BONUS - 8 Days of. O.J. - "THE AFTERMATH: What O.J. Wrought - How One Verdict Changed Everything" - Celebrity Trials - True Crime and Justice coverage updated daily.

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Caalerogus Shark Media. This is Reed Carter. Saturday, October fourth,
twenty twenty five, the bonus episode of Eight Days of OJ.
Yesterday marked thirty years since the verdict that changed everything.
Thirty years since OJ Simpson walked free after murdering Nicole

(00:27):
Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Thirty years since America learned
that celebrity justice works differently than regular justice. But October third,
nineteen ninety five wasn't the end of the story. It
was the beginning, the beginning of a new era where
celebrities accused of serious crimes had a playbook to follow,
the beginning of true crime as entertainment, the beginning of

(00:49):
the understanding that fame plus money plus the right lawyer's
equals immunity from consequences. Today, we examine what happened after
the cameras stopped rolling, happened to OJ Simpson in the
nearly thirty years between his acquittal and his death, what
happened to everyone else whose lives were changed by those
four hours of jury deliberation. Most importantly, we examine what

(01:13):
OJ's acquittal wrought on American justice, how it created the
template every celebrity defendant has studied since how it taught
famous people that you don't need to be innocent to
be acquitted. You just need to be famous enough, and
rich enough and smart enough to hire the right lawyers.
I'm read Carter. This is the bonus episode of Eight
Days of OJ. Welcome to thirty years of living with

(01:35):
the consequences of the most wrong verdict in American legal history.
October third, nineteen ninety five, ten oh one am Pacific time,
One minute after the verdict that shocked the world, the
courtroom is chaos. OJ's family is celebrating, His lawyers are

(01:56):
embracing the dream team has pulled off the impossible, freeing
a guilty client through superior storytelling and jury manipulation. But
outside the courthouse, America is processing what just happened in
very different ways. The split screen that defined the verdict.
Reaction is burned into our national memory. Black Americans celebrating

(02:16):
in the streets, in offices, in schools, dancing, cheering, applauding
what they see as justice finally being served to a
black man by a corrupt system. White Americans sitting in
stunned silence, unable to process how overwhelming evidence of guilt
could be ignored so completely, unable to understand how DNA
evidence and blood evidence and timeline evidence could be explained

(02:39):
away by contamination theories and police misconduct claims. Both reactions
were understandable. Black Americans had watched the LAPD abuse their
community for decades. They'd seen innocent people framed guilty, cops protected,
and a justice system that worked differently depending on your
skin color and bank account. Ojay's equips felt like payback

(03:01):
for generations of injustice. White Americans had watched eight months
of evidence that proved Ojay's guilt beyond any reasonable doubt.
They'd seen science and facts and proof get ignored in
favor of conspiracy theories and racial politics. Ojay's acquittal felt
like the system had broken down completely. But what nobody
understood on October third, nineteen ninety five was that this

(03:24):
verdict would create a template, a blueprint for how celebrities
could escape consequences in America, a playbook that would be
studied and copied and refined by every famous defendant who followed.
The immediate aftermath was surreal. Los Angeles had been preparing
for riots if Ojy was convicted. Police were on high alert,

(03:46):
The National Guard was ready. Everyone expected the kind of
violence that had followed the Rodney King verdict in nineteen
ninety two. Instead, there was celebration. Black Americans weren't rioting.
They were rejoicing. The verdict they'd hoped for had actually happened.
The system had worked in their favor for once, even

(04:06):
if it meant a guilty man went free. But the
riots that didn't happen revealed something important about October third,
nineteen ninety five. This wasn't really about O. J. Simpson's
guilt or innocence. This was about decades of racial injustice
finding expression through one celebrity trial. This was about communities
that had been failed by the system finally seeing it

(04:28):
fail someone else. The problem was that the someone else
was actually guilty. The system didn't fail O J. Simpson.
It failed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. The injustice
wasn't Ojay's prosecution, it was his acquittal. Within hours of
the verdict, Ojy was back at his Rockingham mansion, free
to play golf, sign autographs, and live the life of

(04:50):
a celebrity who'd beaten the system. He promised to dedicate
his life to finding the real killers of Nicole and Ron. Instead,
he dedicated his life to golf courses, nightclubs, and pretending
he was the victim in this story. The real killers,
of course, were never found because O. J. Simpson was
the real killer, but he'd convinced twelve jurors and millions

(05:13):
of Americans that racist cops had framed him for murders
he didn't commit, so he had to maintain that fiction,
even though everyone who looked at the evidence objectively knew
it was a lie. The Dream Team's victory lap was
immediate and extensive. Johnny Cochrane became the most famous defense
attorney in America. He was invited to speak at law schools,

(05:33):
write books, and take on high profile clients who wanted
their own version of the race card defense. But the
Dream Team also began fracturing almost immediately. Robert Shapiro distanced
himself from Cochrane's racial appeals, saying he was embarrassed by
the way race had dominated the trial. F Lee Bailey
and Alan Dershowitz started feuding over credit for the victory.

