O.J. Simpson was acquitted in the high-profile murder trial involving the killings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman.
The former professional football player had been accused of murdering them on June 13, 1994. The trial was a media sensation that captivated national and international attention, becoming a landmark moment in American judicial history.
**"Read More" BELOW for the complete story**
When it was announced, the radio host yanked out his earpiece and stomped across the tiny platform. "That's it!" he shouted, over the deafening screams from in front of the courthouse, three blocks away. "I'm going home to where everything makes sense. These [expletive] people should never have been allowed to sit on this jury. This is a travesty!" The makeshift floor shook with his considerable heft — and anger.
And a lot of people agreed with him. Virtually as soon as the "not guilty" was pronounced, there were calls to reform the jury system, sometimes in more euphemistic language, sometimes, as with the radio host, in a pretty unvarnished manner.
But that's faulty reasoning, says Patricia Williams. She teaches at Columbia Law School, and some of her classes deal with the intersection or race and the law. She thought the prosecution did, in her words, a "wretched" job of presenting its case.
"Those who really didn't appreciate the degree to which the prosecution failed in its burden of proof wanted a conviction, no matter what," Williams says.