OJ Simpson Found Not Guilty of Murder Essays

blood on O.J.'s Bronco door, on the console, on the interior side of the door, a

Jeffrey Toobin writes about how Nicole Brown had called the police force at least eight times to report domestic violence. The eighth call, however, was the worst, where Nicole exclaimed “He’s going to kill me! He’s going to kill me!” when the police showed up. Confused at first, the officer John Edwards, “Shined his flashlight on Nicole’s face. Her lip was cut and bleeding. Her left eye was black-and-blue. Her forehead was bruised, and on her neck -unmistakably- was the imprint of a human hand,” (Toobin 120). This was one of many times that Nicole had called the police to report domestic violence against O.J. proving that he was responsible for engaging in the violence more than once. His actions were not okay- especially because he was disrespecting a woman- and I believe that when Nicole finally stood up for herself (like a woman should) and divorced him, he got angry and ended up murdering her and her good friend Ron

On June 13, 1994, bodies of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman were found at Nicole’s apartment in Los Angeles. The police arrived, investigated and fairly fast looked at Nicole Brown's ex husband who is O.J. Simpson, the football star, as a suspect for the murders. Four days later an arrest warrant was made out, and this lead to the famous television live breaking news that O.J. Simpson was leading police on a slow chase in his white Ford Bronco, and later his arrest. Millions of people watched this. On July 8, 1994, there was the first hearing that decided if there was enough evidence to proceed with the trial. It was decided there was enough evidence. The process of selection started in September and completed in November. The jury was sequestered in the middle of

On June 13, 1994 Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found stabbed to death outside the Simpson home. The murders would start a chain reaction into what would be known as the “Trial of the Century” and become the most watched trial on national television. The prosecution chose to file this case in Los Angeles instead of Santa Monica, where the crime was committed, due to a poll that was taken where Caucasians believed Simpson was guilty and African Americans believed he was not guilty. Three months after the murders the jury pool started with 250 potential jurors with the judge, the prosecuting and defending lawyers and OJ himself.

Simpson is guilty and it was not easy to prove in a courtroom, because evidence was tampered with, improperly accumulated, and not all of it was collected. Employees of the crime lab admitted to errors that took place when collecting, and storing evidence from the crime. I also feel that if the juror panel were selected in Santa Monica, where the crime took place, a very different judgment and verdict would be made. Simpson’s jury panel was selected from Downtown Los Angeles. Selecting a jury panel from Downtown Los Angeles led to a significantly different demographic of people selected to be on the panel, than residents of Santa Monica. Selecting a jury panel from Santa Monica would have led to a much different group of individuals, with an advanced level of education. I believe many oversights were made in the case and if it were handled appropriately, O.J. Simpson would’ve been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Many Factors led to a poorly situated case for the persecution, and the selected jury

To understand the evidence you must first understand what occurred in these murders. The O. J. Simpson murder case (officially the People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson) was a criminal trial held at the Los Angeles County Superior Court in California. The trial spanned from the jury 's swearing-in on November 2, 1994, to opening statements on January 24, 1995, to a verdict on October 3, 1995. The former professional football star and actor O. J. Simpson was tried on two counts of murder after the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and waiter Ronald Lyle Goldman, in June 1994 (Simpson). The case has been described as the most publicized criminal trial in American history (USA Today) Simpson was acquitted after a trial that lasted more than eight months (Turow). The article on PBS titled “The O.J.Verdict”, discusses the fact that Simpson was found not guilty due to weak execution by the

Richard Rubin,a glove designer and manufacturer, testified for the prosecution. He said that the gloves O.J. Simpson wore when he worked as a sports commentator were the same design as the gloves found at the crime scene and on O.J.'s estate. He identified them as Aris Lights, model number 70263. These are the same type of gloves Nicole bought Simpson in 1990. When Simpson was asked to put the gloves on in front of the jury the gloves appeared not to fit. The prosecution suggested the blood shrank the gloves. Blood expert, Herbert Mac-Donell had conducted an experiment to show that the blood wouldn't have shrunk the gloves as much as the prosecution says it did.

O.J. Simpson stated, “I think I’ve been a great citizen” (Simpson). The O.J. Simpson trial was one of the most followed cases in history (Blohm 64). On the evening of June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered (Piombini). The trial against O.J. began on January 24, 1995 and ended on October 2, 1995 (Blohm 59). Going into the trial, O.J.’s fate had already been sealed due to the fact that nobody wanted to prosecute a football legend and an actor (Piombini). In the fictional play, Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose, twelve slightly frustrated men are chosen to be on a jury for a murder trial. The men discussed the fate of a boy who murdered his father; many believed that the boy was guilty due to racial differences.

