WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.320 You know, usually when we start one of these 00:00:01.320 --> 00:00:05.259 deep dives, I like to ease this in gently. I 00:00:05.259 --> 00:00:07.379 like to set the scene, maybe offer a little bit 00:00:07.379 --> 00:00:09.599 of obscure background context to, you know, warm 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:11.519 everyone up. Put a little appetizer. Exactly. 00:00:11.939 --> 00:00:16.100 But for this topic, I feel like that is totally 00:00:16.100 --> 00:00:18.820 unnecessary. In fact, I feel like everyone listening 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:21.460 right now. already has a scene playing in their 00:00:21.460 --> 00:00:23.940 head the second they saw the title. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:27.120 Maybe it's a white Ford Bronco crawling down 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:29.940 a freeway in Los Angeles, surrounded by this 00:00:29.940 --> 00:00:34.619 just phalanx of police cars. Maybe it's a leather 00:00:34.619 --> 00:00:37.119 glove that just refuses to go onto a hand. Or 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:40.200 maybe it's just the sheer visceral shock of a 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:42.840 verdict that seemed to slice the entire country 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:46.299 right down the middle. arguably the most famous 00:00:46.299 --> 00:00:48.759 criminal case in American history. I don't think 00:00:48.759 --> 00:00:50.399 that's an exaggeration at all. And I don't think 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:52.960 that is hyperbole. It has everything. Celebrity, 00:00:52.979 --> 00:00:56.119 tragedy, race, class, science, media. It's the 00:00:56.119 --> 00:00:58.299 trial of the century. It really is. And because 00:00:58.299 --> 00:01:01.640 it is so famous, because it has become this massive 00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:03.899 cultural touchstone that has been parodied and 00:01:03.899 --> 00:01:07.060 dramatized for 30 years, it is actually very 00:01:07.060 --> 00:01:09.359 easy to forget the specifics. That's so true. 00:01:09.500 --> 00:01:11.560 We remember the catchphrases. If it doesn't fit, 00:01:11.620 --> 00:01:14.829 you must acquit. But we often lose sight of the 00:01:14.829 --> 00:01:17.510 actual legal mechanics and the forensic details 00:01:17.510 --> 00:01:20.989 that drove the outcome. Exactly. We are talking, 00:01:21.030 --> 00:01:23.650 of course, about the people of the state of California 00:01:23.650 --> 00:01:27.689 v. Orenthal James Simpson. And our mission today 00:01:27.689 --> 00:01:30.530 is to do something a little different. We aren't 00:01:30.530 --> 00:01:32.890 here to rehash the tabloid gossip or the made 00:01:32.890 --> 00:01:35.709 -for -TV movie drama. We want to strip away the 00:01:35.709 --> 00:01:37.790 celebrity spectacle as much as humanly possible 00:01:37.790 --> 00:01:40.650 anyway. And look at the machinery of this trial. 00:01:40.769 --> 00:01:42.769 Yeah, get into the weeds. We want to understand 00:01:42.769 --> 00:01:44.730 the strategies, the specific forensic science, 00:01:44.870 --> 00:01:47.670 and the massive societal pressures that created 00:01:47.670 --> 00:01:49.650 a perfect storm in that Los Angeles courtroom. 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:52.920 And we have a massive stack of sources today. 00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:55.659 We are looking at court transcripts, contemporary 00:01:55.659 --> 00:02:00.079 reporting from 1994 and 1995, deep dive analyses 00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:03.040 of the legal teams, books written by the participants, 00:02:03.340 --> 00:02:05.719 and even statistical breakdowns of the DNA evidence 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:08.300 that are frankly mind boggling. I can't wait 00:02:08.300 --> 00:02:10.800 to get to the DNA. We are going to explore how 00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:12.840 a prosecution team armed with what they called 00:02:12.840 --> 00:02:15.400 a mountain of evidence went up against a dream 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:18.000 team of defense attorneys and how that collision 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:21.680 resulted in an acquittal. So let's start with 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:23.479 the event itself. We need to ground ourselves 00:02:23.479 --> 00:02:27.280 in the timeline. It's June 12th, 1994. June 12th. 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:29.560 It is Sunday. We're in the Brentwood area of 00:02:29.560 --> 00:02:32.740 Los Angeles, specifically at 875 South Bundy 00:02:32.740 --> 00:02:35.259 Drive. Nicole Brown Simpson's condo. This is 00:02:35.259 --> 00:02:37.599 the condominium of Nicole Brown Simpson, O .J. 00:02:37.639 --> 00:02:40.879 Simpson's ex -wife. It's an affluent, quiet neighborhood. 00:02:41.659 --> 00:02:44.199 But late that evening, the scene is just horrific. 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:46.680 Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:48.759 who was just there doing a favor, returning a 00:02:48.759 --> 00:02:50.759 pair of glasses Nicole's mother had left at a 00:02:50.759 --> 00:02:53.379 restaurant, are found stabbed to death outside 00:02:53.379 --> 00:02:55.939 her condo. And we should be clear about the brutality 00:02:55.939 --> 00:02:58.379 here. This wasn't a robbery gone wrong where 00:02:58.379 --> 00:02:59.979 someone panicked. This was personal. This was 00:02:59.979 --> 00:03:02.900 rage. It was extremely personal. The violence 00:03:02.900 --> 00:03:06.500 was excessive. And almost immediately, the focus 00:03:06.500 --> 00:03:09.460 turns to O .J. Simpson. Now, we have to contextualize 00:03:09.460 --> 00:03:12.680 who O .J. Simpson was in 1994 because it's easy 00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:14.860 to forget. Absolutely. He wasn't just a former 00:03:14.860 --> 00:03:17.199 athlete. He was a cultural icon. He was the juice. 00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:20.460 He was a Heisman Trophy winner, an NFL record 00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:22.879 smasher who ran for 2 ,000 yards in a season. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:25.840 He was a movie star in the Naked Gun films. He 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:28.520 was the friendly face of Hertz rental cars running 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:31.139 through airports. He was one of the most beloved 00:03:31.139 --> 00:03:33.979 and recognizable figures in America. Which makes 00:03:33.979 --> 00:03:36.379 the events of the next few days so incredibly 00:03:36.379 --> 00:03:39.219 surreal. because he becomes the prime suspect. 