I just got done watching the famous FX Crime show The American Crime Story. What I found was the power that can be achieved from Media as well as decorated lawyers. The season received 22 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, in 13 categories, winning nine, more than any other show. It’s a rags to riches to rags story. It all changed on a summer night in 1994, when a secluded sidewalk was discovered awash in blood. That of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman … but they were nothing more than friends. What came next was characterised as the Trial of the Century.
Case: Double Homicide of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ryan Goldman
The 1995 criminal trial of O. J. Simpson for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman has been called a "a great trash novel come to life," no one can deny the pull it had on the American public. If the early reports of the murder of the wife of the ex--NFL football star hadn't caught people's full attention, Simpson's surreal Bronco ride on the day of his arrest certainly did--ninety-five million television viewers witnessed the slow police chase live. The 133 days of televised courtroom testimony turned countless viewers into Simpson trial junkies.
On June 12, 1994
Exactly what happened sometime after ten o'clock on the Sunday night of June 12, 1994 is still disputed, but most likely a single male came through the back entrance of Nicole Brown Simpson's condominium on Bundy Drive in the prestigious Brentwood area of Los Angeles. In a small, nearly enclosed area near the front gate, the man brutally slashed Nicole, almost severing her neck from her body. Then he struggled with and repeatedly--about thirty times--stabbed Ronald Goldman. Ron Goldman was a twenty-five-year-old acquaintance of Nicole's, who had come to her condominium to return a pair of sunglasses that her mother had left earlier that evening at the Mezzaluna restaurant.Nicole's howling Akita, with blood on its belly and legs, attracted the attention of a neighbour, who then discovered the two bodies.
The Trial Begins
The opening day of trial--Tuesday, January 24, 1995-- finally came. Under drizzling skies, reporters and camera person converged for what writer Dominick Dunne called "the Super Bowl of murder trials." Judge Lance Ito in his opening remarks told those assembled in the courtroom that he expected to see "some fabulous lawyering skills." Christopher Darden led off the prosecution's opening statement by portraying Simpson as an abusive husband and a jealous lover of Nicole Brown Simpson. Darden told jurors, "If he couldn't have her, he didn't want anybody else to have her." Marcia Clark followed with a statement laying out the facts proving Simpson's guilt that the prosecution would establish during the trial. The next day Johnnie Cochran gave an opening statement for the defense in which he presented a confused timeline of events and suggested that Simpson was so crippled by arthritis that he couldn't have possibly pulled off a double murder. Cochran told the jury that the defense would prove that the evidence against Simpson was "contaminated, compromised, and ultimately corrupted."
Over the next 99 days of trial, the prosecution put forward 72 witnesses. The first set of witnesses suggested that Simpson had the motive and opportunity to kill. The second set of witnesses suggested that Simpson had in fact used his opportunity to kill his ex-wife and Ronald Goldman.
TIMELINE of the Trial
June 17, 1994 About to be arrested for murder, Simpson slips out of Robert Kardashian's home. He is chased by police while riding in his white Ford Bronco, driven by friend A.C. Cowlings. When he returns to his home on Rockingham, Simpson is taken into custody.
June 24, 1994 Grand jury recused.
July 8, 1994 Six-day preliminary hearing ends with Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell ruling there is sufficient evidence for O.J. Simpson to stand trial on two counts of first-degree murder.
July 22, 1994 O.J. pleads "absolutely 100 percent not guilty" to the charges. Judge Lance A. Ito assigned to hear case.
August 18, 1994 Defense counsel files motion to obtain personnel records of Detective Mark Fuhrman.
September 2, 1994 District attorney files motion to sequester jury.
September 9, 1994 District attorney announces that the death penalty will not be sought.
September 19, 1994 Judge Ito upholds the legality of the search of Simpson's home.
November 3, 1994 Jury panel selected: eight black, one white, one Hispanic, two mixed race; eight women, four men.
December 8, 1994 Alternate jury selected.
January 4, 1995 Defense waives hearing for challenge of prosecution's DNA evidence.
January 11, 1995 The jury is sequestered. Hearing held on admissibility of domestic-abuse evidence.
January 13, 1995 Prosecutor Christopher Darden and defense attorney Johnnie Cochran argue over racist language regarding the upcoming testimony of Mark Fuhrman.
January 24, 1995 Trial opens in Los Angeles. Prosecutors Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden deliver opening statements.
January 25, 1995
Johnnie Cochran makes opening statement for the defense.
January 27, 1995 O.J. Simpson's book, I Want to Tell You, is published.
February 3, 1995 Nicole Brown's sister Denise testifies about O.J. Simpson's abuse of her sister.
February 12, 1995 Jurors take field trip to Simpson home and Bundy Drive crime scene.
March 15, 1995 Detective Mark Fuhrman, cross-examined by defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, denies using the word "nigger" at any time in the previous ten years.
April 11, 1995 L.A.P.D. criminalist Dennis Fung concedes, under cross-examination by defense attorney Barry Scheck, procedural errors.
April 21, 1995 After three sheriff's deputies are reassigned, jurors protest. They first refuse to come to court, then show up dressed in black.
May 4, 1995
Wrongful death suit filed on behalf of the Goldmans.
May 10, 1995 DNA testimony begins.
May 15, 1995 Simpson tries on the bloody gloves. They seem not to fit.
July 6, 1995 The prosecution rests.
July 10, 1995 The defense calls its first witness, Arnelle Simpson, O.J. Simpson's daughter.
August 15, 1995 Controversy over possible conflict of interest concerning Judge Ito. Marchia Clark asks Ito to recuse himself from Simpson trial.
August 16, 1995 Clark changes her mind on Ito recusal.
August 18, 1995 Superior court judge John Reid rules that Captain York's testimony is not relevant to Simpson trial.
August 29, 1995 Fuhrman tapes played in court, with jury absent.
August 31, 1995 Judge Ito rules that jury will hear two excerpts of controversial tapes.
September 5, 1995 The jury hears excerpts from Fuhrman tapes.
September 6, 1995 With jury absent, Mark Fuhrman appears on stand. He refuses to answer questions, citing his Fifth Amendment privilege against self incrimination.
September 7, 1995 The defense announces that Simpson won't testify on his own behalf. The defense asks Judge Ito to instruct jury as to reason for Fuhrman's further nonappearance. Judge agrees, but prosecution objects. The question is appealed
September 8, 1995 Appeals court rejects Ito's jury instruction.
September 11, 1995 Defense refuses to rest their case due to the unresolved question of judge's instruction to jury concerning Fuhrman. Judge Ito orders prosecution to begin its rebuttal.
September 18, 1995 Prosecution conditionally rests its case.
September 19, 1995 Detective Vannatter is cross-examined by Shapiro on statements he made to mob informants about why police went to O.J. Simpson's residence.
September 21, 1995 Both defense and prosecution rest their cases. In a statement to judge waiving his right to testify,
Simpson says "I did not, could not, and would not have committed this crime." Judge Ito gives jury
instructions.
Sept. 26 & 27, 1995 Clark and Darden deliver prosecution's closing arguments.
Sept. 27 & 28, 1995 Cochran and Scheck deliver defense's closing arguments. Cochran makes controversial statements to
the jury comparing Fuhrman to Hitler.
September 29, 1995 The case goes to the jury.
October 2, 1995 After less than four hours, jury announces that it has reached a verdict.
October 3, 1995 Jury finds O.J. Simpson not guilty of two counts of murder.
Though he was acquitted, Simpson lost the civil suite filed by Godman and Brows and was found liable and asked to pay $33 million as compensation.