On the night of June 12, 1994, Nicole Simpson and close friend Ronald Goldman were found murdered outside of Nicole's condominium at 875 S. Bundy Drive, in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. OJ Simpson, being Nicole's ex-husband, was the suspected murderer. The former NFL star was wealthy enough to afford good lawyers such as Johnnie Cochran, F. Lee Bailey, Robert Kardashian, Alan Dershowitz, and Gerald Uelmen. The case was hugely popularized in American culture and trailed out for eleven months. The main reason for this was because a lot of the evidence was not packaged correctly, so it could not be used against Simpson.
Initially, the crime scene offered a substantial evidence for the investigators – evidence included blood stains in and on Simpson's Bronco, shoe prints, a left hand glove, and a black knit cap. The glove was found outside Brown's home. DNA analysis of the blood was claimed to be a mixture of Simpson's, Brown's, and Goldman's. The cap was suspected to have dropped off of OJ’s head during the murder, which is most likely the reason why he left the glove behind while attempting to feel for his dropped cap in the dark. There was also a pair of socks found in Simpson's bedroom; DNA analysis of the blood found on the socks identified it as Brown's. The bloody shoe prints at the crime scene were identified by an FBI shoe expert to have been made by a pair of extremely rare shoes in OJ’s exact shoe size – investigators found pictures of OJ wearing the shoes right after he denied owning them. During the trial, Simpson tried on the glove found at the scene, but they were too small; thus the glove could not be used against him. Nonetheless, the majority of the trial evidence was medical and mainly based on the blood analysis of samples from the crime scene.
On October 3, 1995, the unanimous not guilty verdict was watched by more than 100 million people as it was seen live during a television broadcast. Simpson was released from jail after spending sixteen months awaiting the verdict. He was found not guilty of the murders, though a civil suit was filed against him and he was ordered to pay $33.5 million to the families of Brown and Goldman.
This article is super interesting and well researched! I had watched the new OJ Simpson TV show before this. Remembering the documentary we watched in class, how did this case revolutionize televisions importance when it came to discussing legal matters?
ReplyDeleteThe OJ Simpson case is pretty infamous for various reasons, more notably the results. The pretty general consensus around the world is that he did, in fact, murder Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, but obviously was not convicted for it, the main reason being for racial ones. What far-reaching effects did the case have on racial tensions, and was the likely incorrect result worth the possible advances made in racial equality?
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