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:41.259 And before we even get to the courtroom arguments, 00:03:41.400 --> 00:03:44.099 we have to talk about the arrest. Or rather, 00:03:44.199 --> 00:03:48.080 the non -arrest. Right. June 17, 1994. Simpson 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:50.199 has been charged with two counts of first -degree 00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:53.159 murder with special circumstances. His lawyers 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:54.960 have arranged for him to turn himself in to the 00:03:54.960 --> 00:03:57.919 LAPD at 11 .00 a .m. And everyone's waiting. 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:00.360 The police are waiting. The media is waiting. 00:04:00.580 --> 00:04:03.400 And he just doesn't show up. And instead, we 00:04:03.400 --> 00:04:06.009 get the Bronco chase. The low -speed pursuit 00:04:06.009 --> 00:04:09.289 that stopped the world. Simpson is in the back 00:04:09.289 --> 00:04:12.590 of a white Ford Bronco driven by his friend Al 00:04:12.590 --> 00:04:15.569 Cowlings. D .C. D .C. Simpson reportedly has 00:04:15.569 --> 00:04:18.170 a gun to his head, threatening suicide. They 00:04:18.170 --> 00:04:20.689 are driving down the freeway at 35 miles per 00:04:20.689 --> 00:04:23.449 hour, escorted by this massive fleet of police 00:04:23.449 --> 00:04:26.069 cars. I looked up the stats on this, and it is 00:04:26.069 --> 00:04:29.910 staggering. 95 million people watched that chase 00:04:29.910 --> 00:04:33.569 live. 95 million. It interrupted the NBA finals. 00:04:33.870 --> 00:04:36.899 Yeah. nbc actually cut away from a game between 00:04:36.899 --> 00:04:39.860 the knicks and the rockets to show a car driving 00:04:39.860 --> 00:04:42.740 down a freeway it was a singular moment Domino's 00:04:42.740 --> 00:04:45.079 Pizza reported record sales because nobody was 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:47.379 cooking dinner. They were glued to the TV. Wow. 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:49.600 Water usage dropped because people were holding 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:51.699 it rather than going to the bathroom. No way. 00:04:51.879 --> 00:04:54.100 But more importantly for our deep dive, it set 00:04:54.100 --> 00:04:56.720 the tone for the legal battle. It established 00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:58.920 the central spectacle. This wasn't just a murder 00:04:58.920 --> 00:05:01.439 trial. It was a national event. You had Camp 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:04.300 OJ springing up outside the courthouse. The trial 00:05:04.300 --> 00:05:07.759 was televised for 134 days. So let's get into 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:10.040 the courtroom. Because if you were looking at 00:05:10.040 --> 00:05:12.389 this case on paper, If you were a prosecutor 00:05:12.389 --> 00:05:15.569 looking at the file in that first week, you would 00:05:15.569 --> 00:05:17.990 think you had the easiest win in history. Oh, 00:05:17.990 --> 00:05:20.250 for sure. They called it a mountain of evidence. 00:05:20.350 --> 00:05:22.850 That was the phrase lead prosecutor Marsha Clark 00:05:22.850 --> 00:05:25.089 and her co -counsel Christopher Darden used. 00:05:25.430 --> 00:05:28.269 They, along with William Hodgman, believed the 00:05:28.269 --> 00:05:31.149 case was overwhelming. Their strategy was to 00:05:31.149 --> 00:05:34.660 prove two things. motive and opportunity backed 00:05:34.660 --> 00:05:38.120 by irrefutable science. They wanted to show that 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:40.839 Simpson had a reason to do it, the window to 00:05:40.839 --> 00:05:43.800 do it, and that he left his signature all over 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:46.779 the crime scene in the form of DNA. So let's 00:05:46.779 --> 00:05:48.980 unpack the motive first. The prosecution argued 00:05:48.980 --> 00:05:52.379 this was a classic, albeit tragic, case of domestic 00:05:52.379 --> 00:05:55.000 violence escalating to murder. Correct. And this 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:57.160 was a strategic choice. They argued that the 00:05:57.160 --> 00:06:00.040 murder wasn't a random act of violence, but the 00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:02.970 final act of control. Final act of control. That's 00:06:02.970 --> 00:06:05.589 powerful. They painted a picture of a long, volatile 00:06:05.589 --> 00:06:08.329 history of abuse. They wanted the jury to see 00:06:08.329 --> 00:06:10.509 the murder as the inevitable conclusion to a 00:06:10.509 --> 00:06:12.509 cycle of battering. And they had the evidence 00:06:12.509 --> 00:06:14.550 to back that up. I mean, it wasn't just hearsay. 00:06:14.649 --> 00:06:16.990 No, they had hard documentation. There was the 00:06:16.990 --> 00:06:20.629 1989 New Year's Eve incident where Simpson actually 00:06:20.629 --> 00:06:23.769 pleaded no contest to spousal abuse. They had 00:06:23.769 --> 00:06:25.910 pictures from that, right? Yes. The prosecution 00:06:25.910 --> 00:06:28.910 showed the jury photos of a beaten, bruised Nicole 00:06:28.910 --> 00:06:31.110 from that time. They were hard to look at. look 00:06:31.110 --> 00:06:34.540 at and the audio The 911 calls. Those tapes are 00:06:34.540 --> 00:06:36.879 haunting. They played them for the jury. You 00:06:36.879 --> 00:06:39.680 can hear the sheer terror in Nicole Brown Simpson's 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:43.420 voice. In one call from 1993, she's crying, saying, 00:06:43.480 --> 00:06:45.240 he's back, he's going to kill me. And you can 00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:46.920 hear him in the background. You can hear Simpson 00:06:46.920 --> 00:06:49.339 screaming in the background. It's visceral. The 00:06:49.339 --> 00:06:51.620 prosecution also called witnesses, like Nicole's 00:06:51.620 --> 00:06:54.120 sister, Denise Brown. She testified to seeing 00:06:54.120 --> 00:06:56.699 Simpson physically abuse Nicole, picking her 00:06:56.699 --> 00:06:59.100 up and throwing her out of their house. So it 00:06:59.100 --> 00:07:01.420 seems like a very strong foundation for a motive. 00:07:02.009 --> 00:07:04.870 It establishes a clear pattern. It does. But 00:07:04.870 --> 00:07:06.949 here is where the legal strategy takes a weird 00:07:06.949 --> 00:07:09.810 turn. The prosecution actually dropped the domestic 00:07:09.810 --> 00:07:12.529 violence portion of their case mid trial. They 00:07:12.529 --> 00:07:15.009 spent weeks building it and then just abandoned 00:07:15.009 --> 00:07:17.930 it. Right. This is a perfect example of how jury 00:07:17.930 --> 00:07:20.310 selection and psychology played a massive role 00:07:20.310 --> 00:07:22.990 in this trial. It essentially came down to the 00:07:22.990 --> 00:07:25.829 reaction of the jury and specifically a dismissed 00:07:25.829 --> 00:07:28.889 juror named Jeanette Harris. Jeanette Harris. 