OJ Simpson and the Media?

Question

How did the OJ Simpson trial effect the state of the media and the criminal justice system?

Answer 1

Wow.
During the year that he was being tried, one major broadcast channel and one radio station where I lived (Seattle) were devoted to broadcasting the entire trial; when the court was in session, it was on. I actually listened to most of it.
The judge and all the main attorneys and the main witnesses all became celebrities, temporarily at least.
Masks of the main people were sold for Halloween. My 6-year-old daughter told me, "Dennis Fung is my favorite person in the trial." Not long ago, I heard a familiar voice on the radio, and I asked a friend that was with me, "Is that Chris Darden?" My friend had never heard of Chris Darden, being only 20 years old. But I was right, it was.
Mark Fuhrman, a homicide detective whom the defense painted as a racist and accused of planting evidence (unjustly on both counts, most people now acknowledge) lost his job with the LAPD and started a new career as a popular true crime writer.
One character (oops I mean witness) who didn't even make it into the trial, got a lot of media attention. Rosa Lopez, a Salvadoran who worked as a maid next door to OJ, and claimed to have seen OJ at home during the time the murders were taking place. Unfortunately, Rosa perjured herself almost every other time she was asked a question, so that is why she didn't make it into the trial. She was followed by the media, even back in El Salvador.
The day of the verdict, virtually everybody seemed to be very excited.
Most people felt that putting the trial on TV had a negative affect. How many people want to be on the jury under such scrutiny? What kind of person would like to be on such a jury? This is bound to affect the verdict. The attorneys, witnesses, jury and judge all had to be conscious of the media scrutiny while attempting to try a case.

Answer 2

I have always thought it strange that NOBODY mentioned how many lives were SAVED by the non guuilty OJ verdict.

I talked to several people who were intimately connected with the proceedings or who lived in the vicinity of the tragedy and they ALL said that, had OJ been found GUILTY there would have been riots, pillage and death. One journalist predicted that 200 people likely would have been killed and millions of dollars in damages incurred following the verdict. Another, the next day said that 200 was a very low figure and that 500 would likely have died in the mayhem.

Being a northerner I asked why and was told " You have NO IDEA how some black people felt about how they had been treated by the white police over the years and that there was a deep-seated distrust of white justice, so much that they would have shown their resentment by causing civic upheaval."

Things have improved greatly since then and there appears to be a general air of dètente in the LA area where the tragedy occured.

I've asked other scholars if this theory had merit and they seem to agree. So if you look at the big picture, the JUSTICE system let ONE man go and saved hundreds.

It is something like Truman's decision to kill 40,000 Japanese women and children with the bomb in order to save the lives of American soldiers, who would have had to fight a street by street,and house by house war.

Answer 3

He made CSI's work harder to maintain the chain of custody with evidence which maintains the intergrity of the evidence...although I think he is guilty and should be in jail I am also kind of thankful that he is not because other killers would have gotten off if the chain of custody for evidence had not been throughly redesigned after his trial

Answer 4

there is nothing to learn from that case. it was and still is a shamble given the publicity it received. as to the moral of the story it is indeed a sad case both for USA and for the justice system -- i now rest my case and so should you. enough already said and written on the subject. case closed.

Answer 5

It affected the general public more. We learned it only takes big bucks for big lawyers who want lots of media exposure to win a case.

Answer 6

He is GUILTY