violence against O.J. proving that he was responsible for engaging in the violence more than once. His actions were not okay- especially because he was disrespecting a woman- and I believe that when Nicole finally stood up for herself (like a woman should) and divorced him, he got angry and ended up murdering her and her good friend Ron

The O.J. Simpson trial is one of the most famous ever. O.J. was a former football running back, broadcaster, and actor. He was charged with the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman, but he was eventually found not guilty. The trial lasted over eight months. It was very controversial.

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

Simpson and the death of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, many believe O.J. got away with double murder. I believe Simpson's status had a part because it’s well known that in his court case, The people vs. O.J. Simpson, he had leverage because he was found not guilty on both counts even with evidence including DNA analysis of blood found in, on, and near Simpson's car revealing traces of the victim's blood and shoe prints of a rare shoe with only 29 existing, searching revealed Simpson owned the exact rare shoes. They jury had all the evidence to charge Simpson so why is he "innocent" in the eyes of the court? I believe it has to do with his past career as a NFL player and his wealth more than anything because in June of 1944, another black male, George Stinney, was wrongly convicted and executed for double murder. 14 year old Stinney still holds the record for the youngest individual to be executed as a result of a racially-biased conviction that took less that 10 minutes for the all white jury. Stinney's family of seven was far from rich and lived in housing given by his fathers

An example of this is how media outlets showed different criminals. For example a by the name of Michael Brown who was shot by cops even after being compliant as told by eyewitnesses was portrayed as a criminal in news outlets even showing pictures of him with gang signs. However when a white male shooter named Trayvon Martin killed many people the media outlets showed pictures of him well dressed and speak about how he was a ¨Brilliant Science Student.¨

The people directly involved with this case are Judge Lance Ito, the prosecution lawyers, Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden, the defense lawyers, Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro and Robert Blasier , the jury and the defendant, O.J. Simpson. The families of the victims have also been present in the courtroom, as well as other spectators and news media. This case has heard one hundred and twenty witnesses over a nine month period.

On June 12, 1994, Former American football star O.J. Simpson (Orenthal James Simpson) was arrested for the brutal murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in their Brent-wood townhouse. Police reports indicate that Nicole and Ronald where both repeatedly stabbed to death. O.J. served 473 days in custody for these two murders, won his criminal trial which was the lengthiest in the U.S. legal history showing more than 50,000 transcript pages, and after all of this he pleaded 100% not guilty, walking away from all this with no scratch in his name.

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.

The next process in the Justice system, a Grand Jury indictment, was interrupted. OJ Simpson hired a top notch team of defense and appellate lawyers to defend him in this case and they were able to get the Grand Jury dismissed from this case due to the massive media coverage. They claimed that the jury was prejudiced toward the defendant because of the readily available information about the case. In lieu of the Grand Jury trial a probable cause hearing was conducted. With that, the judge in this hearing felt that enough evidence did exist for a criminal trial and OJ Simpson was arraigned on July 29th 1994. At his arraignment OJ pleaded not guilty, specifically stating that he was “one hundred percent not guilty”.

With the insight and humble words of Chimamanda Adichie, I have learned that a “single story” is how you define somewhere, someone or something. Ignorance steps into control and you begin to develop the beliefs and the opinions you have, though, you may only have a brief encounter with the subject. This can cause a lot of confusion and anger. Ultimately, the disappointing truth is that judging this way is human nature. We continue to be both the perpetrator and the victim of this; including myself.

Which means contradictory interpretations of the same even by different people. Participants tells the incident in a way that justifies his or her own behavior while blaming others. This occurs so often in real life that sociologists speak of the “Rashomon effect” when people give inconsistent versions of the same situations.

On May 4th, 1994, the Goldman family sues O.J. A lot of Simpson’s personal items, such as his trophies and cars were seized. On November 6th 1996, the jury was composed of nine Whites, one Black, one Hispanic, and an Asian. A photographer claims to have taken a picture of Simpson in 1993 wearing Bruno Magli shoes, which were the same ones that were worn by the killer of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman. O.J completely denied the picture; which led the photographer to release to the jury over 30 pictures of Simpson in the shoes. Also, on November 11th, pathologists thought that the scars and scratches on O.J’s hands may have been caused by the victim’s finger nails when trying to resist being stabbed to death. However, Simpson claimed that he might have gotten the cuts and scars on his wrists by “rassling” with his son. (http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/index/nns171.htm)