00:07:29.069 --> 00:07:33.050 She was dismissed in April 1995. Yes. She was 00:07:33.050 --> 00:07:35.550 dismissed for failing to disclose an incident 00:07:35.550 --> 00:07:38.230 of domestic abuse in her own past during the 00:07:38.230 --> 00:07:40.629 jury selection process. That was the official 00:07:40.629 --> 00:07:43.550 reason. OK. But after she was dismissed, she 00:07:43.550 --> 00:07:45.889 gave an interview to the press that absolutely 00:07:45.889 --> 00:07:48.310 terrified the prosecution team. What did she 00:07:48.310 --> 00:07:51.009 say? She essentially said that the domestic violence 00:07:51.009 --> 00:07:53.589 evidence was a waste of time. A waste of time. 00:07:53.670 --> 00:07:55.829 That was her phrase. She said that just because 00:07:55.829 --> 00:07:57.569 Simpson might have slapped or hit his wife in 00:07:57.569 --> 00:07:59.750 the past, it didn't mean he was a murderer. She 00:07:59.750 --> 00:08:01.550 separated the abuse from the killing entirely. 00:08:01.750 --> 00:08:03.970 That must have been a bucket of cold water for 00:08:03.970 --> 00:08:07.269 Marsha Clark. It was a panic moment. They realized 00:08:07.269 --> 00:08:09.410 that the jury, which included several women, 00:08:09.589 --> 00:08:11.629 might not be interpreting the abuse evidence 00:08:11.629 --> 00:08:14.290 the way the prosecution intended. They worried 00:08:14.290 --> 00:08:16.670 it was actually alienating the jury, making them 00:08:16.670 --> 00:08:18.509 feel like the prosecution was just trying to 00:08:18.509 --> 00:08:20.189 dirty Simpson's name because they didn't have 00:08:20.189 --> 00:08:23.230 enough proof of the murder itself. They pivoted. 00:08:23.610 --> 00:08:26.310 Marsha Clark stated publicly that they were dropping 00:08:26.310 --> 00:08:28.910 the rest of the domestic violence witnesses because 00:08:28.910 --> 00:08:31.790 the DNA evidence was insurmountable. But Christopher 00:08:31.790 --> 00:08:33.909 Darden later confirmed it was really because 00:08:33.909 --> 00:08:36.190 they felt the domestic violence angle wasn't 00:08:36.190 --> 00:08:38.789 landing. OK, so they pivot to the hard science, 00:08:38.990 --> 00:08:42.169 the DNA. And when you look at the list of DNA 00:08:42.169 --> 00:08:44.990 matches, insurmountable feels like the right 00:08:44.990 --> 00:08:47.159 word. It is staggering. We are talking about 00:08:47.159 --> 00:08:50.259 108 exhibits of DNA evidence. And remember, in 00:08:50.259 --> 00:08:54.379 1995, DNA profiling was the gold standard. It 00:08:54.379 --> 00:08:56.919 was math. It wasn't opinion. Let's run through 00:08:56.919 --> 00:08:58.720 the blood trail. I want to visualize this because 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:01.100 it is crucial to understanding why the prosecution 00:09:01.100 --> 00:09:03.409 felt so confident. Okay, let's walk through it. 00:09:03.450 --> 00:09:06.110 First, you have the crime scene at Bundy. There 00:09:06.110 --> 00:09:08.309 were blood drops found to the left of the bloody 00:09:08.309 --> 00:09:10.950 shoe prints leading away from the bodies. A trail 00:09:10.950 --> 00:09:13.690 leading away. A trail leading away. The prosecution's 00:09:13.690 --> 00:09:16.409 experts testified that the DNA in those drops 00:09:16.409 --> 00:09:19.450 matched O .J. Simpson. And the error rate on 00:09:19.450 --> 00:09:21.429 that match, what are we talking about? One in 00:09:21.429 --> 00:09:25.190 9 .7 billion. Okay, one in 9 .7 billion. That 00:09:25.190 --> 00:09:27.929 is basically a statistical certainty. There aren't 00:09:27.929 --> 00:09:31.529 9 .7 billion people on Earth. Exactly. Then let's 00:09:31.529 --> 00:09:34.090 move to the vehicle. Inside Simpson's Ford Bronco, 00:09:34.190 --> 00:09:36.269 they found traces of blood on the console and 00:09:36.269 --> 00:09:38.710 the door. They tested it and found a mixture. 00:09:38.929 --> 00:09:41.649 A mixture of DNA. It contained DNA from Simpson, 00:09:41.889 --> 00:09:45.070 Nicole Brown, and Ron Goldman. All three. The 00:09:45.070 --> 00:09:48.710 probability of error for that mixture, 1 in 21 00:09:48.710 --> 00:09:51.350 billion. 21 billion. It's hard to even wrap your 00:09:51.350 --> 00:09:53.509 head around that number. And it continues. There's 00:09:53.509 --> 00:09:55.750 blood on the back gate at Nicole's condo matching 00:09:55.750 --> 00:09:59.750 Simpson. That was a 1 in 200 probability, which 00:09:59.750 --> 00:10:02.409 is lower due to degradation, but still significant. 00:10:02.629 --> 00:10:04.590 Still pretty damning. Then you go to Simpson's 00:10:04.590 --> 00:10:07.830 estate on Rockingham. They find blood drops in 00:10:07.830 --> 00:10:10.230 his driveway leading from where the Bronco was 00:10:10.230 --> 00:10:12.870 parked to the front door. Those match Simpson. 00:10:13.419 --> 00:10:15.980 And the socks. This is a big one. The bloody 00:10:15.980 --> 00:10:18.919 sock. The bloody socks found in Simpson's bedroom 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:21.460 at the foot of his bed. They had Nicole Brown 00:10:21.460 --> 00:10:25.159 Simpson's DNA on them. The probability. One in 00:10:25.159 --> 00:10:28.340 6 .8 billion. So you have his blood at the murder 00:10:28.340 --> 00:10:31.460 scene, the victim's blood in his car, and the 00:10:31.460 --> 00:10:33.899 victim's blood in his bedroom. Yeah. It wasn't 00:10:33.899 --> 00:10:35.399 just blood, though. They had hair and fibers, 00:10:35.539 --> 00:10:38.120 right? Right. They found a blue knit cap at the 00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:40.120 crime scene. The cap, yes. It contained hair 00:10:40.120 --> 00:10:42.299 as consistent with Simpson and fibers from the 00:10:42.299 --> 00:10:44.519 carpet of the Ford Bronco. So linking him, the 00:10:44.519 --> 00:10:47.059 car, and the scene. Precisely. They found a glove 00:10:47.059 --> 00:10:49.360 at the crime scene, the left -hand glove, and 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:51.460 a matching right -hand glove at Simpson's estate. 00:10:51.929 --> 00:10:55.309 The infamous gloves. Both gloves had fibers consistent 00:10:55.309 --> 00:10:57.230 with the victim's clothing, Simpson's clothing, 00:10:57.370 --> 00:11:00.169 and even fur from Nicole's Akita dog. And the 00:11:00.169 --> 00:11:02.110 shoes. We have to talk about the shoes because 00:11:02.110 --> 00:11:04.950 this became such a huge point of contention. 00:11:05.090 --> 00:11:08.389 The Bruno Magli shoes, size 12. These were rare, 00:11:08.570 --> 00:11:10.889 expensive Italian shoes sold at Bloomingdale's. 00:11:10.970 --> 00:11:13.309 And Simpson denied owning them. He was very clear 00:11:13.309 --> 00:11:15.870 on that. He was adamant. In a deposition, he 00:11:15.870 --> 00:11:18.450 called them ugly -ass shoes and said he would 00:11:18.450 --> 00:11:21.379 never wear them. But the prosecution had an FBI 00:11:21.379 --> 00:11:24.519 expert, William Bodziak, who is a master of footprint 00:11:24.519 --> 00:11:27.399 analysis. Okay. He testified that the bloody 00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:29.740 prints at the scene were absolutely made by size 00:11:29.740 --> 00:11:33.320 12 Bruno Magli Lorenzo model shoes. The sole 00:11:33.320 --> 00:11:35.759 pattern was unique. So it was a specific model. 