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American Crime Story (Season 1; E1-10)
The People v. O. J. Simpson (2016)
This engaging miniseries speaks about three stories that hit the headlines in America (and the rest of the world too, as when the US sneezes, the rest of the world gets pneumonia).
In the first season, the filmmakers decided to retell the story of how the American footballer and B-grade movie star, OJ Simpson and his Dream Team of lawyers managed to squash the guilty charge hurled by the LA Courts against him for killing his estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and an innocent 'bystander', Ron Goldman.
The case became more like a daytime soap opera. The nation was divided. Some of the black community thought OJ was a traitor because he had married a white lady; others thought the whole brouhaha was a plot to convict a black 'rags to riches' star and paint all blacks as a violent and abusive lot. Most of the white population thought he was guilty as sin.
For context, in June 1994, a dog walker found Nicole and Ron's dead bodies outside the house. The police were alerted, and they confirmed the deaths and found a soiled glove and a tiny blood spot on an SUV. At that time, OJ was on a flight to Chicago. He had earlier attended his daughter's concert together with Nicole.
The question is whether OJ sent Nicole home after the concert or went straight to the airport.
The American public was inundated with live coverage of a car chase on the LA Highway on the cable news network the next day. OJ had returned from Chicago and was confused. He was later talked down and apprehended. He was then arrested, charged with Nicole and Ron's murders.
The first counsel to defend OJ was his family friend, Robert Kardashian, who assembled his Dream Team. Robert Shapiro, then a celebrity defence attorney and master negotiator, was roped in. Sensing that the case was slanting towards a racial angle, Johnnie Cochran was appointed as co-defence lawyer. Cochran is a firebrand sympathiser of the black militant movement.
From then on, the case gravitated towards one that highlighted the deep divide in American society between blacks and whites. The tenet of the defence's argument is that the bigots in the LA police force had planted evidence at the crime scene. There was a concerted effort to present the police officer as racist and as having preconceived negative ideas about blacks.
The chief prosecutor had her own familial issues while handling this case. She was going through a nasty divorce herself. Her assistant, a black lawyer, goes through a 'black consciousness' crisis as he is seen as selling out because he is looking for a guilty verdict for a black man.
The prosecutors had a strong case. A bloodied glove was found with OJ's blood. The chain of events fit well. The numerous prior 911 calls for domestic abuse worked in their favour. The defence team, with their flamboyant lawyers, were quick to throw in the race angle. They rallied the black support groups and churches behind them. The linchpin of their argument is that the first police officer at the site of the crime is racist and had planted evidence at the crime scene. They managed to retrieve an audio recording of him uttering racial slurs indiscriminately. Even the glove that was retrieved from the crime scene was allegedly too tight, impossible to fit into OJ's hand. To the detriment of the defence, the convincing DNA confirmation of OJ's blood on the car door and glove just went above everybody's comprehension.
Everybody knows the evidence is quite compelling, but at the end of the day, it is the jury who has the last say. In a record four hours of deliberation, the mostly starstruck members returned a 'not guilty' verdict.
Even though everyone knows which way the verdict eventually went, the storytelling is quite compelling. All the emotional drama woven into the storyline keeps viewers' heart rates up till the end. Stellar performances from familiar faces like Cuba Gooding Jr as OJ, David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian, and John Travolta as Robert Shapiro add to the glitz. Courtney Vance, who appears as Johnnie Cochran, gives a very convincing portrayal of a purveyor of words who can bend any conversation to suit him.
Justice is not meted out in courts; the whole charade is just about interpreting the law and looking for technical loopholes to escape scot-free.
Farouk Gulsara (asokansham@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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