September 29, 2025 • 20 mins
Reid Carter examines April 1995 - the month this officially stopped being a murder trial and became a racial referendum. Cochran's defense strategy crystallizes into pure politics as O.J.'s home videos try to humanize a killer. Domestic violence evidence gets buried while Judge Ito's wife creates a conflict that nearly ends everything. Dismissed jurors expose the racial tensions destroying the case while Marcia Clark faces sexist media coverage about her hair and clothes. DNA evidence begins but gets lost in cultural warfare. Thirty days of watching Nicole and Ron disappear as victims while O.J. becomes the victim of racist police persecution. April proved that in celebrity justice, narrative trumps evidence every time.
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Join our new FB groups page here. Take the poll!
Join the Celebrity Trials community on social media! We're building a passionate group of true crime enthusiasts who love diving deep into the most shocking cases in America.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching "Celebrity Trials Podcast" on either platform.
You'll get exclusive behind-the-scenes content, breaking news updates on cases we're covering, and early alerts when new episodes drop. Our social media is where Reid Carter's hottest takes live, including reactions that don't make it into the show.
But more importantly, it's where YOU come in. Share your theories, debate the verdicts, and connect with fellow listeners who are just as obsessed with justice as you are. Did the jury get it right? What questions do you still have? Your comments and insights often shape future episodes.
We cover the trials that matter, but our community makes the conversation unforgettable. Come for Reid's signature cynical commentary, stay for the incredible discussions with thousands of true crime fans who get it.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Caalarogashark Media. This is Reed Carter, Monday, September twenty ninth,
twenty twenty five, Day four of eight days of OJ.
We're examining April nineteen ninety five, the month this case
officially stopped being about Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman's
(00:27):
murders and started being about everything else. Police racism, media bias,
domestic violence, statistics, celebrity persecution, judicial conflicts of interest, jury nullification,
everything except the simple question of whether O. J. Simpson
killed two people on June twelfth, nineteen ninety four. April
(00:47):
was when Johnny Cochrane's strategy reached its full potential. He'd
spent January assembling his team, February attacking the evidence, and
March destroying the investigators. Now it was time for the
math masterpiece, making this case about race instead of murder,
and it worked. By April thirtieth twelve, jurors were thinking
(01:08):
about Rodney King instead of Ronald Goldman. They were thinking
about decades of LAPD misconduct instead of OJ's history of
domestic violence. They were thinking about sending a message to
racist cops instead of delivering justice to murder victims. Thirty
days of watching a double murder trial become a social
justice referendum, thirty days of watching evidence become irrelevant while
(01:31):
politics became everything. I'm read Carter, this is day four
of eight days of OJ. Welcome to the month we
learned that in America, race matters more than murder, at
least when the murderer is famous enough and rich enough
to hire the right lawyers. April nineteen ninety five, thirty
(01:54):
days that completed the transformation of OJ Simpson from defendant
to victim, the lap from investigators to villains, and Nicole
Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from murder victims to footnotes
in a story about police racism. By April, I think
Johnny Cochran knew he'd won. The jury had been selected
(02:14):
by the defense, the evidence had been attacked by the defense,
and the investigators had been destroyed by the defense. Now
it was time to seal the deal by making this
case about something bigger than murder, making it about justice
for all black Americans who'd been victimized by racist police.
It was brilliant, it was cynical, it was effective, and
(02:35):
it was exactly what Nicole and Ron's families feared most
that their loved one's murders would become props in someone
else's political theater. The month began with the defense showing
Ojay's home videos to the jury. Videos of OJ playing
with his children, OJ laughing with friends, OJ being warm, charming, paternal,
(02:56):
everything except violent. April third, the jury watches OJ coaching
his daughter's soccer team, OJ at family barbecues, OJ being
the loving father and devoted friend that his public persona
had always projected. This is brilliant legal strategy, and I
have to give Cochrane credit for understanding exactly what he
(03:17):
was doing. The prosecution had shown evidence of OJ's guilt.
The defense was now showing evidence of his humanity. They
were reminding the jury that they weren't just judging a case,
they were judging a person they'd grown up admiring. But
here's what those home videos didn't show. They didn't show
Oja screaming at Nicole in restaurants. They didn't show him
(03:39):
stalking her after their divorce. They didn't show him threatening
to kill her if he ever caught her with another man.
