Then in 1994 everything changed. He was on trial for the murder of his wife and a supposed lover/friend in a highly publicized and most upsetting trials of all time. He was acquitted and found not guilty despite the massive amounts of evidence against him. I mean this guy tried to flee towards Mexico in a bronco down the highway. Also there was the glove that did not fit his hand which was used as many supporters of OJ to say that he did not do it. This trial was somewhat made about race as some blacks refused to believe this amazing football player they had looked up to for so long could do something like this and kill multiple people. White people had a tendency to think he did do it while blacks were mixed or on the other side. The tactics of the prosecution were heavily scrutinized as the lawyers did make many mistakes on choosing the jury and on how she came off to the public.
This was not the end of his legal troubles as he dodged a murder case in 94 but eventually got 33 years for a robbery and kidnapping in 2007 in Las vegas. He somehow got parole after 9 years was granted that and released in October of 2017. All the trouble in his life after football and the legal troubles have caused the public to view him as a really bad person instead of the really good football player he once was. To this day we still wonder the motive and if he did it as the actual killer had not been found and convicted of these crimes. But OJ got lucky because he cannot be tried of the murder again because nowadays the forensic evidence would lock him up in a heartbeat but back then DNA evidence was a new and unknown thing that did not convince the jury that OJ did the crimes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/25/black-and-white-americans-can-now-agree-o-j-was-guilty/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a1d557cae030
Great post, Christian! I think it's really interesting that you mentioned the potential racial undertones of his case. Though many feel that he was wrongly set free, it is interesting to think that, subconciously, much of the reason for this might be underlying racial prejudices. This very clearly parallels the arguments made in the documentary we have been watching about President Obama, especially in regards to his comments about the Cambridge police, in which many people used his race to argue that his message had racial motivations. Though he never said anything about race, and especially about "hating white people" the simple color of his skin made many people hear a vastly different message than what he said, much like many people may have wanted the jury to rule one way or another depending on their racial alliances. It is basically impossible to prove to what extent the divisions in both cases have racial motivations, but it is something that we, as Americans, can observe and learn from. Very thought provoking!
ReplyDeleteThank You for bring this up Christian! This case is so frustrating to me because on so many accounts his late wife said OJ is going to kill me and get away with it! Have you seen the previous interview where he speaks about what the killer does and then all the sudden changes it into first person. And Say's "I" over and over again. The fact that we can't go back and take him back into court is astonishing but because of legal technicalities he will escape. He never showed one sign of remorse and that was the kicker! Anyways here is the source below.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/03/12/oj-simpson-fox-interview-dnt-todd-tsr.cnn