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Orenthal James Simpson (born July 9, 1947), known by the initials
O.J. and nicknamed The Juice, is a hall of fame former college and professional football player and film actor. Simpson is perhaps now most famous for being accused of the 1994 killing of his wife and his acquittal in criminal court in
1995 after a lengthy and highly publicized trial.
Football career
His college football career at the University of Southern California (USC) was dynamic and highly charged, earning him the
Heisman Trophy and Maxwell Award, the nickname "The Juice," and entry into the American Football League with the Buffalo
Bills. In 1973 Simpson ran for a then-record 2,003 yards, becoming the first player
ever to eclipse the 2,000 yard mark, and was voted as the league's Most Valuable Player. Although 2,000 yard seasons have been
surpassed since then, no other player ever accomplished the feat in only fourteen games, as Simpson did. His yards per game
average was ten yards higher than that of the closest competitor. "The Juice" powered one of the league's top rushing offenses,
and he ran behind the famed "Electric Company" offensive line. His 1973 performance earned him the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year.
Simpson went on to earn All-Pro honors five times and amassed 11,236 rushing yards during his career. Simpson retired from the
NFL in 1979 and on January 23, 1985 became the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is a member of the Bills' Wall of Fame.
See also: Other
American Football League players
The death of his ex-wife and trial
On June 12, 1994 his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson (who divorced him in 1992 after an abusive relationship) and her friend Ronald
Goldman were found dead outside Brown's Brentwood area condominium in
Los Angeles, California with the Simpson children
sleeping in an upstairs bedroom. Evidence found and reportedly collected at the scene indicated that Simpson could be the killer.
Faced with murder charges his lawyers convinced the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to allow
Simpson to turn himself in at 11 AM on June 17 even though the double murder charge
meant no bail and a possible death
penalty verdict.
The low-speed chase
Over a thousand reporters waited for Simpson to arrive into police custody and then give an 11:45 AM statement to the media
after booking. When he failed to show, confusion set in and an all-points-bulletin was issued by the police at 2 PM. Robert Kardashian, a Simpson friend, then read a rambling letter by
Simpson to the collected media. In the letter Simpson said, "First everyone understand I had nothing to do with Nicole's
murder.... Don't feel sorry for me. I've had a great life." To many this sounded like a suicide note and the reporters then actively joined the search for "O.J."
At 6:45 PM a sheriff's patrol car saw Simpson's 1993 white Ford Bronco going north on Interstate
405. When the officer approached the Bronco, the driver, who was Simpson's friend, Al Cowlings, yelled that Simpson had a gun
to his head. The officer then backed off and one of the most bizarre and slowest chases in history began.
For some time a KCBS news helicopter had exclusive coverage of the chase, but by the end of the chase they had
been joined by about a dozen others as news agencies from around the country tried to charter every available helicopter in the
city.
Numerous spectators and on-lookers packed overpasses in front of the procession; some of them had signs encouraging O.J. to
flee and many more were caught up in a festival-like atmosphere. Cowlings eventually drove the Bronco back to Simpson's Brentwood
home at 360 North Rockingham Avenue and arrived at 8 PM. Simpson, however, did not emerge from the vehicle for another 45 minutes
- increasing fears of a suicide or a shoot-out with police. When he did surrender, police confiscated $8,000 USD in cash, family
pictures, a fake goatee and mustache, a
passport, and a loaded .357 Magnum by Smith and Wesson from
Simpson.
It was later estimated that close to 95 million people, in the United
States alone, watched at least part of the chase live that night.
The criminal trial
What followed was 133 days of televised testimony in a racially-charged criminal trial
that seemed to pit white and black America against each other. Many figures in the trial became unwitting celebrities due to this
exposure including judge Lance Ito who was parodied by many comedians including
Tonight Show host Jay Leno (Leno featured a troupe of Asian men in black robes called the "Dancing Itos").