They didn't show the private OJ that Nicole's friends and
family knew, controlling, jealous, and increasingly violent. The prosecution should
have objected to these videos, should have argued that being
a good father doesn't mean you can't be a murderer.
(03:59):
Should have point out out that the most dangerous domestic
abusers are often charming in public and violent in private. Instead,
they let the defense humanize Ojay without showing the jury
what kind of human he really was behind closed doors.
But April also brought the prosecution's attempt to present the
domestic violence evidence that would show Ojay's true nature, and
(04:20):
this is where Judge Edo made some of his worst decisions.
April fifth, the prosecution wants to play the nineteen ninety
three nine one one call where Nicole called police because
oj was threatening her. You can hear the terror in
Nicole's voice. You can hear Ojay screaming in the background.
You can hear exactly what kind of man he was
when he thought nobody was watching. Judge Eto allows the call,
(04:43):
but he limits its impact by giving the jury instructions
about how domestic violence evidence should be considered. He basically
tells them not to let it influence their judgment too much,
as if a pattern of escalating violence isn't directly relevant
to a domestic murder case, call should have been devastating,
Nicole's voice shaking with fear, Ojay's rage clearly audible. Police
(05:07):
responding to domestic violence calls at the Simpson house a
clear pattern of abuse that escalated to murder, But the
defense had prepared for this. They argued that lots of
couples argue that oj and Nicole had a passionate relationship,
that domestic disputes don't automatically lead to murder. They minimized
Nicole's terror and normalized Ojay's violence, and the jury seemed
(05:30):
to accept this argument. They seemed more concerned about police
racism than domestic violence, more worried about oj being persecuted
than Nicole being terrorized. Then came the crisis that almost
ended the trial. Judge Eto's wife, Captain Margaret Yorke, was
revealed to be mentioned in the Mark Furman tapes that
were about to surface. Foreman had made racist comments about
(05:54):
Edo's wife during his interviews with Laura Hart McKinney. April twelfth,
Judge Edo breaks down crying in chambers when he hears
what Foreman said about his wife. He's considering recusing himself
from the case. The trial could collapse, months of testimony
could be thrown out, everything could start over with a
new judge. And here's what I think was really happening.
(06:17):
Ito was more concerned about his personal reputation than judicial integrity.
He was more worried about what people would think about
his wife than what impact his decisions were having on
justice for Nicole and Ron. The conflict of interest was real.
Itto should have recused himself the moment his wife became
part of the case. Instead, he stayed compromised and emotional,
(06:40):
making decisions based on personal feelings rather than legal standards.
But the Edo crisis was nothing compared to the jury
revolt that exposed the racial tensions destroying this case. April nineteenth,
several jurors are dismissed, and their interviews reveal the dysfunction
behind the scenes. The jury is along racial lines. White
(07:02):
jurors think Oja is guilty. Black jurors think he's being framed.
They're not deliberating evidence. They're fighting about police racism and
celebrity persecution. One dismissed white juror, Francine Florio Bunten, gives
an interview that should have been a wake up call
for everyone involved. She says the black jurors had made
up their minds before evidence was presented, that they saw
(07:24):
this as payback for Rodney King, that they were more
interested in sending a message than delivering a verdict. This
should have been grounds for a mistrial. The jury was
hopelessly compromised by racial bias and preconceived notions. They weren't
judging oj Simpson's guilt or innocence, they were relitigating decades
of LAPD misconduct. But Judge Edo let the trial continue
(07:47):
with replacement jurors, pretending that jury selection could overcome the
fundamental problem. This case had become about race instead of murder,
and no amount of evidence was going to change that. Meanwhile,
April brought something that still infuriates me thirty years later,
the media's obsession with Marcia Clark's appearance instead of her arguments.
(08:10):
Clark was prosecuting the most important murder case in decades,
and the media was criticizing her hair, her clothes, her makeup.
