The People v OJ Simpson

[EnthusiasmDisturbed]

Anyone else watching ?

I remember the prosecution lawyers being very flamboyant and it must be the part JT plays as I remover one looking like he wore bronzing powder

It became a sham I was in LA for part of the case and people were totally obsessed it was on everywhere it's all people talked about everything was analysed on tv and it became more of a racial political issue than about the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman

I've just caught up on the iplayer. I was a student when the murders happened and although I remember watching the car chase on TV, I didn't really keep up with the trial. The only other aspect of it that I remember is that I was impressed that a woman, Marcia Clark, had such a high profile role.

Watching the first episode, I was It does make you wonder how the hell he was acquitted.

I think the TV programme has been good so far but can't help feeling Cuba Gooding was slightly odd casting. He doesn't have the same presence as OJ. Even standing in the courtroom OJ was still quite commanding and charismatic. It's like a vacuum in the middle of the programme but I wonder if it's deliberate - like a moral judgement to make OJ the least interesting person in the story.

I didn't realise that Kim Kardashian was in the house at the time.

Were those Joey Lawrence posters meant to be hers?

And we're kris and Nicole really friends?

I can tell I'm going to be glued to this!

From what I've read online Kris and Nicole were friends for a long time, but I think Faye Resnick (played by Connie Britton in the show) said that Kris and Nicole were NOT friends around that time. Although Faye Resnick made a lot of money from some tell all type books after Nicole's murder, if I understand correctly.

I've just caught up with this, thought it was pretty good. JT plays camp very well doesn't he?
Although Cuba looks nothing like OJ, he's a cracking actor. When he starts shouting he's terrifying.

I remember the shock at the time, when he was found not guilty. It was utterly ridiculous. I'm glad the families sued him.

Apparently, although he was sentenced to 33 years, for the more recent crime, he's due for parole next year I read that on Wiki so it might not be true he deserves to rot in prison.

There was an interview with Kris and she said her and Nicole were close friends. They were supposed to be going for lunch the day after Nicole was murdered.

I wonder if OJ would have been found guilty if the Rodney King incident and therefore the LA riots hadn't happened? There was only 2/3yrs between them iirc.

I think he would still have walked because although the race issue was hyper important, the leniency towards him was also influenced by the fact he was a celebrity and that it was essentially a DV case.

I've been watching this too. I was in LA too, at the time (feels very, very old). It was fascinating. We were outside the courtroom on the "Day of the Glove".

It was gripping stuff, on telly live.

I agree about the actor playing OJ: not handsome or imposing enough. Like a pp, I wasn't sure about Travolta either. That's makeup, surely?

The Robert Kardashian thing is quite funny. As if people watching give a stuff about who his daughters are (or do they).

I'm finding it a bit mumbly though, unless of course I'm going deaf in my old age (perfectly plausible..)

Yes, don't underestimate that dv wasn't taken as seriously then as it is now.

Even though he admitted the dv the public didn't perceive him as an abuser.

Tbh I still don't think the prosecution presented their case well enough. There was no weapon, no witnesses. The evidence was mostly circumstantial.

lightbulbon I'm not sure you could call a shed load of blood evidence at his house, on his driveway and in his car (even discounting the glove- which was his- found at the point of entry into the grounds) which showed his blood and that of both victims as "circumstantial". There were mistakes made in its collection and testing, yes, and ckearly, the jury chose to rely on those mistakes, but the fact if the matter was that the blood was THERE and there is no plausible reason why it was there if OJ was innocent

I just caught up tonight and quite enjoyed it. I didn't realise that was Faye with Kris. LA really is a small town in a sense isn't it with everyone being friends and linked in some way

Kris and Nicole were very close friends. She actually doesn't talk about Nicole as much as you'd expect, which I think shows how much she cared IYSWIM. But the references to Kim/Khloe etc are obviously to appeal to the younger generation

I vaguely remember the sentencing, mainly my brother being so appalled at the outcome. Why was he found guilty at the civil suit? Was the evidence just presented better?

The civil suit won because it was on the balance of probabilities not beyond reasonable doubt.

Also I think that jury was more white than the criminal one.

Whether people in America think he did it is mostly based on race lines.

As for the evidence-the police had form for planting false evidence esp to convict black men. There was institutional racism in lapd at the time. The jury didn't trust their evidence.

A prosecution with no weapon and no witnesses is pretty pathetic.

lightbulb the blood was found before OJ was even questioned! Why was there a trail of blood in his car, driveway and house?

I believe he was acquitted because the mostly minority jury wanted to "punish" the police more than they wanted to see a so- called hero put in jail. There was clearly no proper analysis of the evidence by the jury- they made the decision extremely quickly after months of hearing evidence.

And you can't seriously believe that all prosecutions require witnesses do you? But in fact there were witnesses that night- a woman saw OJ speed away from the scene in the car, Kato Karlin heard someone climb in over the back fence and the waiting chauffeur saw him walk into the house before re-emerging afterwards to go to the airport. All these sightings fitted in with the timeline of the murders.

OJ as an sportsperson and actor had many white fans as well as black! He was a mega star.

Of course he did it. It's just that it happened in a time of such high racial tensions and mistrust for the police, that the jury was led to deliver a NG verdict. All the bumbling gave the sliver of reasonable doubt they needed to acquit.

Acquittal does not mean he didn't do it.

Barbara Walters interviewed Robert Kardashian years later and she asked if he had ever doubted OJ. He said, 'yes'. For him, he found it difficult to explain about the blood. He said he would still have acquitted if he was on the jury because it wasn't proven beyond reasonable doubt, but it was interesting that even a member of OJ's team (and his friend) thought the blood evidence was damning.

I just caught up with this

Was wondering if OJ Simpson was really that hysterical in real life. I don't do well with hysterical people on TV - good thing there wasn't that much of it!

Other than that I thought it was well done but I have to be honest and say I don't remember much about the case.

Travolta is presumably copying the mannerisms etc of the lawyer on the case.

It's on again tonight. I remember this car chase at the time.

I didn't realise someone was driving him in the Bronco. I assumed he was driving himself.

I had assumed that too. It's a shame that OJ's defence team were able to use the racism of the LAPD to get off this vicious crime.

I forgot that someone else was driving too

Next week will be good building the case against him

It's quite gripping. I read an article about a US investigator who believes that OJ's son Jason did it and OJ was covering for him?!

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10892053/OJ-Simpson-was-he-innocent-all-along.html