The prosecutorial team led by Marcia Clark argued that Simpson killed
his ex-wife in a jealous rage. The prosecution opened its case by playing a 9-1-1 call
Nicole Brown Simpson had made in 1989 in which she expressed fear that Simpson would
physically harm her. The prosecution also presented dozens of expert witnesses on subjects ranging from DNA fingerprinting to shoe print analysis that they contended placed
Simpson at the scene of the crime.
Simpson's lawyers, including Johnnie Cochran, argued that Simpson
was the victim of police fraud and sloppy internal procedures that
contaminated the DNA evidence. Simpson's defense team (dubbed the "Dream Team" by reporters) had argued that LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman (who they painted as a racist) had planted
evidence at the crime scene. In
all, 150 witnesses gave testimony during the eight-month-long trial.
At one point during the trial on June 15, 1995, assistant prosecutor Christopher Darden asked Simpson to put on a leather glove that was
found at the scene of the crime. The glove was too tight for Simpson to put on over his latex-gloved hand, which inspired Cochran
to quip in his closing arguments, "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit." [1] The prosecutors tried to perform
damage control by explaining that the blood-soaked glove shrunk when it dried.
The prosecutorial team was confident that they presented a solid case and fully expected a conviction. Polled African Americans across the nation were largely unconvinced while most
white Americans, in the same polls, thought the case against Simpson was solid. Racial tensions grew through the trial and
officials feared a repeat of the 1992
civil unrest in Los Angeles if Simpson received a guilty verdict.
Nevertheless at 10 a.m. on October 3, 1995 after just three hours of deliberation and in front of an estimated 100 million television viewers, Ito's clerk Deidre Robertson announced the verdict: "We the jury in the above entitled
action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder." The verdict noticeably shocked the
prosecutorial team and likewise shocked much of white America. At the same time many African Americans around the country reacted
in a what has been described as a cathartic celebration that underscored a very real racial divide.
Many legal experts think that the jury selection phase of the trial was crucial to the outcome. Polls and surveys at the time
indicated that the public's opinion of whether Simpson was the murderer split along racial lines, but rather than try the crime
in the mostly white Santa Monica, California, the
prosecution decided to have the trial in Los
Angeles. During the jury selection process, the defense made it very difficult for the prosecution to challenge potential
black jurors on the grounds that it is illegal to dismiss someone from the jury for racially motivated reasons. According to
media reports, prosecutor Marcia Clark thought that women, regardless of race, would sympathize the domestic violence aspect of
the case and connect with her personally. On the other hand, the defense's research suggested that women generally were more
likely to acquit, that jurors did not respond well to Clark's style, and that black women would not be as sympathetic to the
victim. As a result, both sides accepted a disproportionate number of female jurors. From an original jury pool of 40% white, 28%
black, 17% Hispanic, and 15% Asian, the final jury for the trial had 10 women and 2 men, of which there were 8 blacks, 2
Hispanics, 1 half-Native American, half-white, and 1 white
female.
The civil trial
On February 4, 1997 a civil jury in
Santa Monica, California found Simpson liable for
the wrongful death of Ronald Goldman, battery against Ronald Goldman, and battery against Nicole Brown. Simpson was ordered to
pay $33,500,000 in damages. However, California law
protects pensions from being used to satisfy judgments, so Simpson was able to continue much of his lifestyle based on his NFL
pension. Since this trial Simpson has been largely regarded as a pariah or persona non grata by many in the entertainment industry and
elsewhere and has been unable to continue his acting or any other career. In 2000, O.J. and
his children, custody of whom he had fought hard to regain, left California for
Miami, Florida.
Filmography
Reference
- Bugliosi, Vincent. 1997. Outrage: 5 Reasons Why O.J. Simpson Got Away with Murder. Seattle: Island Books. ISBN 0-440-22382-2
- Felman, Shosana. 2002. The Juridical Unconscious: Trials and Traumas in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press. ISBN
0-674-00931-2
- Garner, Joe. 2002. Stay Tuned: Television's Unforgettable Moments. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-2693-5
External links
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