They were more interested in her image makeover than her
legal strategy. They treated her like a fashion model instead
of a prosecutor. April fifteenth, Clark gets a new haircut,
and the media covers it like breaking news. Her hair
(08:31):
becomes more newsworthy than the evidence she's presenting. Her wardrobe
choices get more analysis than her legal arguments. This was
sexist and stupid and completely irrelevant to the case, but
it was also emblematic of how this trial had become
about everything except justice. The prosecutor's haircut mattered more than
the defendant's guilt, style mattered more than substance, performance mattered
(08:54):
more than proof, And while the media obsessed over Marcia
Clark's appearance, they ignored the fact that she was building
an overwhelming case against a double murderer who was being
treated like a victim of persecution. But April's most important
development was the beginning of the DNA evidence presentation, evidence
that should have ended any reasonable doubt about Ojy's guilt
(09:16):
and instead became another opportunity for the defense to confuse
the jury with technical jargon and contamination theories. We'll be
right back with how DNA evidence that proved OJ's guilt
beyond any scientific doubt somehow became meaningless to a jury
more interested in police racism than scientific proof. Welcome back
(09:47):
to day four of eight days. Of OJ. I'm read Carter,
and we're examining how April nineteen ninety five completed this
case's transformation from murder trial to racial referendum. Evidence that
began in April should have been the final nail in
OJ Simpson's coffin. The technology was new in nineteen ninety five,
(10:07):
but the science was sound. DNA doesn't lie, DNA doesn't
have racial bias. DNA doesn't care about celebrity status or
police misconduct. DNA just tells you whose blood is whose,
and the DNA evidence was devastating for OJ Simpson. April
twenty fourth, the prosecution begins presenting DNA evidence that proves
(10:28):
beyond any scientific doubt that OJ's blood was at the
Bundye crime scene, not just similar blood, not blood that
might be his. OJ Simpson's actual blood deposited the Knight, Nicole,
and Ron were murdered. The odds of this blood belonging
to someone else one in one hundred seventy million. In
(10:48):
other words, impossible unless one hundred seventy million people broke
into the crime scene and happened to bleed OJ Simpson's
exact DNA profile. This blood came from OJA Simpson, but
Barry Shek was ready. Instead of disputing the science, he
disputed the scientists. Instead of challenging the DNA matches, he
challenged the DNA collection. Instead of proving the evidence was wrong,
(11:12):
he proved the evidence was questionable. Shek's strategy was brilliant
and infuriating. He didn't need to prove the DNA testing
was incorrect. He only needed to prove it was potentially unreliable.
He only needed to create enough doubt about contamination and
mishandling to make the jury distrust the results, and with
Dennis Fung's earlier fumbles providing the foundation, Sheck built a
(11:35):
tower of doubt that reached all the way to reasonable doubt,
even when the science showed unreasonable guilt. April twenty sixth
Sheck suggests that OJ's blood was planted at the crime
scene using blood from his reference sample. That someone at
the LAPD took blood from Ojay's vial and sprinkled it
(11:56):
around Bundy Drive to frame him for murders he didn't commit.
This theory required believing that LAPD officers were simultaneously competent
enough to orchestrate a complex framing scheme and incompetent enough
to make all the collection mistakes shecheck had highlighted, But
logical consistency wasn't the point. Reasonable doubt was the point,
(12:18):
And by April's end, I think the prosecution realized they
were fighting a losing battle, not because their evidence was weak,
their evidence was overwhelming, but because this jury wasn't interested
in evidence. They were interested in justice, and their definition
of justice didn't include convicting a black celebrity based on
evidence collected by racist cops. April also brought more revelations
(12:43):
about the dysfunctional jury. Dismissed jurors revealed that racial tensions
were so bad that white and black jurors couldn't even
agree on basic facts. They were watching the same testimony
and reaching opposite conclusions based on their pre existing beliefs
about police and celebrities. Dismissed Black juror Willie Craven gave
an interview that revealed everything wrong with this case. He
(13:05):
said he didn't trust any evidence collected by the LAPD.
He said he thought oj was being framed from the beginning.
He said the DNA evidence didn't matter because the police
couldn't be trusted to handle it. Properly. This wasn't jury deliberation.
This was jury nullification, the decision to ignore evidence based
on political beliefs rather than legal standards. And it was
(13:27):
exactly what Cochrane had been counting on from the beginning.
But here's what really gets me about April nineteen ninety five,
While all this legal theater was playing out, Nicole Brown
Simpson and Ronald Goldman were disappearing from their own murder case.
