The numerous ups, downs, and controversies surrounding the life of former star football player OJ Simpson have led to a strangely divided collective memory of the man. The term collective memory refers to a shared pool of information held in the memories of a group from aggregated individual recollections. The story of OJ Simpson’s life is both sad and puzzling after overcoming adversity to become one of the best football players of all time and a public figure beloved by many Simpson would go on to put himself in a worse situation than ever before. Orenthal James Simpson otherwise known as “O.J.” Simpson or “The Juice” was born July 9, 1947 in San Francisco, California. O.J. Simpson had a challenging childhood. When O.J. was two years old he contracted rickets a disorder that comes as a result of a lack of vitamin D, calcium, or phosphate and leads to softening and weakening of bones. The disorder left Simpson pigeon-toed with legs that were both skinny and bow-legged. As a kid others called him “Pencil Pins”. Unable to afford surgery to help fix his legs O.J. had to wear a pair of shoes connected to metal braces every day until he was five years old to prevent deformities. In 1952 when O.J. Simpson was five years old his parents separated. O.J. Simpson along with his brother Melvin and two sisters Carmelita, and Shirley were raised by their mother Eunice Simpson in the rough, largely black housing projects of the Potrero Hill district of San Francisco. At the ripe age of 13 O.J. joined a gang known as the Persian Warriors and found himself at the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center when he was fifteen for stealing from a liquor store. After the incident O.J. had a meet one of his hero’s baseball player Willie Mays after a ne... ... middle of paper ... ...art of what may have been part of his spiral downward was sad and that maybe OJ did not know how to cope after playing with not having the spotlight on him. The collective memory of OJ Simpson is difficult to judge because many people today feel he should have been found guilty and others do not. It is important to say that the OJ Simpson murder trial was one of the largest media frenzies in history and it has been shown throughout history that the media can have a lot of power on our collective memory of events and people as shown by the American Revolution, Vietnam and various other events. The numerous ups, downs, and controversies surrounding the life of former star football player OJ Simpson have created a somewhat scattered collective memory of him. Regardless of what the collective memory of OJ is his rise and fall is a story is one for the ages.
The Casey Anthony trial has been arguably the most controversial case since the trial of O.J. Simpson and has been speculated over ever since the verdict had been given in July of 2011. It was decided by a jury of her peers that Anthony was not guilty of murder, for the death of her daughter Caylee. Many believe that Anthony should have been found guilty however, very little Americans actually comprehend the justice system.
The job of a criminal lawyer is quite difficult. Whether on the defense or the prosecution, you must work diligently and swiftly in order to persuade the jury. Some lawyers play dirty and try to get their client off of the hook even though they are guilty without a doubt. Even though the evidence is all there, the prosecution sometimes just can’t get the one last piece of the puzzle to make the case stick and lock the criminal up. Such is the case Orenthal James Simpson.
O.J Simpson should have been found guilty due to his violent actions on June 12th, 1994. There were many actions or causes that led up to his violent act. The main and most known cause of Simpson’s act was “infidelity”. Simpson’s wife Nicole Simpson had been spending too much time with a man by the name of Ronald Goldman. When O.J became suspicious, he took immediate action.
During the time that O.J was on trial for the murders of Nicole and Ronald, everyone who was following the hearing had a deep sense of fear and pity. They were fearing that the man they once adored and aspired to be like was actually capable of committing such an inconspicuous crime. Also, due to the accusations of the murder, the viewers were also feeling in the sense of pity, in both sadness and disappointment. The acts that O.J Simpson was accused of caused the audience to feel disappointed in his actions, as well as sadness towards his family. The accusations developed about O.J left people who didn’t even personally know him in tears. People were so sad about his downfall. The accusation led to the fact that O.J left his family with no mother and technically no father, as he’d be spending time in prison. Furthermore, since he was found not guilty, there was a large part of the audience that felt a sense of release and emotion, and some felt bad that he was ever accused of this, but rather he just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Due to the fact that O.J and Nicole were separated for a couple years before she died, Nicole had made new friendships, and there was no proof that someone new that she met could have caused this crime and tried to frame Simpson, due to his past accused abuse
A great deal of people viewed Simpson as a role model and someone they desired to be. Not for one second did any of those people even think about the thought of a man that “has it all” being on trial for murder. When most people view celebrities like Simpson, they imagine them with no flaws, but they only observe a glimpse of the person’s life. Some would say a majority of Americans prefer watching someone else’s life than pursuing their own, some Americans would even say that they have an infatuation with celebrities.