(05:56):
Barry Scheck tried to maintain his scientific credibility while acknowledging
his role in helping a murderer escape justice. Even in victory,
the dream team couldn't stay together because, deep down, I
think they all knew what they'd really accomplished. They hadn't
freed an innocent man, they'd freed a guilty one. They
hadn't served justice, they'd perverted it. They hadn't won through

(06:20):
superior legal analysis. They'd won through superior manipulation of racial
tensions and jury prejudices. But October third, nineteen ninety five
also began the civil case, and in civil court, with
different rules and different standards and a different jury, the
same evidence would tell a very different story. The civil
trial February nineteen ninety seven, eighteen months after Ojy's criminal acquittal,

(06:47):
the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman got
their second chance at justice, the civil trial for wrongful death,
where the burden of proof was lower and the defendant
couldn't hide behind the Fifth Amendment. This time, Ojay had
to testify. He couldn't sit silently at the defense table
while his lawyers performed for the cameras. He had to
answer questions under oath about his whereabouts, his actions, his

(07:11):
relationship with Nicole, and his role in the murders, and
he was terrible, evasive, defensive contradictory. He claimed he'd never
owned Bruno Magley's shoes, despite being photographed wearing them. He
insisted he'd never hit Nicole despite evidence of repeated domestic violence.
He maintained his innocence despite being unable to explain how

(07:33):
his blood got to the crime scene. The civil jury
looked at the same evidence the criminal jury had seen
and reached the obvious conclusion. February fifth, nineteen ninety seven, O. J.
Simpson was found liable for the wrongful deaths of Nicole
Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. The jury awarded thirty three
point five million dollars in damages. This verdict was the

(07:57):
justice that should have been delivered in nineteen ninety five.
The recognition that OJ Simpson was responsible for two brutal murders,
the acknowledgment that the victim's families deserved accountability even if
they couldn't get criminal conviction. But civil liability isn't criminal justice.
Money damages aren't prison sentences. The civil verdict proved what

(08:17):
everyone already knew. OJ killed Nicole and ron but it
couldn't undo the travesty of October third, nineteen ninety five.
OJ spent years avoiding payment of the civil judgment. He
moved to Florida, where his pension and homestead were protected
from creditors. He hid assets, claimed poverty, and did everything

(08:38):
possible to avoid compensating the families whose lives he'd destroyed.
Even when he was finally held accountable in civil court,
OJ found ways to avoid the consequences. He proved that
being rich and famous means having options that regular people
don't have. Even after being found liable for murder, the
key player's fates. The OJ trial changed everyone it touched,

(09:01):
and not always for the better. Let me walk you
through what happened to each of the major players in
the trial of the century. Marcia Clark, the prosecutor who
should have convicted the most obvious murderer in American history,
never recovered professionally. She resigned from the DA's office in
nineteen ninety seven, wrote a book about the trial, and

(09:22):
largely retreated from public life. She'd spent eight months presenting
overwhelming evidence of guilt and watched it get ignored by
a jury that cared more about police racism than murder evidence.
Clark had been criticized for everything during the trial, her hair,
her clothes, her courtroom demeanor. The media treated her more
like a fashion model than a prosecutor. She'd prosecuted the

(09:45):
most important case of her career while being judged on
her appearance rather than her arguments. But Clark's real tragedy
was that she'd been right about everything. O. Jay was guilty.
The evidence proved it, the DNA reliable, the timeline was accurate,
the blood evidence was devastating. She'd presented the most conclusive

(10:08):
murder case in legal history and lost because the jury
didn't want to convict. Christopher Darden never recovered either. He'd
been brought onto the prosecution team to provide racial balance
against Johnny Cochrane, and he'd made the single worst prosecutorial
decision in American legal history, asking OJ to try on
the gloves. Darden left the DA's office in nineteen ninety six,