00:11:36.019 --> 00:11:38.700 A very specific rare model. And while they couldn't 00:11:38.700 --> 00:11:40.659 produce the actual physical shoes or a receipt 00:11:40.659 --> 00:11:42.860 at the criminal trial, a Bloomingdale's clerk 00:11:42.860 --> 00:11:45.039 remembered showing them to Simpson. So you have 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:47.539 motive. You have the forensic evidence. Now let's 00:11:47.539 --> 00:11:49.980 quickly look at opportunity. The timeline. The 00:11:49.980 --> 00:11:52.679 timeline was incredibly tight. The coroner estimated 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:55.259 the time of death between 10 .30 p .m. and 10 00:11:55.259 --> 00:11:58.340 .30 p .m. Simpson was last seen by his house 00:11:58.340 --> 00:12:02.000 guest, Cato Kaelin, at roughly 9 .36 p .m. when 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.379 they went to get McDonald's. He reappears at 00:12:04.379 --> 00:12:07.580 10 .54 p .m. to meet his limo driver, Alan Park, 00:12:07.740 --> 00:12:09.580 to go to the airport for a flight to Chicago. 00:12:09.860 --> 00:12:12.740 So there is a gap, a window. A 78 -minute gap. 00:12:13.399 --> 00:12:16.460 The prosecution argued that 78 minutes was exactly 00:12:16.460 --> 00:12:18.779 enough time for him to drive to Bundy, commit 00:12:18.779 --> 00:12:21.799 the murders, drive back, clean up and get in 00:12:21.799 --> 00:12:25.460 the limo. Simpson had no alibi for that specific 00:12:25.460 --> 00:12:28.279 window. So if you are a listener sitting here 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:30.879 hearing one in 21 billion and 78 minute gap, 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:33.299 you are probably thinking, how on earth do you 00:12:33.299 --> 00:12:35.519 defend against that? Well, that brings us to 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:38.460 the dream team. The defense team. This wasn't 00:12:38.460 --> 00:12:40.799 just a lawyer. It was a battalion. You had Robert 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:43.460 Shapiro, the initial lead. Right. Johnny Cochran, 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:46.120 the charismatic trial lawyer who took over. F. 00:12:46.259 --> 00:12:48.940 Lee Bailey, the legendary cross -examiner. Alan 00:12:48.940 --> 00:12:51.539 Dershowitz, the appellate genius. Barry Sheck 00:12:51.539 --> 00:12:54.139 and Peter Neufeld, the DNA experts. And Robert 00:12:54.139 --> 00:12:56.769 Kardashian. Estimates say the defense cost Simpson 00:12:56.769 --> 00:12:59.669 between $3 and $6 million, and their strategy 00:12:59.669 --> 00:13:02.070 was brilliant in its simplicity and its total 00:13:02.070 --> 00:13:04.110 destruction of the prosecution's narrative. They 00:13:04.110 --> 00:13:06.450 didn't just argue innocence? No. They didn't 00:13:06.450 --> 00:13:08.389 just try to argue Simpson was innocent. They 00:13:08.389 --> 00:13:11.370 put the LAPD on trial. They had a mantra for 00:13:11.370 --> 00:13:13.710 the evidence, didn't they? A three -word phrase. 00:13:14.450 --> 00:13:16.929 Contaminated, compromised, and ultimately corrupted. 00:13:17.330 --> 00:13:19.529 Let's break that down, because those three words 00:13:19.529 --> 00:13:21.830 are the key to the acquittal. Right. They attacked 00:13:21.830 --> 00:13:25.529 on three fronts. First... incompetence that's 00:13:25.529 --> 00:13:28.429 the contaminated and compromised part they argued 00:13:28.429 --> 00:13:30.750 the evidence was mishandled so badly that the 00:13:30.750 --> 00:13:33.409 dna results were meaningless okay incompetence 00:13:33.409 --> 00:13:36.909 second conspiracy that's the corrupted part they 00:13:36.909 --> 00:13:40.389 argued evidence was planted and third they attacked 00:13:40.389 --> 00:13:43.230 the timeline and physical capability let's look 00:13:43.230 --> 00:13:45.870 at the incompetence argument first This is where 00:13:45.870 --> 00:13:48.250 Barry Sheck really shines. Barry Sheck and Peter 00:13:48.250 --> 00:13:52.309 Neufeld were crucial. In 1995, most lawyers didn't 00:13:52.309 --> 00:13:55.779 understand DNA. It was new. But Cech did. His 00:13:55.779 --> 00:13:57.879 cross -examination of the criminalist Dennis 00:13:57.879 --> 00:14:00.639 Fung is legendary in legal circles. That went 00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:02.519 on for days, didn't it? It lasted eight days. 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:05.600 What did he find? Because usually cross -examination 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:08.100 is about poking small holes. This seemed like 00:14:08.100 --> 00:14:10.580 he blew up the foundation. He got Fung to admit 00:14:10.580 --> 00:14:12.659 to a series of errors that made the mountain 00:14:12.659 --> 00:14:14.960 of evidence look like a pile of garbage. For 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:17.480 example, he got Fung to admit that he and his 00:14:17.480 --> 00:14:20.019 assistant, Andrea Mazzola, didn't change gloves 00:14:20.019 --> 00:14:21.860 between handling different pieces of evidence. 00:14:22.429 --> 00:14:24.309 So cross -contamination, that's forensics 101. 00:14:24.649 --> 00:14:27.269 Exactly. If you touch a blood drop that is definitely 00:14:27.269 --> 00:14:29.269 Simpson's and then you touch the gate without 00:14:29.269 --> 00:14:31.490 changing gloves, you could transfer the DNA. 00:14:31.990 --> 00:14:35.350 But it got more technical. They admitted to packaging 00:14:35.350 --> 00:14:38.470 blood -soaked evidence swatches in plastic bags 00:14:38.470 --> 00:14:41.490 instead of paper bags. Now, for the non -scientists 00:14:41.490 --> 00:14:43.769 listening, why does the bag matter? That sounds 00:14:43.769 --> 00:14:46.990 like a small detail. It's a huge deal in forensics. 00:14:47.110 --> 00:14:51.159 Paper breathes, plastic traps, moisture. If you 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:53.940 put wet blood in a plastic bag, especially on 00:14:53.940 --> 00:14:57.860 a hot day, it creates a greenhouse effect. Moisture 00:14:57.860 --> 00:15:01.320 promotes bacterial growth, bacteria degrades 00:15:01.320 --> 00:15:04.480 DNA. Sheck argued that by putting the swatches 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:06.980 in plastic, they allowed bacteria to eat the 00:15:06.980 --> 00:15:10.200 DNA, rendering the test results unreliable. And 00:15:10.200 --> 00:15:12.360 didn't they leave the evidence in a van? I seem 00:15:12.360 --> 00:15:14.539 to remember this. Yes. They admitted to leaving 00:15:14.539 --> 00:15:16.820 the evidence in an unrefrigerated police can 00:15:16.820 --> 00:15:19.759 for seven hours on a hot June day in Los Angeles. 