Revisiting the OJ Trial

Reading the Sports Guy today at ESPN got me thinking about this...

I was sitting there watching the Knicks and Rockets in the Finals when it came up on screen.

OJ and AC were riding in a white Bronco down the freeway followed by a ton of cops. Aw, shit...they're gonna shoot the shit out of these two.

By this point, everyone knew about OJ being suspected of killing his wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson. Everyone knew about all the evidence that was found and how it all pointed to him. Personally, I didn't think a man could be so stupid.

But no one could have expected OJ on the run. "The Juice Is Loose" was the catchphrase of the day. OJ's lawyer was on TV begging him to turn himself in. All up and down the freeway, there were people in cars trying to catch a glimpse on what was supposed to be OJ in the back of the Bronco, holding a gun and getting ready to off himself. Streets on the expected pathway back to OJs home were lined with people who were holding signs and cheering OJ on. I guess they wanted what we all secretly wanted and didn't want at the same time: for OJ to do the deed on live TV. It was the ultimate reality TV at a time before "reality TV" became a worldwide phenomenon.

And this was only the beginning. In addition to interrupting, to be honest, the most boring Finals series I've ever seen, and playing right into the hands of this emerging voyeuristic culture of ours, the "Trial of the Century" was about to start.

Every decision involving this case was big news. But the most important was that they'd show it on TV. The obsessive fires that started that day on the freeway would continue throughout the next year every day. It was the greatest boring TV ever shown. Yet, people were glued to their sets to see what would happen next.

Along the way, America was divided once again. It wasn't that long ago that we all saw Rodney King or heard about Malice Green. At that time, black people didn't trust the police and with good reason. Racial tensions were still pretty high. It might not have seemed that way in certain areas, but in the eyes of black people,young black men especially, getting beat down by the police was still a very real possibility and we were all afraid.

And the division between white and black fell ever so distintly: did he or didn't he do it? At Biloxi High School in Mississippi, there was no doubt amongst white people. He did it. End of story. Amongst black people, he didn't do it. Or maybe he did. We weren't so sure. The thing was, it didn't really matter to us if he did it. Would he get off was the question.

And everyone had a conspiracy theory. OJ didn't do it, and Nicole was killed by people who OJ owed money to. OJ did it, but he planted everything like that on purpose. OJ did it, but he's stupid. My theory was that OJ didn't do it, but he knew who did. Everyone had an explanation for why OJ did what he did and when he did it. Why, clearly he was out of town meeting with the people who killed Nicole. They called him out there. Duh.

We all became familiar with the lawyers involved. Marcia Clark became an instant celebrity. She was kinda rough looking at first, but after the trial was over, she was on celebrity pages, all dressed up and made up. She almost looked attractive. Almost. And of course, Johnny Cochran. For those who didn't know Johnny Cochran, we were in for a show. For those who knew him, we knew what to expect. And he didn't let any of us down.

"If the gloves don't fit, you must acquit."

It was a notion so simple, yet so ridiculous that to this day, no one can believe it worked. Wasn't his blood IN the gloves? What does it matter if the gloves fit or not? And of course they didn't fit. He was wearing rubber gloves inside of a glove that shrunk during testing. And that simple rhyme became Johnny Cochran's catchphrase and what he was known for until the day he died. And that bit of freestyling became what he was known for. Everyone forgot about how the prosecution and the LAPD blew it months before. And there was that whole Mark Furman fiasco. Here in Atlanta, a couple of years ago, Johnnie Cochran was featured in commercials and all his dialogue rhymed. It was almost embarrassing, because after all that happened, THIS was the lasting legacy of the OJ trial.

And what of the verdict? One of the most tense moments of my young life. One of those "Where were you?" moments. The last one I can readily think of before this was when the Challenger exploded. Yes, it was that big. I was in high school, in Ms. Hayden's Spanish class and the school actually stopped teaching so we could all listen to the verdict on the radio. You'd think that we actually knew the guy who was on trial or one of the murder victims.

And well...we all know what happened. And white people in the school were MAD. Of course, we were acting like black folks just got freed from slavery. What really happened, though? In a colorblind world, a clearly guilty man got off from a double murder. But we don't live in a colorblind world. And to us, one of US just got away with doing what white folks had been doing to us for years. Like I said, it didn't really matter if he did it or not. We got off. It was almost like all of Black America got off. For once.

It took me years for me to figure out why I was so happy that OJ got off. I still haven't truly admitted to myself that he did it. All I ever say is, he knows who did. That's as close to admitting his guilt that I can ever get.

And what happened to OJ after this? Well, he got sued again and lost to the Brown-Goldman Family Alliance for civil damages. He's still paying them money that he doesn't have. He lives in Florida, living off of his NFL retirement check. No more commercials, no more movies. Just OJ...playing golf and pissing off white people at the sight of this...criminal walking freely in the streets.

Of course, there were book deals aplenty to be had, and everyone took advantage of them. Johnnie Cochran became a household name and even Michael Jackson went running to his side at one point. Everyone knew that this was the man who could pull some BS out of his ass at the slightest provocation.

What did we all learn from the OJ trial? Well, I don't know about anyone else, but black folks learned that no matter how bad they screw up, they too, can get off of with the right mix of lawyers and BS to distract the jury. I still don't know if that's a good or bad thing.