The New York Times bestseller book titled Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O.J. Simpson Case examines the O.J. Simpson criminal trial of the mid-1990s. The author, Alan M. Dershowitz, relates the Simpson case to the broad functions and perspectives of the American criminal justice system as a whole. A Harvard law school teacher at the time and one of the most renowned legal minds in the country, Dershowitz served as one of O.J. Simpson’s twelve defense lawyers during the trial. Dershowitz utilizes the Simpson case to illustrate how today’s criminal justice system operates and relates it to the misperceptions of the public. Many outside spectators of the case firmly believed that Simpson committed the crimes for which he was charged for. Therefore, much of the public was simply dumbfounded when Simpson was acquitted. Dershowitz attempts to explain why the jury acquitted Simpson by examining the entire American criminal justice system as a whole.
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.
Athletes have been abusing their spouses since sports were created, but not until the OJ Simpson trial did domestic violence become "the issue du jour." When Simpson was arrested on New Years Day for beating his wife, none of the newspapers reported it. When he pleaded no contest five months later, there was a small brief in the second page of The Los Angeles Times' Metro Section (Cart).
It was the night of June 12, 1994, a woman and her long time male friend are murdered in cold blood. The victims, Nicole Brown Simpson, her neck cut so savagely it was almost severed from her body and Ronald Goldman, stabbed repeatedly, nearly 30 times. The accused, her ex-husband and football star, Orenthan James Simpson, better known as O.J. Simpson. During the trial, a trial that consisted of 150 witnesses, lasted 133 days and cost in the ball park of 15 million dollars, there were many questions asked and even more questions left unanswered (Douglas).
...this day justice has still not been served. If OJ didn’t do it then somebody did. Although some people might say that OJ has been dealt the wrath of karma, because he does indeed sit in prison for an unrelated crime.
The trial of O.J Simpson, an infamous case that had america glued to their Tv’s. Tensions were high as 11 months passed as the verdict was nearing. The case goes as following, O.J was accused of the murder of his ex wife Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman. On June 13, 1994 Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman were found dead around midnight near the entryway of Nicole’s apartment complex. The crime was heinous for the times and took America by storm. With O.J being a famous main suspect, the media wanted to give as much insight about the trial to the people watching at home and the first amendment gives them that right to gather intel. At first the media was not allowed to share what was happening in the trial. But later on, judge Ito later gave the media permission to cover the trial as long as the media does not disclose the insight of the grand jury. To coincide with this, the media wanted access to the preliminary hearings. Several news organizations requested access to photographs of the crime and transcripts of conferences held in the judge’s office. A lot of this information was sensitive material that was still being decided upon whether to reveal to the jury, but the media still wanted to have
OJ “The Juice” Simpson is clearly responsible for the tragic deaths of his wife Nicole Brown, and Ron Goldman.There are more than enough proof that suspect that the verdict of this should be reconsidered.The shoes print which were indeed Simpson’s,blood marks that were left on OJ’s car the blood spots left on his gloves,his suicide note.All of these were compelling facts that OJ was the murdered.However due to the miscarriage of justice Simpson was unfortunately found not guilty.Wealth played a major role for the conclusion of the verdict, OJ had a very good legal team that raised questions over much of the evidence and testimony against him. If the average person were charged of crimes that OJ has committed, he/she couldn't afford the lawyers and staff to mount the defense OJ could.
Athletes and celebrities are always the star; when they play in the championship game, star in an award-winning movie, make the #1 album/single of the year, or win any type of award (Nobel, Pulitzer, Fields, Grammy, Tony, Oscar, etc). Even if they break the law, they still are the star of attention. With the cases of several celebrities and athletes, evidence is apparent of notable unfairness. One of the most popular cases of all time, the O.J. Simpson v. the People, also exhibits huge amounts of obvious inequitable treatment compared to the ordinary people’s cases. Though some people beg to differ with the visible proof that celebrities and athletes do receive undeserved special treatment and say that they just had some “good luck,” there
Things only got worse when it was alleged that he transported and planted one the gloves on the Simpson estate, and the defendants legal team stating the officer wanted to frame Simpson because he was black and he disliked blacks an considering the jury was made up of mostly minorities this helped O.JSimpson even more.(2015) The key to winning a case apart from collecting evidence there must be a clear way to paint a picture that the people of the jury can understand whether or not you done the crime one must be convincing. Even though Simpson’s blood was on majority of the evidence collected it was argued that he was framed along with the contamination of evidence even if he had done it his team used all the weaknesses exposed by police involved in the case to paint a picture of innocence to the jury which proves perception of wrongdoing as persuasive to a jury as actual wrongdoing. I am sure with O.J Simpson being acquitted of the charges left a bad taste in the mouth of both police and some people in the legal field. There were too many mistakes made by the people that were tasked with the duty of collecting evidence and also in the department of how the evidence was handled but there are many lessons to be learned in every mistake the obvious one would be to not make the same ones
Fairchild, H. & Cowan, G (1997). Journal of Social Issues. The O.J. Simpson Trial: Challenges to Science and Society.