The jury heard hours about police procedures and almost nothing
about the victim's last moments. They heard detailed testimony about
(13:50):
DNA collection protocols and minimal testimony about OJ's threats to
kill Nicole. They heard extensive arguments about evidence contamination and
limited arguments about motive and opportunity. By April thirtieth, this
wasn't a murder trial anymore. It was a referendum on
the LAPD, and Nicole and ron were forgotten casualties in
(14:11):
a war between the defense and the police department. Cochrane
had successfully transformed this case from a question of Ojy's
guilt to a question of police credibility, and with the
LAPD's history of misconduct, particularly in communities of color, that
was a fight the prosecution couldn't win. The defense wasn't
arguing that OJ didn't kill Nicole and ron They were
(14:33):
arguing that the LAPD couldn't be trusted to investigate anyone,
especially a black celebrity, and with jurors who had experienced
police misconduct themselves, that argument resonated more than any scientific evidence.
April nineteen ninety five was the month we learned that
in celebrity justice, narrative matters more than evidence, that the
(14:54):
story you tell about the case matters more than the
facts of the case, that jury selection matters more than
jury instruction. The prosecution told a story about a jealous
ex husband who murdered his wife and an innocent bystander.
The defense told a story about racist cops who framed
a black hero to cover up their own incompetence. Guess
(15:15):
which story this jury found more believable. By the end
of April, O. J. Simpson had been completely transformed from
defendant to victim, the lap D had been transformed from
investigators to conspirators, and Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman
had been transformed from murder victims to unfortunate excuses for
(15:35):
police corruption. The evidence still showed that O. J. Simpson
was a killer. The DNA still proved his guilt beyond
scientific doubt. The timeline still put him at the scene
during the murders. The motive still explained why he did it,
but none of that mattered to a jury that had
been selected by the defense, influenced by the defense, and
(15:56):
convinced by the defense that police racism was a bigger
problem than celebrity murder. April nineteen ninety five the month
this case became about everything except the murders. The month
justice became secondary to social justice. The month evidence became
less important than politics. The month Nicole Brown, Simpson and
(16:19):
Ronald Goldman finally disappeared completely from their own murder case.
That's day four of eight days of OJ April nineteen
ninety five, the month this officially became a referendum on
the LAPD instead of a trial for double murder. Tomorrow,
(16:40):
Day five, May nineteen ninety five, The month of DNA
evidence that no one understood. When Barry Shek's contamination theories
turned scientific proof into reasonable doubt, When astronomical odds of
innocence somehow became meaningless statistics, When the prosecution spent weeks
(17:00):
explaining complex science to jurors who'd already decided the police
couldn't be trusted with simple evidence collection. May nineteen ninety
five was when we learned that science doesn't matter if
you can't translate it into common sense, That being right
doesn't matter if you can't be convincing, that proof doesn't
matter if the jury doesn't want to believe it. But
(17:21):
before we move to May, let me remind you what
April really proved. It proved that domestic violence escalates to
murder when abusers lose control. It proved that celebrity status
doesn't prevent someone from being a killer. It proved that
charming public personas often hide private violence. It also proved
that none of those truths matter if you can convince
a jury to focus on something else instead. April nineteen
(17:44):
ninety five showed us Ojy's home videos of him being
a loving father. It didn't show us the nine to
eleven tapes of Nicole begging for help from the same man.
It showed us DNA evidence that proved his guilt beyond doubt.
It convinced the jury that d evidence couldn't be trusted
because racist cops had handled it. The prosecution presented overwhelming
(18:06):
proof that OJ Simpson killed Nicole and Ron. The defense
presented compelling arguments that the LAPD couldn't be trusted to
investigate anyone, and the jury decided that police credibility was
more important than murder evidence. By April thirtieth, the victims
had been forgotten and the defendant had become the victim.
(18:26):
The evidence had been explained away, and the investigators had
become the suspects. The murder trial had become a social
justice crusade, and Johnny Cochrane was already planning his victory speech.
Nicole Brown Simpson was thirty five years old when OJ
murdered her. She was trying to build a life free
from his control, his violence, his threats. She died because
(18:49):
she finally had the courage to leave permanently, and OJ
couldn't accept losing control. Ronald Goldman was twenty five years old.
