The OJ Simpson criminal investigation was about a legendary football player, OJ Simpson, who was accused of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. There were many things that made him seem guilty of this crime. For example, after the murders, he was involved in a police chase, sitting in the back seat of his white Bronco, holding a gun to his head. There was also evidence that he had been an abusive husband, with photos of Nicole with marks and bruises, as well as a 911 call she made saying he was going to beat her. At the scene, investigators found many examples of forensic evidence, such as OJ’s blood, hair, clothing fibers, DNA, and a size 12 shoe print, which was his shoe size. They also found evidence …show more content…
The OJ Simpson case was all over the news, which made it difficult to avoid thinking or talking about. The trial alone lasted for almost a year, during which people across the country were divided mainly along racial lines. The media was also a big influencer in peoples’ inability to see OJ as a murderer. Especially for African Americans, his life was an example of the American dream. He was a Hall of Fame NFL running back, a Heisman trophy winner, charming, and widely-known, which made it difficult to believe he could give it all up for murder. He was a role model for many African Americans, while many whites thought there was no way he couldn’t have done it. I do believe that the media could have swayed the outcome of the verdict. Many media outlets exposed problems with policing, the racism of some LAPD officers, and caused even more tension between police and the black community, which had lasting effects even after the trial. As an African American juror, one may have felt a responsibility to ensure that OJ was freed, either because of race alone, or because they thought that the evidence did not incriminate him, especially with the many investigative errors. Whatever the case, this was one of the biggest media-involved cases that will never be
found behind the guest house was proven by DNA testing to have O.J.'s blood and
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 funeral for the two victims was held on June 16th, 1994. O.J attended the funerals along with Nicole Simpson’s family and Ronald Goldman’s family. Shortly after, on June 17th, O.J was arrested and charged with first degree murder. Simpson immediately pleaded “100% not guilty’” on July 22nd, and the trial officially began on July 24th, 1994 (Linder 1). Because the jury was made up of mostly blacks, many outsiders believed that it would affect final decision of the jury. “O.J is free and so are we!” and “Live with it!” Were many of the comments blurted out during the many days of the trial (Elias 22). Judge Lance A was assigned to the case.
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
After a lengthy two hundred and fifty-two-day trial “not guilty” were the words that left the world in shock. O.J Simpson was your typical golden boy. He had it all, the nice car, the football career, and his kids. Unfortunately, this all came to an end when two bodies came to be spotted deceased in Nicole Browns front yard and was a gruesome sight. O. J’s ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman both found with brutal stab marks. Unfortunately, all his glory days now brought to an end, he went from playing on the field to begging for his freedom when becoming the main suspect of their murders. Since this trial has not only altered the way Americans viewed celebrities, but it also racially divided society,
When the trial was happening, I had no idea who he was until the trial started. I had my Dad tell me all the details of who he was, and everything else I learned was from watching television. I was young, but I still knew that racism was awful. I looked upon the television to Simpson sitting in the trial and just thought, "Oh, okay." I know it 's hard to believe, but I wasn 't brought up to believe race had anything to do with whether people judged based on race, but this case was a 101 course in proving I was oblivious to the real world. However, what I did hear based on pure evidence was that this guy totally did it. There was too much evidence that proved he was involved, and the only reasonable doubt that was brought into the case was purely based on race.
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 prosecution says DNA tests place Simpson's genetic markers on the drops of blood leading away from the bodies. There were also blood samples, similar to Simpson's and the victims, found on O.J.'s Bronco truck. Simpson's blood was also found on his driveway and his foyer. The prosecution says Simpson cut his hand during the murder. The defence says Simpson cut his hand when he reached for his phone in his Bronco and later cut his hand on a glass. The main focus of the defence is the contamination of physical evidence.
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 evidence discovered during the investigation suggested to the police that OJ Simpson may have had something to do with this murder and they obtained an arrest warrant. The investigators believed that they “knew” OJ Simpson committed the murders. His lawyers and him were informed of the arrest warrant and agreed to a specified time when OJ would turn himself into authorities. Investigators are later admonished, by the defense, on how they handled the crime scene.
The way the media portrays a trial influences many people’s views of the trial, such as the George Zimmerman trial. Racial profiling is based on the way a person looks or acts. The way some media portrayed George Zimmerman was as an innocent white man who shot Trayvon Martin as an act of self-defense. Other media such as NBC portrayed him as a racist. The way these two media portrayed him influenced many Americans to determine a verdict without hearing the trial. In the article “The Quiet Racism in the Zimmerman Trial” by Steven Mazie, he implies ...
On June 12, 1994 a very horrific homicide sparked one of the most controversial criminal trials in United States history. Nicole Brown Simpson, ex wife of football phenomenon OJ Simpson, and Ronald Goldman were murdered. There is substantial evidence that points to Simpson being the murderer, but he somehow came out clear of charges. Essentially, OJ Simpson was wrongly acquitted for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
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
The Scott Peterson case was one of the most difficult murder cases that have ever been handled by the U.S. courts in the recent memory. Scott Peterson is best known for murdering his eight- month pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, in 2002 in Modesto, California. The FBI was able to collect evidence against Peterson for the case against him. Peterson was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2004 for the first-degree murder of his wife and the second-degree murder of their fetus son. The Scott Peterson trial was an important trial because it showed the darkness of America through his lies, less humane remarks, and the crime itself.
Fairchild, H. & Cowan, G (1997). Journal of Social Issues. The O.J. Simpson Trial: Challenges to Science and Society.