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:22.820 So the argument is you cooked the DNA. Exactly. 00:15:23.340 --> 00:15:25.840 Sheck argued that this degradation made the samples 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:28.789 unreliable. He wasn't necessarily saying. It's 00:15:28.789 --> 00:15:31.610 not his blood. He was saying, you messed up the 00:15:31.610 --> 00:15:33.789 test protocol so badly that we can't trust the 00:15:33.789 --> 00:15:36.289 result. He created reasonable doubt about the 00:15:36.289 --> 00:15:38.850 science itself. But the defense went darker than 00:15:38.850 --> 00:15:41.309 just, oops, the police are sloppy. Much darker. 00:15:41.509 --> 00:15:44.070 They went to, the police did this on purpose. 00:15:44.710 --> 00:15:47.210 The conspiracy theory. This is the corrupted 00:15:47.210 --> 00:15:49.870 part. They argued that officers, specifically 00:15:49.870 --> 00:15:52.490 detectives, Philip Van Adder and Mark Furman, 00:15:52.649 --> 00:15:55.750 planted blood to frame Simpson. This brings us 00:15:55.750 --> 00:15:59.269 to the EDTA controversy. This was a huge technical 00:15:59.269 --> 00:16:01.490 point in the trial that I think confused a lot 00:16:01.490 --> 00:16:03.629 of people at the time. Can you break it down 00:16:03.629 --> 00:16:06.070 simply for us? Sure. The defense ran their own 00:16:06.070 --> 00:16:08.230 tests and found that two of the blood samples 00:16:08.730 --> 00:16:10.509 The one on the back gate and the one on the socks 00:16:10.509 --> 00:16:14.629 contained EDTA. Now, EDTA is a chemical preservative 00:16:14.629 --> 00:16:17.269 and anticoagulant. It is not found naturally 00:16:17.269 --> 00:16:19.850 in the human body in high concentrations, but 00:16:19.850 --> 00:16:22.389 it is found in the purple top test tubes police 00:16:22.389 --> 00:16:24.809 use to store reference blood samples drawn from 00:16:24.809 --> 00:16:27.549 suspects. So if the blood at the scene has a 00:16:27.549 --> 00:16:30.250 preservative in it... The implication is devastating. 00:16:30.570 --> 00:16:33.110 It suggests that the blood on the gate came from 00:16:33.110 --> 00:16:35.700 a test tube. not from a bleeding human body. 00:16:35.879 --> 00:16:38.820 It suggests someone took blood from Simpson's 00:16:38.820 --> 00:16:41.519 reference file and smeared it on the gate to 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:44.340 frame him. That is a bombshell accusation. How 00:16:44.340 --> 00:16:46.519 did the prosecution respond to that? They fought 00:16:46.519 --> 00:16:50.299 back hard. They called an FBI agent, Roger Martz, 00:16:50.299 --> 00:16:53.480 to testify. He argued that the levels of EDTA 00:16:53.480 --> 00:16:56.299 found were tiny consistent with trace amounts 00:16:56.299 --> 00:16:59.220 you might find in a human body due to food preservatives 00:16:59.220 --> 00:17:01.899 or environmental factors and not the high concentration 00:17:01.899 --> 00:17:04.160 you'd find in the test tube. So they're saying 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:06.279 the defense's test was just picking up background 00:17:06.279 --> 00:17:08.359 noise. Essentially. I remember hearing something 00:17:08.359 --> 00:17:10.720 about a typo in this part of the trial. Yes. 00:17:11.309 --> 00:17:13.890 The defense expert, Dr. Frederick Reuters, had 00:17:13.890 --> 00:17:16.589 relied on an EPA article to establish what normal 00:17:16.589 --> 00:17:19.549 levels of EDTA were. The prosecution pointed 00:17:19.549 --> 00:17:22.089 out that he misread the article. It was a typo 00:17:22.089 --> 00:17:24.349 or a misinterpretation of the data on his part. 00:17:24.470 --> 00:17:26.710 And didn't the prosecution mention Big Macs? 00:17:26.990 --> 00:17:29.210 They did. It sounds funny, but it was a serious 00:17:29.210 --> 00:17:31.930 point. They got the defense expert to admit that 00:17:31.930 --> 00:17:34.269 the ingredients in a Big Mac and fries, which 00:17:34.269 --> 00:17:36.309 Simpson had eaten that night, could introduce 00:17:36.309 --> 00:17:39.170 chemicals into the bloodstream that might mimic 00:17:39.170 --> 00:17:41.910 those trace results in the test. But even with 00:17:41.910 --> 00:17:44.309 the rebuttal, the seed of doubt was planted. 00:17:44.650 --> 00:17:46.869 If there's even a chance the blood came from 00:17:46.869 --> 00:17:49.650 a tube, you have to acquit. Right. And the defense 00:17:49.650 --> 00:17:52.049 also pointed out opportunities for planting evidence. 00:17:52.170 --> 00:17:54.869 It wasn't just, you know, a vague theory. Right. 00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:57.819 This is where Detective Van Adder comes in. He 00:17:57.819 --> 00:18:00.519 had Simpson's blood reference vial, the one with 00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:04.160 the EDTA. The vial itself. The vial itself. Protocol 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:06.539 says you book that into evidence at the station 00:18:06.539 --> 00:18:09.539 immediately. Instead, Van Adder put it in his 00:18:09.539 --> 00:18:12.460 pocket, drove 25 miles back to the Simpson estate 00:18:12.460 --> 00:18:15.019 in Brenwood, and carried it around for hours 00:18:15.019 --> 00:18:17.279 before handing it to the criminalist. Which does 00:18:17.279 --> 00:18:20.079 sound odd. Why carry a vial of blood to a crime 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:22.980 scene? It's a massive breach of chain of custody 00:18:22.980 --> 00:18:25.960 protocol. Van Etter said he was just trying to 00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:27.759 get to the criminalist who was at the scene to 00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:30.559 save time. But the defense argued it gave him 00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:33.299 a window of time, an opportunity to sprinkle 00:18:33.299 --> 00:18:36.019 that blood on the socks or the gate. They called 00:18:36.019 --> 00:18:38.220 him the man who carried the blood. OK, so we 00:18:38.220 --> 00:18:40.940 have the forensic attack, but they also had a 00:18:40.940 --> 00:18:46.059 simple alibi defense based on. Ice cream. This 00:18:46.059 --> 00:18:48.220 is my favorite detail of the trial. The ice cream 00:18:48.220 --> 00:18:50.680 alibi. This is one of those details that gets 00:18:50.680 --> 00:18:53.599 lost in the noise of the DNA wars. The police 00:18:53.599 --> 00:18:56.380 found a cup of Ben and Jerry's ice cream at Nicole's 00:18:56.380 --> 00:18:59.440 house sitting on a banister around 1230 a .m. 00:18:59.500 --> 00:19:02.000 It was melting, but it wasn't soup. It was still 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:04.079 viscous. So the logic is about the melt rate. 00:19:04.140 --> 00:19:05.519 It's almost like a little science experiment. 