He was working as a waiter, trying to build a career,
living his life. He died because he was in the
wrong place at the wrong time, trying to help someone
he barely knew. They deserved justice, They deserved a jury
(19:10):
that cared more about evidence than politics. They deserved a
system that focused on their murders instead of everything else. Instead,
they got the OJ Simpson trial, where being a victim
mattered less than being a celebrity, where truth mattered less
than narrative, where justice mattered less than sending a message
(19:32):
Join me tomorrow for May nineteen ninety five, When science
met skepticism and lost, when DNA evidence that should have
guaranteed conviction became just another reason to doubt the system.
I'm Red Carter. The race card was played in April
nineteen ninety five, and it trumped the murder evidence. Nicole
and Ron were still dead, but their killer was now
(19:54):
the victim of his own trial. The preceding episode is
based on court records, news reports, and publicly available information
(20:17):
from the OJ Simpson trial. While we strive for accuracy,
some dramatic interpretation and creative license has been used for
storytelling purposes
Caalarogashark Media. This is Reed Carter, Monday, September twenty ninth,
twenty twenty five, Day four of eight days of OJ.
We're examining April nineteen ninety five, the month this case
officially stopped being about Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman's
(00:27):
murders and started being about everything else. Police racism, media bias,
domestic violence, statistics, celebrity persecution, judicial conflicts of interest, jury nullification,
everything except the simple question of whether O. J. Simpson
killed two people on June twelfth, nineteen ninety four. April
(00:47):
was when Johnny Cochrane's strategy reached its full potential. He'd
spent January assembling his team, February attacking the evidence, and
March destroying the investigators. Now it was time for the
math masterpiece, making this case about race instead of murder,
and it worked. By April thirtieth twelve, jurors were thinking
(01:08):
about Rodney King instead of Ronald Goldman. They were thinking
about decades of LAPD misconduct instead of OJ's history of
domestic violence. They were thinking about sending a message to
racist cops instead of delivering justice to murder victims. Thirty
days of watching a double murder trial become a social
justice referendum, thirty days of watching evidence become irrelevant while
(01:31):
politics became everything. I'm read Carter, this is day four
of eight days of OJ. Welcome to the month we
learned that in America, race matters more than murder, at
least when the murderer is famous enough and rich enough
to hire the right lawyers. April nineteen ninety five, thirty
(01:54):
days that completed the transformation of OJ Simpson from defendant
to victim, the lap from investigators to villains, and Nicole
Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from murder victims to footnotes
in a story about police racism. By April, I think
Johnny Cochran knew he'd won. The jury had been selected
(02:14):
by the defense, the evidence had been attacked by the defense,
and the investigators had been destroyed by the defense. Now
it was time to seal the deal by making this
case about something bigger than murder, making it about justice
for all black Americans who'd been victimized by racist police.
It was brilliant, it was cynical, it was effective, and
(02:35):
it was exactly what Nicole and Ron's families feared most
that their loved one's murders would become props in someone
else's political theater. The month began with the defense showing
Ojay's home videos to the jury. Videos of OJ playing
with his children, OJ laughing with friends, OJ being warm, charming, paternal,
(02:56):
everything except violent. April third, the jury watches OJ coaching
his daughter's soccer team, OJ at family barbecues, OJ being
the loving father and devoted friend that his public persona
had always projected. This is brilliant legal strategy, and I
have to give Cochrane credit for understanding exactly what he
(03:17):
was doing. The prosecution had shown evidence of OJ's guilt.
The defense was now showing evidence of his humanity. They
were reminding the jury that they weren't just judging a case,
they were judging a person they'd grown up admiring. But
here's what those home videos didn't show. They didn't show
Oja screaming at Nicole in restaurants. They didn't show him
(03:39):
stalking her after their divorce. They didn't show him threatening
to kill her if he ever caught her with another man.
They didn't show the private OJ that Nicole's friends and
family knew, controlling, jealous, and increasingly violent. The prosecution should
have objected to these videos, should have argued that being
a good father doesn't mean you can't be a murderer.
(03:59):
Should have point out out that the most dangerous domestic
abusers are often charming in public and violent in private. Instead,
they let the defense humanize Ojay without showing the jury
what kind of human he really was behind closed doors.
But April also brought the prosecution's attempt to present the
domestic violence evidence that would show Ojay's true nature, and
(04:20):
this is where Judge Edo made some of his worst decisions.
April fifth, the prosecution wants to play the nineteen ninety
three nine one one call where Nicole called police because
oj was threatening her. You can hear the terror in
Nicole's voice. You can hear Ojay screaming in the background.
