RACE and the O.J. SIMPSON TRIAL

The O.J. Simpson trial was undoubtedly sensationalized because of its racial component but possibly even more so because of the celebrity of O.J. Simpson. That was evident by the extent of the news coverage even before the trial when the crime and the notoriety of Simpson rather than race were responsible for extensive public attention. While the media were certainly responsible for generating continued public interest, in the realm of race, it is less clear that the media played as much of a role.

Even reporting of the increasing racial divide among observers leading up to the trial and continuing after the verdict cannot be said to have caused greater controversy; if anything, it could be argued that that particular aspect of the story was one of the most newsworthy. The fact is that Americans are somewhat celebrity obsessed and the dramatic increase in sales of white Ford Broncos, Bruno Magli shoes, and purebred Husky dogs provide additional evidence that the national fascination with the trial had comparatively little to do with race, at least initially (Dershowitz, 1996).

The Los Angeles Police Department and the Coroner's Office apparently did allow enough room for error to make it difficult for the prosecution to meet its burden of proof and those mistakes were no doubt compounded by the decision to put Detective Mark Fuhrman on the stand without sufficiently investigating his reputation. The focus on race was largely the responsibility of a deliberate defense strategy in connection with the (unspoken and never acknowledged) apparent intention of the defense team to take advantage of the phenomenon of juror nullification to issue a verdict that was contrary to the weight of the evidence and predicated more on the perception of racial injustice in general than on the merits of the actual case before the jury.

References:

Dershowitz, a. (1996). Reasonable Doubts. New York: Simon & Schuster.