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:09.089 Exactly. The defense argued. If the murders happened 00:19:09.089 --> 00:19:11.829 at 10 .15 p .m., as the prosecution claimed, 00:19:12.109 --> 00:19:13.950 that ice cream would have been sitting out for 00:19:13.950 --> 00:19:16.410 over two hours in June. It should have been completely 00:19:16.410 --> 00:19:18.990 liquid. Right, just soup. The fact that it wasn't 00:19:18.990 --> 00:19:21.049 suggested that Nicole or someone had taken it 00:19:21.049 --> 00:19:23.309 out of the freezer much later, perhaps around 00:19:23.309 --> 00:19:26.529 11 p .m. And if the murder happened at 11 .00 00:19:26.529 --> 00:19:29.849 p .m. Simpson was in a limo heading to the airport. 00:19:30.390 --> 00:19:34.109 He has an ironclad alibi. It introduces doubt 00:19:34.109 --> 00:19:36.599 about the timeline. It's fascinating how they 00:19:36.599 --> 00:19:39.660 threw everything at the wall. Incompetence, conspiracy, 00:19:40.200 --> 00:19:43.799 melting rates. But really, the trial turned on 00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:46.920 two major moments. Two things that everyone remembers. 00:19:47.220 --> 00:19:49.720 Mark Furman and the glove. Let's start with Furman. 00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:53.000 He was the LAPD detective who found the bloody 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:55.700 glove at Simpson's estate. And he became the 00:19:55.700 --> 00:19:58.160 villain of the defense's narrative. The defense 00:19:58.160 --> 00:20:00.880 strategy was explicitly to paint Furman as a 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:02.920 racist who wanted to frame a black celebrity. 00:20:03.589 --> 00:20:05.589 If they could prove he was racist, they could 00:20:05.589 --> 00:20:07.809 argue he was capable of planting the glove to 00:20:07.809 --> 00:20:10.029 ensure a conviction. And Furman walked right 00:20:10.029 --> 00:20:13.150 into it. He did. Under oath, F. Lee Bailey asked 00:20:13.150 --> 00:20:15.230 Furman if he had used the N -word in the last 00:20:15.230 --> 00:20:18.230 10 years. A very specific question. A very specific 00:20:18.230 --> 00:20:20.609 question. Furman sat there looking calm and said 00:20:20.609 --> 00:20:23.990 categorically, no. And that was a lie. A verifiable 00:20:23.990 --> 00:20:27.390 lie. The defense got a hold of tapes, the Furman 00:20:27.390 --> 00:20:29.650 tapes, recorded by a screenwriter named Laura 00:20:29.650 --> 00:20:32.069 Hart McKinney. She had been interviewing Furman 00:20:32.069 --> 00:20:34.130 for a screenplay about police work. And on these 00:20:34.130 --> 00:20:38.259 tapes. In these tapes, Furman uses the slur 41 00:20:38.259 --> 00:20:41.200 times. 41 times. And it wasn't just the word. 00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:44.500 He boasts about police brutality. He talks about 00:20:44.500 --> 00:20:47.160 the code of silence. He talks about manufacturing 00:20:47.160 --> 00:20:50.859 evidence to get guys they know are guilty. He 00:20:50.859 --> 00:20:53.940 basically described doing exactly what the defense 00:20:53.940 --> 00:20:56.480 was accusing him of doing. It's basically a defense 00:20:56.480 --> 00:20:58.839 attorney's dream and a prosecutor's nightmare 00:20:58.839 --> 00:21:01.140 wrapped into one. It destroyed his credibility 00:21:01.140 --> 00:21:03.980 completely, but it got worse. The defense called 00:21:08.019 --> 00:21:11.819 Okay. They asked him point blank. Did you plant 00:21:11.819 --> 00:21:14.799 or manufacture any evidence in this case? And 00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:17.000 he pleaded the Fifth. He invoked his Fifth Amendment 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:19.720 right against self -incrimination. Now, the jury 00:21:19.720 --> 00:21:21.799 didn't hear him plead the Fifth. That's a legal 00:21:21.799 --> 00:21:23.420 protection. You can't show that to a jury to 00:21:23.420 --> 00:21:25.759 imply guilt. But the damage was done to the case 00:21:25.759 --> 00:21:28.539 in the eyes of the public and the court. It validated 00:21:28.539 --> 00:21:31.319 the entire conspiracy theory. The logic is simple. 00:21:31.420 --> 00:21:33.519 If he lied about the racism, why wouldn't he 00:21:33.519 --> 00:21:35.819 lie about the glove? Exactly. Speaking of the 00:21:35.819 --> 00:21:39.930 glove, June 15th, 1995. The day prosecutor Christopher 00:21:39.930 --> 00:21:43.130 Darden made a fateful decision, he asked Simpson 00:21:43.130 --> 00:21:45.609 to try on the gloves in front of the jury. I've 00:21:45.609 --> 00:21:49.630 seen the footage. It's painful to watch. Simpson 00:21:49.630 --> 00:21:52.410 is struggling. He's pulling. He's grimacing. 00:21:52.609 --> 00:21:54.630 He's holding his hands up to the jury with his 00:21:54.630 --> 00:21:57.670 fingers splayed, mouthing, it's too small. He 00:21:57.670 --> 00:22:00.890 was a visual disaster for the prosecution. Marsha 00:22:00.890 --> 00:22:03.250 Clark reportedly begged Darden not to do it. 00:22:03.309 --> 00:22:06.319 She knew the risks. But there were logical reasons 00:22:06.319 --> 00:22:07.720 why they didn't fit, right? I mean, it wasn't 00:22:07.720 --> 00:22:10.579 magic. Of course. The prosecution argued that 00:22:10.579 --> 00:22:12.759 the gloves had shrunk, they had been soaked in 00:22:12.759 --> 00:22:16.779 blood, then they were frozen, then thawed, then 00:22:16.779 --> 00:22:19.890 frozen again for testing. Leather shrinks. Leather 00:22:19.890 --> 00:22:22.809 shrinks when it gets wet and dries. Plus, Simpson 00:22:22.809 --> 00:22:24.730 was wearing latex gloves underneath to preserve 00:22:24.730 --> 00:22:27.190 the evidence, which adds friction and bulk. It 00:22:27.190 --> 00:22:29.210 makes sense. And there's even a suggestion by 00:22:29.210 --> 00:22:31.150 the prosecution that Simpson had stopped taking 00:22:31.150 --> 00:22:33.609 his arthritis medication, sulfasalazine, which 00:22:33.609 --> 00:22:35.750 would cause his hands to swell up. But in the 00:22:35.750 --> 00:22:37.869 courtroom, detailed explanations don't always 00:22:37.869 --> 00:22:41.269 beat powerful visuals. No. You can't explain 00:22:41.269 --> 00:22:44.230 away a visual like that in a complex way. The 00:22:44.230 --> 00:22:46.470 jury saw the struggle, and Johnny Cochran knew 00:22:46.470 --> 00:22:49.029 it. He coined the most famous rhyme in legal 00:22:49.029 --> 00:22:51.390 history during closing arguments. If it doesn't 00:22:51.390 --> 00:22:54.009 fit, you must acquit. And that was it. It was 00:22:54.009 --> 00:22:56.390 the perfect capstone to their argument. If the 00:22:56.390 --> 00:22:58.529 physical evidence doesn't fit, if the timeline 00:22:58.529 --> 00:23:01.410 doesn't fit, if the police conduct doesn't fit. 00:23:02.029 --> 00:23:04.730 You have to let him go. And we have to talk about 00:23:04.730 --> 00:23:06.910 the context in which this argument landed, because 00:23:06.910 --> 00:23:09.390 you cannot understand this verdict without understanding 00:23:09.390 --> 00:23:12.670 the racial climate of Los Angeles in 