You can hear exactly what kind of man he was
when he thought nobody was watching. Judge Eto allows the call,
(04:43):
but he limits its impact by giving the jury instructions
about how domestic violence evidence should be considered. He basically
tells them not to let it influence their judgment too much,
as if a pattern of escalating violence isn't directly relevant
to a domestic murder case, call should have been devastating,
Nicole's voice shaking with fear, Ojay's rage clearly audible. Police
(05:07):
responding to domestic violence calls at the Simpson house a
clear pattern of abuse that escalated to murder, But the
defense had prepared for this. They argued that lots of
couples argue that oj and Nicole had a passionate relationship,
that domestic disputes don't automatically lead to murder. They minimized
Nicole's terror and normalized Ojay's violence, and the jury seemed
(05:30):
to accept this argument. They seemed more concerned about police
racism than domestic violence, more worried about oj being persecuted
than Nicole being terrorized. Then came the crisis that almost
ended the trial. Judge Eto's wife, Captain Margaret Yorke, was
revealed to be mentioned in the Mark Furman tapes that
were about to surface. Foreman had made racist comments about
(05:54):
Edo's wife during his interviews with Laura Hart McKinney. April twelfth,
Judge Edo breaks down crying in chambers when he hears
what Foreman said about his wife. He's considering recusing himself
from the case. The trial could collapse, months of testimony
could be thrown out, everything could start over with a
new judge. And here's what I think was really happening.
(06:17):
Ito was more concerned about his personal reputation than judicial integrity.
He was more worried about what people would think about
his wife than what impact his decisions were having on
justice for Nicole and Ron. The conflict of interest was real.
Itto should have recused himself the moment his wife became
part of the case. Instead, he stayed compromised and emotional,
(06:40):
making decisions based on personal feelings rather than legal standards.
But the Edo crisis was nothing compared to the jury
revolt that exposed the racial tensions destroying this case. April nineteenth,
several jurors are dismissed, and their interviews reveal the dysfunction
behind the scenes. The jury is along racial lines. White
(07:02):
jurors think Oja is guilty. Black jurors think he's being framed.
They're not deliberating evidence. They're fighting about police racism and
celebrity persecution. One dismissed white juror, Francine Florio Bunten, gives
an interview that should have been a wake up call
for everyone involved. She says the black jurors had made
up their minds before evidence was presented, that they saw
(07:24):
this as payback for Rodney King, that they were more
interested in sending a message than delivering a verdict. This
should have been grounds for a mistrial. The jury was
hopelessly compromised by racial bias and preconceived notions. They weren't
judging oj Simpson's guilt or innocence, they were relitigating decades
of LAPD misconduct. But Judge Edo let the trial continue
(07:47):
with replacement jurors, pretending that jury selection could overcome the
fundamental problem. This case had become about race instead of murder,
and no amount of evidence was going to change that. Meanwhile,
April brought something that still infuriates me thirty years later,
the media's obsession with Marcia Clark's appearance instead of her arguments.
(08:10):
Clark was prosecuting the most important murder case in decades,
and the media was criticizing her hair, her clothes, her makeup.
