Period 1
4/22/18
OJ Simpson Trial
Orenthal James, or commonly known as OJ Simpson was born on July 9, 1947 was raised in San Fransisco, California by Eunice Simpson and Kimmy Lee Simpson. He launched his career when he began to play for the USC Trojans as a running back. After playing at USC he later went onto play for the Buffalo Bills from 1969-1977 where he won the Heisman trophy in 1968. After the Bills, he played for the 49ners from 1978-1979 and won numerous awards for his talents. However, despite all of Simpson's accomplishments, his career went into a downfall in 1994 when he was arrested for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. Although the opposing lawyer and argument had a strong case and evidence, the jury let Simpson go away free but had to pay a 33 million dollar fine to their families. The jury had been known to be paid off of OJ Simpson which is why despite all of the strong evidence he was able to escape jail. However, he was not able to escape for long, in 2007 in Las Vegas Nevada Simpson was accused of armed robbery and kidnapping. After a much shorter hearing than his previous one, OJ Simpson was convicted guilty of his crimes in 2008 when he was sentenced to 33 years in prison with no parole. His felonies consisted of kidnapping and an armed robbery, however, in October 2017 he was allowed parole and was later released on October 19, 2017.
The OJ trials were certainly some of the most shocking court proceedings of the televised 20th century. I don't think someone that famous has undergone a murder trial since. I wondered if OJ ever returned to any sort of criminal action besides the kidnapping and robbery or the possible murder of Nicole, and I found out that some say he allegedly tried to murder the rest of Ron Goldman's family. A man named Vernon Nelson has even claimed that when he shared a cell with OJ, OJ offered him $100,000 to help him murder Ron's family.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/oj-simpson-murder-plot-police-investigation-157399
Gavin- cool post! The OJ Simpson trial, I think, is one of the most riveting court cases in modern American history. I personally think that the evidence stacks up against OJ, but one of the reasons he was able to walk a free man was because of his "Dream Team". This team included Robert Kardashian, a lawyer who actually was one of the reasons the current Kardashian clan has rose to fame. One of the most striking pieces of evidence, I think, is the following: "DNA analysis of blood found in, on, and near Simpson's Bronco revealed traces of Simpson's, Brown's, and Goldman's blood." There was a striking about of DNA evidence that could have linked OJ to the crime, but his defense influenced the jury to acquit him of both murders. There were also mistakes by the police when handling the evidence. The public response was crazy- "Before the verdict, President Bill Clinton was briefed on security measures if rioting occurred nationwide due to the verdict." Around 100 million people were listening in on the verdict; and some of the jury later said that it was the police mistakes that messed up the evidence for the case. Nonetheless, many people OJ is guilty to this day- but only he will ever know if that is truly the case.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Team_(law)