1995. The 00:23:12.670 --> 00:23:15.190 shadow of Rodney King. A huge shadow. The Rodney 00:23:15.190 --> 00:23:18.069 King beating had happened in 1991. The acquittal 00:23:18.069 --> 00:23:20.089 of the officers who beat him, despite the video 00:23:20.089 --> 00:23:23.089 evidence, happened in 1992, which set the city 00:23:23.089 --> 00:23:26.339 on fire with riots. The distrust of the LAPD 00:23:26.339 --> 00:23:28.039 and the African -American community was at a 00:23:28.039 --> 00:23:30.240 boiling point. So the defense argues that the 00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:33.480 LAPD is racist and corrupt. The jury. which consisted 00:23:33.480 --> 00:23:36.220 of nine black jurors, two white jurors and one 00:23:36.220 --> 00:23:38.680 Hispanic juror, was primed to believe it. They 00:23:38.680 --> 00:23:41.220 had lived it. They knew the LAPD had a history 00:23:41.220 --> 00:23:43.480 of racism. The defense didn't have to invent 00:23:43.480 --> 00:23:45.759 a narrative of police misconduct. They just had 00:23:45.759 --> 00:23:48.920 to tap into an existing reality. Johnny Cochran 00:23:48.920 --> 00:23:51.660 explicitly told the jury to send a message to 00:23:51.660 --> 00:23:54.319 the police. And some jurors even admitted later 00:23:54.319 --> 00:23:57.529 that the verdict was a form of payback. One juror, 00:23:57.529 --> 00:24:00.109 Carrie Bess, gave an interview in the documentary 00:24:00.109 --> 00:24:03.769 O .J. Made in America. She explicitly said she 00:24:03.769 --> 00:24:06.369 believed 90 percent of the jury decided to quit 00:24:06.369 --> 00:24:09.369 as payback for Rodney King. Wow. She was asked, 00:24:09.490 --> 00:24:11.410 do you think that's right? And she said, I think 00:24:11.410 --> 00:24:14.170 it was right. So we get to the verdict, October 00:24:14.170 --> 00:24:18.750 3, 1995. The deliberation. was shockingly short. 00:24:18.890 --> 00:24:22.309 Four hours. For a trial that lasted eight months 00:24:22.309 --> 00:24:24.650 with mountains of evidence, hundreds of witnesses, 00:24:24.690 --> 00:24:27.130 and thousands of pages of transcripts, four hours 00:24:27.130 --> 00:24:29.009 is essentially a statement that they didn't need 00:24:29.009 --> 00:24:31.690 to debate. Not guilty on both counts. And the 00:24:31.690 --> 00:24:33.750 reaction was immediate and polarized. We call 00:24:33.750 --> 00:24:35.809 it the racial gap. You can see it in the footage 00:24:35.809 --> 00:24:38.170 of crowds watching the verdict on giant screens. 00:24:38.529 --> 00:24:41.289 The majority of Black Americans cheered, feeling 00:24:41.289 --> 00:24:43.210 that the system had finally worked for them, 00:24:43.250 --> 00:24:45.869 or at least failed to frame one of them. The 00:24:45.869 --> 00:24:48.769 majority of white Americans were stunned, horrified, 00:24:48.809 --> 00:24:51.809 and believed a murderer had walked free. I remember 00:24:51.809 --> 00:24:54.890 reading about the juror who gave the Black Power 00:24:54.890 --> 00:24:58.190 salute to Simpson after the verdict. Lionel Cryer, 00:24:58.250 --> 00:25:00.670 yes. As the jury was dismissed, he raised his 00:25:00.670 --> 00:25:03.809 fist. It symbolized that for many, this wasn't 00:25:03.809 --> 00:25:06.289 just about a murder. It was a civil rights victory 00:25:06.289 --> 00:25:08.730 against a corrupt police force. And the country 00:25:08.730 --> 00:25:11.299 basically stopped. Economic productivity dropped 00:25:11.299 --> 00:25:15.220 by an estimated $480 million because everyone 00:25:15.220 --> 00:25:17.700 was watching TV. Long -distance call volume dropped 00:25:17.700 --> 00:25:20.960 58%. Trading on the New York Stock Exchange dropped 00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:24.339 41%. It was a singular moment of national attention 00:25:24.339 --> 00:25:27.299 that we might never see again. So Simpson walks 00:25:27.299 --> 00:25:30.420 free. He goes home to Rockingham. But the story 00:25:30.420 --> 00:25:32.579 doesn't end there. Not even close. Two years 00:25:32.579 --> 00:25:35.019 later, he's back in court. The civil trial. And 00:25:35.019 --> 00:25:37.000 this time, the result is completely different. 00:25:37.359 --> 00:25:40.019 In 1997, the families of Nicole Brown and Ron 00:25:40.019 --> 00:25:43.000 Goldman sued him for wrongful death. A civil 00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:45.000 jury finds him liable, and he's ordered to pay 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:48.579 $33 .5 million. This is the part that confuses 00:25:48.579 --> 00:25:51.559 people. Why does he lose this one if he won the 00:25:51.559 --> 00:25:54.279 first one? Was the evidence different? It was 00:25:54.279 --> 00:25:56.599 a combination of things. First, the standard 00:25:56.599 --> 00:25:59.640 of proof. In a criminal trial, you need proof. 00:26:00.029 --> 00:26:02.150 Beyond a reasonable doubt. That's a very high 00:26:02.150 --> 00:26:05.309 bar. Let's say 99 % certainty. Okay, near certainty. 00:26:05.529 --> 00:26:08.750 In a civil trial, it's preponderance of the evidence, 00:26:08.970 --> 00:26:12.170 basically. Is it more likely than not? 51%. So 00:26:12.170 --> 00:26:14.150 the bar was much lower. Okay, that makes sense. 00:26:14.230 --> 00:26:17.079 A much easier hurdle to clear. Second, Simpson 00:26:17.079 --> 00:26:20.000 testified. In the criminal trial, he exercised 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:22.279 his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. Right. 00:26:22.339 --> 00:26:24.740 In the civil trial, he had to take the stand 00:26:24.740 --> 00:26:27.480 because it's a civil matter. He was grilled by 00:26:27.480 --> 00:26:30.019 the plaintiff's lawyer, Daniel Petruccelli, and 00:26:30.019 --> 00:26:32.940 he didn't perform well. He was evasive. And there 00:26:32.940 --> 00:26:35.000 was new evidence. Yeah. Crucial new evidence. 00:26:35.140 --> 00:26:36.839 Crucial new evidence regarding those shoes. Remember 00:26:36.839 --> 00:26:39.500 the Bruner Magli shoes he denied owning? The 00:26:39.500 --> 00:26:42.279 ugly -ass shoes. In the civil trial, the plaintiffs 00:26:42.279 --> 00:26:45.359 produced 31 photos of Simpson wearing those exact 00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:47.819 shoes. shoes. 31. One of them was from a football 00:26:47.819 --> 00:26:51.019 game months before the murder. It proved he lied 00:26:51.019 --> 00:26:53.599 about the shoes. And if he lied about the shoes, 00:26:53.799 --> 00:26:56.200 the jury inferred he lied about everything else. 00:26:56.339 --> 00:26:59.039 In Nicole's diary. That was admitted too. It 00:26:59.039 --> 00:27:01.619 detailed the abuse and her state of mind, which 00:27:01.619 --> 00:27:03.579 helped establish the motive that the criminal 00:27:03.579 --> 00:27:06.819 prosecution had abandoned. So he's found liable. 