Orenthal James Simpson grew up in San Francisco, went to USC for football, won the Heisman trophy in 1968, played for the Buffalo Bills, and had some acting roles in commercials and movies. Watching him on the field and on TV, both kids and adults of both races fell in love O.J. Simpson. Known as “The Juice”, he was an all-star athlete and a charming man that had people looking up to him. Despite all of these positive attributes that Simpson had, he was accused of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman. Although he was acquitted of these murders in the public trial, he should have been tried guilty based off of the evidence that was provided.

In an attempt to counter the racist claims of the defense, the jury was selected and was mostly African American females (Gaines 2001). The district attorney of Los Angeles believed that an all white jury would be ineffective if Simpson were to be found guilty (Thernstrom & Fetter 1996). This outcome of the jury selection upset the Caucasian population because they felt as though the jury selection gave Simpson the upper hand in the trial regardless of the fact that the jury was majority female. The defense counsel was able to control the jury, in a sense through instilling in their minds that the LAPD was in fact racist. At the trial’s conclusion approximately 83% of blacks believed that Simpson was guilty, whereas only 37% of whites believed that Simpson was guilty (Thernstrom & Fetter 1996). These allegations also pushed the evidence collected from the crime to be discredited as well.

The O.J. Simpson case has lead to many debates and news stories about what people believed really happened. Some people think that if the prosecution team didn’t make as many mistakes as they did, then O.J. would be locked away where he belongs. Others think that O.J. did not commit any crime at all. On June 13, 1994 O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and, her friend, Ronald Goldman were found slashed to death outside her condo. Nicole Brown Simpson showed signs of little struggle. She had seven stab wounds. On the other hand, Mr. Goldman put up more of a fight suffering twenty-two stab wounds on his face, neck, chest, and abdomen. The court case against O.J. Simpson started in July of 1994. On October 3 in 1995, the jury announced the verdict for O.J. Simpson as not guilty and he is set free. Many mistakes were made by the prosecution team and some of them were they spent too long presenting all the evidence, mishandled and planted evidence, let racist issues get out of hand, lied, and confused the jurors.

One of the main reasons that Simpson's trial was sensationalized was because he was a celebrity. Thus, it can be argued that Simpson's celebrity status was one of the reasons the trial was televised. Gerald Uelmen (2010), law professor and co-counsel for the defense in Simpson's trial, comments, "[T]he cameras were a mistake because they affected the behavior of all the trial participants, judge, lawyers, and, most regrettably, witnesses. Building upon what was broadcast, tabloids and other media outlets began to attempt to take advantage of the attention Simpson's case was generating. Uelmen (2010) continues,

On June 12,1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered. Their bodies were discovered outside Nicole Simpson's condominium. Nicole Simpson was the estranged wife of the famous football player and T.V. star O.J. Simpson. Did O.J. Simpson really do it? That question has caused a lot of argument and controversy. Before the arrest of O.J., he was involved in a car chase with one of his buddies. Simpson was suppose to turn himself into the police but instead he kidnapped his friend in his truck and tried to flee threatening to kill himself while his buddy was driving the vehicle. The media quickly got involved in this car chase and they got some of Simpson’s friends to talk him into just turning himself into the police. None of this

history. A reported 150 million viewers tuned in for the criminal verdict, and hundreds of thousa-nds stayed tuned for the outcome of the civil case" (The O.J. Simpson Trials: Rhetoric, Media, and the Law). Till this day people still talk about it as if it was still happening but in actuality it happened about 20 years ago. Yet today, there are countless, documentaries, interviews, and even TV shows on the matter. People are still divided among the verdict and there are many questions that have been left unanswered, the main one being did O.J. really do it? The verdict contradicted the large amount of evidence against him because he was found not guilty.

I believe that with evidence provided, O.J. Simpson should have been prosecuted. Aristotle defines “the supreme good as an activity of the rational soul in accordance with virtue.” I agree with this quote because I do not believe that O.J Simpson is a virtuous person. A virtuous person is some one who conforms to the moral and ethical principles of life. I do not think that O.J Simpson did the moral thing in killing his ex wife and the waiter. I do not think that the jury did the