They were more interested in her image makeover than her
legal strategy. They treated her like a fashion model instead
of a prosecutor. April fifteenth, Clark gets a new haircut,
and the media covers it like breaking news. Her hair
(08:31):
becomes more newsworthy than the evidence she's presenting. Her wardrobe
choices get more analysis than her legal arguments. This was
sexist and stupid and completely irrelevant to the case, but
it was also emblematic of how this trial had become
about everything except justice. The prosecutor's haircut mattered more than
the defendant's guilt, style mattered more than substance, performance mattered
(08:54):
more than proof, And while the media obsessed over Marcia
Clark's appearance, they ignored the fact that she was building
an overwhelming case against a double murderer who was being
treated like a victim of persecution. But April's most important
development was the beginning of the DNA evidence presentation, evidence
that should have ended any reasonable doubt about Ojy's guilt
(09:16):
and instead became another opportunity for the defense to confuse
the jury with technical jargon and contamination theories. We'll be
right back with how DNA evidence that proved OJ's guilt
beyond any scientific doubt somehow became meaningless to a jury
more interested in police racism than scientific proof. Welcome back
(09:47):
to day four of eight days. Of OJ. I'm read Carter,
and we're examining how April nineteen ninety five completed this
case's transformation from murder trial to racial referendum. Evidence that
began in April should have been the final nail in
OJ Simpson's coffin. The technology was new in nineteen ninety five,
(10:07):
but the science was sound. DNA doesn't lie, DNA doesn't
have racial bias. DNA doesn't care about celebrity status or
police misconduct. DNA just tells you whose blood is whose,
and the DNA evidence was devastating for OJ Simpson. April
twenty fourth, the prosecution begins presenting DNA evidence that proves
(10:28):
beyond any scientific doubt that OJ's blood was at the
Bundye crime scene, not just similar blood, not blood that
might be his. OJ Simpson's actual blood deposited the Knight, Nicole,
and Ron were murdered. The odds of this blood belonging
to someone else one in one hundred seventy million. In
(10:48):
other words, impossible unless one hundred seventy million people broke
into the crime scene and happened to bleed OJ Simpson's
exact DNA profile. This blood came from OJA Simpson, but
Barry Shek was ready. Instead of disputing the science, he
disputed the scientists. Instead of challenging the DNA matches, he
challenged the DNA collection. Instead of proving the evidence was wrong,
(11:12):
he proved the evidence was questionable. Shek's strategy was brilliant
and infuriating. He didn't need to prove the DNA testing
was incorrect. He only needed to prove it was potentially unreliable.
He only needed to create enough doubt about contamination and
mishandling to make the jury distrust the results, and with
Dennis Fung's earlier fumbles providing the foundation, Sheck built a
(11:35):
tower of doubt that reached all the way to reasonable doubt,
even when the science showed unreasonable guilt. April twenty sixth
Sheck suggests that OJ's blood was planted at the crime
scene using blood from his reference sample. That someone at
the LAPD took blood from Ojay's vial and sprinkled it
(11:56):
around Bundy Drive to frame him for murders he didn't commit.
This theory required believing that LAPD officers were simultaneously competent
enough to orchestrate a complex framing scheme and incompetent enough
to make all the collection mistakes shecheck had highlighted, But
logical consistency wasn't the point. Reasonable doubt was the point,
(12:18):
And by April's end, I think the prosecution realized they
were fighting a losing battle, not because their evidence was weak,
their evidence was overwhelming, but because this jury wasn't interested
in evidence. They were interested in justice, and their definition
of justice didn't include convicting a black celebrity based on
evidence collected by racist cops. April also brought more revelations
(12:43):
about the dysfunctional jury. Dismissed jurors revealed that racial tensions
were so bad that white and black jurors couldn't even
agree on basic facts. They were watching the same testimony
and reaching opposite conclusions based on their pre existing beliefs
about police and celebrities. Dismissed Black juror Willie Craven gave
an interview that revealed everything wrong with this case. He
(13:05):
said he didn't trust any evidence collected by the LAPD.
He said he thought oj was being framed from the beginning.
He said the DNA evidence didn't matter because the police
couldn't be trusted to handle it. Properly. This wasn't jury deliberation.
This was jury nullification, the decision to ignore evidence based
on political beliefs rather than legal standards. And it was
(13:27):
exactly what Cochrane had been counting on from the beginning.
But here's what really gets me about April nineteen ninety five,
While all this legal theater was playing out, Nicole Brown
Simpson and Ronald Goldman were disappearing from their own murder case.
The jury heard hours about police procedures and almost nothing
about the victim's last moments. They heard detailed testimony about
(13:50):
DNA collection protocols and minimal testimony about OJ's threats to
kill Nicole. They heard extensive arguments about evidence contamination and
limited arguments about motive and opportunity. By April thirtieth, this
wasn't a murder trial anymore. It was a referendum on
the LAPD, and Nicole and ron were forgotten casualties in
(14:11):
a war between the defense and the police department. Cochrane
had successfully transformed this case from a question of Ojy's
guilt to a question of police credibility, and with the
LAPD's history of misconduct, particularly in communities of color, that
was a fight the prosecution couldn't win. The defense wasn't
arguing that OJ didn't kill Nicole and ron They were
(14:33):
arguing that the LAPD couldn't be trusted to investigate anyone,
especially a black celebrity, and with jurors who had experienced
police misconduct themselves, that argument resonated more than any scientific evidence.