00:27:07.079 --> 00:27:11.140 He basically goes bankrupt, paying the judgment 00:27:11.140 --> 00:27:14.799 or avoiding paying it. And then years later, 00:27:15.319 --> 00:27:18.160 We get the bizarre saga of the book. Oh, the 00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:20.980 book. If I did it. This is one of the strangest 00:27:20.980 --> 00:27:24.000 chapters in publishing history. In 2006, a book 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:26.640 was announced where Simpson would describe, hypothetically, 00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:28.680 how he would have committed the murder. Hypothetically? 00:27:28.940 --> 00:27:32.839 Yes. But the public outrage was massive. The 00:27:32.839 --> 00:27:34.779 project was canceled by the original publisher, 00:27:34.940 --> 00:27:37.539 but then the Goldman family went to court. And 00:27:37.539 --> 00:27:39.519 what was their argument? They argued that the 00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:41.400 rights to the book should be considered an asset 00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:43.599 to pay off the civil judgment Simpson owed them. 00:27:43.700 --> 00:27:45.920 And they won the rights. They did. They took 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:47.839 the manuscript and released it. But they changed 00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:50.779 the title to If I Did It, Confessions of the 00:27:50.779 --> 00:27:53.160 Killer. That's incredible. And they designed 00:27:53.160 --> 00:27:55.680 the cover in a very specific way. The word if 00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:58.599 is printed in tiny text inside the letter I. 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:01.000 So if you look at the book from a distance, it 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:04.289 just reads, I did it. Confessions of the Killer. 00:28:04.470 --> 00:28:06.809 Talk about seizing the narrative. It was a way 00:28:06.809 --> 00:28:09.089 for the family to get some semblance of justice. 00:28:09.549 --> 00:28:11.809 In the book, the hypothetical account switches 00:28:11.809 --> 00:28:15.089 to first person. He writes things like, I remember 00:28:15.089 --> 00:28:18.089 I had the knife. It reads, to almost anyone, 00:28:18.369 --> 00:28:20.539 like a confession. Before we wrap up, I want 00:28:20.539 --> 00:28:22.819 to go back to the math for a second. You mentioned 00:28:22.819 --> 00:28:25.359 a statistical fallacy earlier regarding domestic 00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:27.200 violence. This seems like a really important 00:28:27.200 --> 00:28:29.619 takeaway for our listeners who love logic. It's 00:28:29.619 --> 00:28:32.319 known as the Bayesian error or the prosecutor's 00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:34.559 fallacy, though in this case it was the defense 00:28:34.559 --> 00:28:38.000 using it. During the trial, Alan Dershowitz argued 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:40.200 for the defense that the domestic violence add 00:28:40.200 --> 00:28:42.920 -in should be excluded. Okay. His argument was... 00:28:43.339 --> 00:28:45.599 We know that thousands of men abuse their wives, 00:28:45.799 --> 00:28:49.539 but only a tiny fraction, like more 1 % of men 00:28:49.539 --> 00:28:51.619 who abuse their wives, go on to kill them. Which 00:28:51.619 --> 00:28:53.319 sounds convincing. It makes the murder seem like 00:28:53.319 --> 00:28:56.099 a total anomaly, unconnected to the abuse. Right. 00:28:56.180 --> 00:28:58.900 It frames the probability as, given that he beat 00:28:58.900 --> 00:29:01.220 her, what are the odds he killed her? That number 00:29:01.220 --> 00:29:03.099 is low. But it's the wrong question. It's the 00:29:03.099 --> 00:29:05.720 wrong statistic. We are looking at a woman who 00:29:05.720 --> 00:29:13.440 has already been murdered and asking who did 00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:16.740 it. Ah. I see. The condition has changed. Exactly. 00:29:16.900 --> 00:29:19.980 The relevant statistic is of all abused women 00:29:19.980 --> 00:29:22.440 who are murdered, how many were killed by their 00:29:22.440 --> 00:29:25.799 abuser? And that number is huge, around 80 percent 00:29:25.799 --> 00:29:27.960 to 90 percent. So the abuse is actually highly 00:29:27.960 --> 00:29:30.900 relevant predictive evidence. That is a massive 00:29:30.900 --> 00:29:32.900 difference in perspective. It completely flips 00:29:32.900 --> 00:29:35.279 the argument. It does. And it shows how statistics 00:29:35.279 --> 00:29:37.799 can be manipulated in a courtroom if you don't 00:29:37.799 --> 00:29:39.859 know exactly what question you are asking. So 00:29:39.859 --> 00:29:43.579 looking back, what is the legacy of this trial? 00:29:44.589 --> 00:29:47.410 30 years out now. Legally, it changed how we 00:29:47.410 --> 00:29:50.009 handle domestic violence. It spurred the passage 00:29:50.009 --> 00:29:52.950 of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994. It 00:29:52.950 --> 00:29:55.009 made the issue public in a way it never had been 00:29:55.009 --> 00:29:58.190 before. Right. Calls to abuse hotlines spiked 00:29:58.190 --> 00:30:00.109 because women saw Nicole and realized it could 00:30:00.109 --> 00:30:04.130 happen to anyone. And scientifically, the CSI 00:30:04.130 --> 00:30:06.710 effect. It introduced the world to DNA. Before 00:30:06.710 --> 00:30:09.849 this, DNA was niche. Now, because of the CSI 00:30:09.849 --> 00:30:12.390 effect, juries expect DNA in every case. If you 00:30:12.390 --> 00:30:15.009 don't have it, they wonder why. The Simpson trial 00:30:15.009 --> 00:30:17.829 educated the public on what DNA is. It really 00:30:17.829 --> 00:30:19.589 was a turning point. It was the perfect storm. 00:30:19.690 --> 00:30:21.750 You had a celebrity defendant, a racially charged 00:30:21.750 --> 00:30:24.750 environment, police misconduct, and a new forensic 00:30:24.750 --> 00:30:27.089 technology all colliding at once. So here's the 00:30:27.089 --> 00:30:29.170 question I want to leave everyone with. If this 00:30:29.170 --> 00:30:32.049 trial happened today, with our modern understanding 00:30:32.049 --> 00:30:35.170 of DNA, with body cameras on police, with social 00:30:35.170 --> 00:30:38.410 media, would the Dream Team strategy still work? 00:30:38.910 --> 00:30:41.750 Or was the OJ Simpson trial a unique moment in 00:30:41.750 --> 00:30:43.869 time that can never be repeated? That is the 00:30:43.869 --> 00:30:45.690 ultimate question. I think the answer is that 00:30:45.690 --> 00:30:48.230 it was a singular moment. The specific combination 00:30:48.230 --> 00:30:51.390 of 1995 Los Angeles, the lack of body cams, and 00:30:51.390 --> 00:30:54.109 the novelty of DNA allowed for doubts that might 00:30:54.109 --> 00:30:56.730 not exist today. But the power of celebrity, 00:30:57.009 --> 00:30:59.769 that hasn't changed. Thanks for diving deep with 00:30:59.769 --> 00:31:01.650 us. This was a heavy one, but an important one. 00:31:01.730 --> 00:31:02.509 Until next time.