The O.J. Simpson Case: A Look Back, 20 Years Later [VIDEO]
Twenty years ago today, O.J. Simpson led police on a slow speed chase in a white Bronco. It ended with his arrest for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman.
Fox News Radio’s Jessica Rosenthal reports on the case that captivated the nation:
The bodies of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman were found just after midnight June 13th, 1994, outside Nicole’s condo in Brentwood. They’d been stabbed to death. Four days later, O.J. Simpson was supposed to turn himself in to the LAPD, but instead led police on a slow chase in a white Bronco driven by a friend. Simpson was seen holding a gun in the car. A detective called him:
Police audio from Bronco chase: “We’ll let you go up to the house, but we need you to throw that out the window. (Yeah) We’ll let you go up there, but we need you to throw the the gun out the window. (ahh ugh) Please.”
Simpson hired a group of high-profile lawyers, often referred to as ‘the dream team’, led by Johnnie Cochran who made this line forever famous–
Cochran: “If it doesn’t fit you must acquit.”
It’s estimated that nearly one hundred million people listened to or watched the verdict–
Courtroom audio: “We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson not guilty of the crime of murder. (gasping)”
David Aldana was one of the jurors. He says the verdict was not about race or fame. He thinks the blood evidence was unreliable and remembers being stuck on how blood went through a sock found at Simpson’s house, that had Nicole’s blood on it.
Aldana: “You have the outside of the sock, the inside of the sock with blood and then it transferred over through the leg on the inside of the other of that same sock, And it wasn’t on the outside. How can it get there without somebody rubbing it in to that sock? Somebody played with that evidence.”
To this day, he thinks one of the gloves was planted.
Aldana: “Do I think he did it? Maybe, maybe not. But was it proven to me? No.”
The Prosecution presented much of the blood evidence and argued Nicole had been a victim of Simpson’s domestic violence for years. F. Lee Bailey was one of the attorneys who represented Simpson. He says he was not on any dream team, but that the prosecution didn’t have the evidence and Judge Ito wasn’t strong.
Bailey: “I think the O.J. Simpson case is a scar on American jurisprudence and American journalism. The legal profession ran a case like a circus.”
He maintains Simpson could not have done it. After the verdict, Simpson said he’d find the “real killers”. Two years later, a civil jury found him liable for Nicole and Ron’s deaths and he was ordered to pay more than $33 million dollars. Ron’s father Fred says they haven’t received much, but he hasn’t stopped trying in an effort to make Simpson’s life hard. Simpson’s in a Nevada prison for robbery and kidnapping– the result of an effort he said was to get “his stuff” back from sports memorabilia dealers. Goldman recalls the judge in that case telling Simpson:
Fred Goldman: “You were overheard in one of the tapes saying you wanted to get your stuff and keep it away from the Goldmans. And, if trying to keep it away from us put him in jail, good.”
Jessica Rosenthal, FOX News Radio.
Watch the VIDEO below for more on the Bronco chase:
Watch the VIDEO below for more on how O.J. coverage changed TV:
Click HERE for ‘Where are they now?’ key players in the O.J. Simpson murder trial
