O.J., Mistakes
O.J., Mistakes
Vincent Bugliosi, the former L.A. prosecutor, who won over a hundred cases including Charlie Manson, was "outraged" at the way the trial was prosecuted, the defense, the media, and the verdict. He would have done it much differently, I gather.
The huge mistakes, as I see them:
- Moving the trial to downtown L.A. changed the jury pool and the judge. The civil trial was in Santa Monica.
- A nine month trial? Really? Make it shorter. Let the defense drag it out.
- Jury selection. Not knowing the backgrounds of many of these? Clark felt female blacks would identify with her?
- Prosecution gets their case first. Paint Simpson as a "house nigger" (B's words) who had no relationship to any blacks from his past except one or two. Paint him as rubbing shoulders with the elite, avoiding anyone like them. Show him with two different personalities with the violent one taking over in rage. Is not religious. Let the defense counter those.
- Hammer blood, blood, blood evidence. Clark chose not to introduce Simpson's statement to police in which "he admits dripping blood all over his car and home and on his driveway around the time of the murders". Especially when the defense would have to impugn the blood evidence as tainted.
- Why carry a blood vial of Simpson's blood to his home?
- Clark chose to withhold some evidence because she felt the jury would not understand, including Simpson's "suicide" note; the passport, disguise, gun and thousands of dollars he took with him in the Bronco; photos of Simpson wearing gloves of the exact design and size as the gloves found on the scene, and so forth.
- Why put Fuhrman up there? Opened up race. Clark should have known his background. Let the defense call Fuhrman if they wanted to question the glove. Minimize race. Fuhrman was convicted of perjury.
- Don't put Darden on the team. Cochran actually advised Darden not to get involved in Fuhrman's testimony. "You have a life after this trial. You’re a black man. Don’t do it.".
- Ito was a wimp, bending over for the defense, worried about appeals. Allowed cameras. Sustained over 7,000 objections. Cameras made it a show trial.
Why didn't Nicole leave him much earlier? Why did she not press charges? Why didn't more of O.J.'s Brentwood friends testify against him like the ones who said they realized he'd killed Brown? Why wasn't Simpson cuffed and booked on any of those incidents?
A good program by ESPN. Kudos to the producer/director, Ezra Edelman. (ESPN has interviews with him)
For the O.J. Simpson articles by Nicole Brown (who was seen in the shows) for Vanity Fair, google:
The People v. O.J. Simpson Recap: Fact Check
F. Lee Bailey lost his license subsequently. When he was a defense attorney for a trial in Florida, he tried to hide (and keep) some of a drug dealer's money. He ended up keeping the difference between the amount of money he took ($6 million) and the amount of money at the time he surrendered the original amount ($16 million). Halfway through the trial, Shapiro stopped talking to Bailey.
Barry Scheck, their expert DNA lawyer, went on to found the Innocence Project, which has gotten many people out of prison for crimes they did not commit, and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
