The Effects of the Media during the O.J. Simpson Murder Trial In 1994, a murder trial rocked the world, and changed the media forever. Although Simpson had most evidence stacked against him, with a superb team of lawyers he left the courtroom as a free man. As you can assume with a murder case involving people of such high caliber, the public became instantly invested. Tabloids, news channels, and radio shows everywhere were constantly covering the case. Anywhere you looked, you could find Americans, black and white glued to TVs and radios everywhere just to see what would happen next. Likewise, people all around the country had very strong opinions about the case. Many claimed that because of his fame and ability to hire hot shot lawyers …show more content…
Simpson Fast Facts) the jury released the final verdict. Simpson was “not guilty”. (FamousTrials.com) Because they broadcasted the trial for all of America to see, the citizens all had very strong opinions concerning the case. So, the moment that the jury released the verdict, one half of America was rejoicing while the other half was mourning. To this day, the O.J. Simpson trial continues to divide our country. No one but O.J. Simpson will ever truly know what happened on June 12th, 1994. Even though most people only focus on whether or not the jury made the right decision, that wasn’t the only aspect of this trial. As sad or uncomfortable as it may have been, this trial changed our country forever. After the trial ended, our government decided that it was best that cameras were not allowed in courtrooms in hope that trials would remain more authentic. It showed that no matter how much evidence you have, you must prepare to back that evidence up in court. Most importantly it brought light to the fact that America was still struggling with racial problems among our citizens; and taught us all to be a little more causiouswhen believing everything that the media shows …show more content…
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The Casey Anthony trial has been arguably the most controversial case since the trial of O.J. Simpson and has been speculated over ever since the verdict had been given in July of 2011. It was decided by a jury of her peers that Anthony was not guilty of murder, for the death of her daughter Caylee. Many believe that Anthony should have been found guilty however, very little Americans actually comprehend the justice system.
One of the most famous cases of the mid-nineties (and possibly one of the most controversial) of the wealthy being above the law is the O.J. Simpson trial, who fatally stabbed his ex-wife Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman. Being accused of murder, the court had sufficient biological and psychological evidence to prove Simpson’s act of murder. However, Simpson was found not guilty by the jury and lives as a fre...
Things only got worse when it was alleged that he transported and planted one the gloves on the Simpson estate, and the defendants legal team stating the officer wanted to frame Simpson because he was black and he disliked blacks an considering the jury was made up of mostly minorities this helped O.JSimpson even more.(2015) The key to winning a case apart from collecting evidence there must be a clear way to paint a picture that the people of the jury can understand whether or not you done the crime one must be convincing. Even though Simpson’s blood was on majority of the evidence collected it was argued that he was framed along with the contamination of evidence even if he had done it his team used all the weaknesses exposed by police involved in the case to paint a picture of innocence to the jury which proves perception of wrongdoing as persuasive to a jury as actual wrongdoing. I am sure with O.J Simpson being acquitted of the charges left a bad taste in the mouth of both police and some people in the legal field. There were too many mistakes made by the people that were tasked with the duty of collecting evidence and also in the department of how the evidence was handled but there are many lessons to be learned in every mistake the obvious one would be to not make the same ones
The job of a criminal lawyer is quite difficult. Whether on the defense or the prosecution, you must work diligently and swiftly in order to persuade the jury. Some lawyers play dirty and try to get their client off of the hook even though they are guilty without a doubt. Even though the evidence is all there, the prosecution sometimes just can’t get the one last piece of the puzzle to make the case stick and lock the criminal up. Such is the case Orenthal James Simpson.
During the time that O.J was on trial for the murders of Nicole and Ronald, everyone who was following the hearing had a deep sense of fear and pity. They were fearing that the man they once adored and aspired to be like was actually capable of committing such an inconspicuous crime. Also, due to the accusations of the murder, the viewers were also feeling in the sense of pity, in both sadness and disappointment. The acts that O.J Simpson was accused of caused the audience to feel disappointed in his actions, as well as sadness towards his family. The accusations developed about O.J left people who didn’t even personally know him in tears. People were so sad about his downfall. The accusation led to the fact that O.J left his family with no mother and technically no father, as he’d be spending time in prison. Furthermore, since he was found not guilty, there was a large part of the audience that felt a sense of release and emotion, and some felt bad that he was ever accused of this, but rather he just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Due to the fact that O.J and Nicole were separated for a couple years before she died, Nicole had made new friendships, and there was no proof that someone new that she met could have caused this crime and tried to frame Simpson, due to his past accused abuse
The funeral for the two victims was held on June 16th, 1994. O.J attended the funerals along with Nicole Simpson’s family and Ronald Goldman’s family. Shortly after, on June 17th, O.J was arrested and charged with first degree murder. Simpson immediately pleaded “100% not guilty’” on July 22nd, and the trial officially began on July 24th, 1994 (Linder 1). Because the jury was made up of mostly blacks, many outsiders believed that it would affect final decision of the jury. “O.J is free and so are we!” and “Live with it!” Were many of the comments blurted out during the many days of the trial (Elias 22). Judge Lance A was assigned to the case.