April nineteen ninety five was the month we learned that
in celebrity justice, narrative matters more than evidence, that the
(14:54):
story you tell about the case matters more than the
facts of the case, that jury selection matters more than
jury instruction. The prosecution told a story about a jealous
ex husband who murdered his wife and an innocent bystander.
The defense told a story about racist cops who framed
a black hero to cover up their own incompetence. Guess
(15:15):
which story this jury found more believable. By the end
of April, O. J. Simpson had been completely transformed from
defendant to victim, the lap D had been transformed from
investigators to conspirators, and Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman
had been transformed from murder victims to unfortunate excuses for
(15:35):
police corruption. The evidence still showed that O. J. Simpson
was a killer. The DNA still proved his guilt beyond
scientific doubt. The timeline still put him at the scene
during the murders. The motive still explained why he did it,
but none of that mattered to a jury that had
been selected by the defense, influenced by the defense, and
(15:56):
convinced by the defense that police racism was a bigger
problem than celebrity murder. April nineteen ninety five the month
this case became about everything except the murders. The month
justice became secondary to social justice. The month evidence became
less important than politics. The month Nicole Brown, Simpson and
(16:19):
Ronald Goldman finally disappeared completely from their own murder case.
That's day four of eight days of OJ April nineteen
ninety five, the month this officially became a referendum on
the LAPD instead of a trial for double murder. Tomorrow,
(16:40):
Day five, May nineteen ninety five, The month of DNA
evidence that no one understood. When Barry Shek's contamination theories
turned scientific proof into reasonable doubt, When astronomical odds of
innocence somehow became meaningless statistics, When the prosecution spent weeks
(17:00):
explaining complex science to jurors who'd already decided the police
couldn't be trusted with simple evidence collection. May nineteen ninety
five was when we learned that science doesn't matter if
you can't translate it into common sense, That being right
doesn't matter if you can't be convincing, that proof doesn't
matter if the jury doesn't want to believe it. But
(17:21):
before we move to May, let me remind you what
April really proved. It proved that domestic violence escalates to
murder when abusers lose control. It proved that celebrity status
doesn't prevent someone from being a killer. It proved that
charming public personas often hide private violence. It also proved
that none of those truths matter if you can convince
a jury to focus on something else instead. April nineteen
(17:44):
ninety five showed us Ojy's home videos of him being
a loving father. It didn't show us the nine to
eleven tapes of Nicole begging for help from the same man.
It showed us DNA evidence that proved his guilt beyond doubt.
It convinced the jury that d evidence couldn't be trusted
because racist cops had handled it. The prosecution presented overwhelming
(18:06):
proof that OJ Simpson killed Nicole and Ron. The defense
presented compelling arguments that the LAPD couldn't be trusted to
investigate anyone, and the jury decided that police credibility was
more important than murder evidence. By April thirtieth, the victims
had been forgotten and the defendant had become the victim.
(18:26):
The evidence had been explained away, and the investigators had
become the suspects. The murder trial had become a social
justice crusade, and Johnny Cochrane was already planning his victory speech.
Nicole Brown Simpson was thirty five years old when OJ
murdered her. She was trying to build a life free
from his control, his violence, his threats. She died because
(18:49):
she finally had the courage to leave permanently, and OJ
couldn't accept losing control. Ronald Goldman was twenty five years old.
He was working as a waiter, trying to build a career,
living his life. He died because he was in the
wrong place at the wrong time, trying to help someone
he barely knew. They deserved justice, They deserved a jury
(19:10):
that cared more about evidence than politics. They deserved a
system that focused on their murders instead of everything else. Instead,
they got the OJ Simpson trial, where being a victim
mattered less than being a celebrity, where truth mattered less
than narrative, where justice mattered less than sending a message
(19:32):
Join me tomorrow for May nineteen ninety five, When science
met skepticism and lost, when DNA evidence that should have
guaranteed conviction became just another reason to doubt the system.
I'm Red Carter. The race card was played in April
nineteen ninety five, and it trumped the murder evidence. Nicole
and Ron were still dead, but their killer was now
(19:54):
the victim of his own trial. The preceding episode is
based on court records, news reports, and publicly available information
(20:17):
from the OJ Simpson trial. While we strive for accuracy,
some dramatic interpretation and creative license has been used for
storytelling purposes
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