Mostly the people who supported R. Kelly information was selected for the news media and the information from the nonsupporters were not selected by the news media. In this case the information was bias to supporting R. Kelly even though he had film a sex tape urinating on a fourteen year old girl. It was ironic that the people would still support R. Kelly after such an incident, but his case was viewed on a racial manner rather than having sex with an underage teenager. The news media was able to view the lawyer sly ways of dealing with the jury to help R. Kelly win his case.
After a lengthy two hundred and fifty-two-day trial “not guilty” were the words that left the world in shock. O.J Simpson was your typical golden boy. He had it all, the nice car, the football career, and his kids. Unfortunately, this all came to an end when two bodies came to be spotted deceased in Nicole Browns front yard and was a gruesome sight. O. J’s ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman both found with brutal stab marks. Unfortunately, all his glory days now brought to an end, he went from playing on the field to begging for his freedom when becoming the main suspect of their murders. Since this trial has not only altered the way Americans viewed celebrities, but it also racially divided society,
When the trial was happening, I had no idea who he was until the trial started. I had my Dad tell me all the details of who he was, and everything else I learned was from watching television. I was young, but I still knew that racism was awful. I looked upon the television to Simpson sitting in the trial and just thought, "Oh, okay." I know it 's hard to believe, but I wasn 't brought up to believe race had anything to do with whether people judged based on race, but this case was a 101 course in proving I was oblivious to the real world. However, what I did hear based on pure evidence was that this guy totally did it. There was too much evidence that proved he was involved, and the only reasonable doubt that was brought into the case was purely based on race.
The New York Times bestseller book titled Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O.J. Simpson Case examines the O.J. Simpson criminal trial of the mid-1990s. The author, Alan M. Dershowitz, relates the Simpson case to the broad functions and perspectives of the American criminal justice system as a whole. A Harvard law school teacher at the time and one of the most renowned legal minds in the country, Dershowitz served as one of O.J. Simpson’s twelve defense lawyers during the trial. Dershowitz utilizes the Simpson case to illustrate how today’s criminal justice system operates and relates it to the misperceptions of the public. Many outside spectators of the case firmly believed that Simpson committed the crimes for which he was charged for. Therefore, much of the public was simply dumbfounded when Simpson was acquitted. Dershowitz attempts to explain why the jury acquitted Simpson by examining the entire American criminal justice system as a whole.
The people directly involved with this case are Judge Lance Ito, the prosecution lawyers, Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden, the defense lawyers, Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro and Robert Blasier , the jury and the defendant, O.J. Simpson. The families of the victims have also been present in the courtroom, as well as other spectators and news media. This case has heard one hundred and twenty witnesses over a nine month period.
The evidence discovered during the investigation suggested to the police that OJ Simpson may have had something to do with this murder and they obtained an arrest warrant. The investigators believed that they “knew” OJ Simpson committed the murders. His lawyers and him were informed of the arrest warrant and agreed to a specified time when OJ would turn himself into authorities. Investigators are later admonished, by the defense, on how they handled the crime scene.
Fairchild, H. & Cowan, G (1997). Journal of Social Issues. The O.J. Simpson Trial: Challenges to Science and Society.
Simpson's Ex-Wife Found Stabbed to Death” (Malnic & Ferrell, 1994). This was published two days after Nicole Brown Simpson’s death. The Chicago Tribune in 1995, published an article titled, “Nicole Simpson's Grisly Death Described to Jury” (Seigel, 1995). These titles use very abrasive and candid language, most likely used to grab the reader's attention. Words like “stabbed, slash, slit, and grisly” are commonly used when discussing the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman (Seigel, 1995). Furthermore, in the Los Angeles Times newspaper headline, it does not say directly who the murder victims are. They state that O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife was found dead, but not who his ex-wife was. Not mentioning Nicole Brown Simpson’s name in the title seems commonplace for most news media accounts of the murder. The Los Angeles Times, People Magazine, CBS News, and other media outlets have all done so (Malnic & Ferrell, 1994; Baker, 2018; CBS News, 2018). Also, the title does not mention whether or not there were other victims of the crime, but later down in the article they clearly state, “the body of Ronald Lyle Goldman of the Agoura area was found a few feet away in shrubbery” (Malnic & Ferrell, 1994). The lack of fully disclosing who the victims are within the title is misleading. The title is revolved around O.J. Simpson, yet he was not the one that was murdered. It appears that the Los Angeles