(10:31):
tried private practice, taught law school, and spent decades knowing
that his mistake had helped a murderer escape justice. He'd
handed OJ Simpson his acquittal with those gloves and no
amount of explaining about leather shrinkage or latex interference could
undo that catastrophe. But I think Darden's real failure wasn't
the glove demonstration. It was taking the case personally. He

(10:55):
saw Cochrane's racial appeals as attax on his own credibility
as a black pro prosecutor. He led a motion override
judgment and emotion is how you lose cases you should win.
Johnny Cochran became the most famous defense attorney in America
after the trial. He capitalized on his OJ victory to
build a practice representing celebrities and other high profile defendants.

(11:18):
He turned if it doesn't fit, you must acquit into
the most famous phrase in legal history. But Cochrane's victory
came with a cost. He'd won by exploiting racial tensions
and police misconduct rather than proving his client's innocence. He'd
sent a guilty man home to freedom and created a
template for future celebrity defendants to follow. Cochrane died in

(11:41):
two thousand and five of brain cancer, ten years after
his greatest legal victory. He never acknowledged that OJ was
actually guilty, but I think he knew deep down. I
think they all knew. Judge Lance Edo became a punchline
after the trial. His inability to control his courtroom, his
obsession with television cameras, his emotional breakdown over Mark Furman's

(12:03):
comments about his wife. All of it made him a
symbol of judicial incompetence. It overturned to obscurity after the trial,
serving out his career on the Los Angeles Superior Court
bench while avoiding high profile cases. He'd presided over the
most watched trial in American history and proved that fame
doesn't equal competence. The trial turned Itto into a celebrity judge,

(12:26):
but it also revealed that he cared more about being
a celebrity than being a judge. His courtroom became a
television studio, and justice suffered for the ratings. Kato'calin somehow
turned being a useless witness into a thirty year career
in entertainment. He parlayed his fifteen minutes of fame into
reality TV appearances, talk show segments, and celebrity endorsements. He

(12:48):
became famous for being famous, the ultimate beneficiary of the
trial's transformation into entertainment. But Kato's real legacy is cowardice.
He could have been the witness who convicted o j. Simpson.
He heard the thumps on his wall the night of
the murders. He saw oj acting suspiciously. He knew things
that could have delivered justice for Nicole and Ron. Instead,

(13:11):
he chose comfort over conscience. He protected his free housing
and celebrity lifestyle rather than telling the truth about what
he'd witnessed. He became rich and famous, while Nicole and
Ron stayed dead. Mark Furman's post trial story is the
most complicated. His racist language and perjury had destroyed the
prosecution's case and handed Ojay his acquittal. He pleaded no

(13:34):
contest to perjury charges in nineteen ninety six and received probation.
But Furman also wrote books about other unsolved cases and
became a television crime analyst. He tried to rehabilitate his
reputation by solving cold cases and helping other victims' families
find justice. Furman was a racist cop who lied under

(13:54):
oath and helped a murderer escape justice. But he was
also the detective who correctly ident oj Simpson as the
killer of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Both things
can be true even if only one of them mattered
to the jury. Barry Sheck returned to his work with
the Innocence Project, using DNA evidence to free people who'd

(14:15):
been wrongly convicted. The irony is palpable. The lawyer who'd
helped a guilty man escape justice by attacking DNA evidence
spent the rest of his career using DNA evidence to
free innocent people. Sheck had used his scientific knowledge to
create doubt about reliable evidence in the OJ case, but
he also used that same knowledge to prove the innocence

(14:36):
of hundreds of people who'd been wrongly convicted. He was
both part of the problem and part of the solution.
F Lee Bailey and Alan Dershowitz continued their legal careers
but never achieved another victory as significant as OJ's acquittal.
They'd been part of the greatest legal performance in American history,
but they'd also been part of the greatest perversion of justice.

(14:58):
Robert Shapiro Disas distanced himself from the racial aspects of
the defense and continued representing celebrities in trouble. He'd been
the architect of the dream Team, but he was uncomfortable
with how racial the trial had become. All of them
had been changed by the trial, all of them had
played roles in freeing a double murderer. Some embraced that legacy,

(15:19):
others tried to escape it, but none of them could
undo what they'd accomplished. On October third, nineteen ninety five,
we'll be right back with Ojy's eventual downfall in Las Vegas,
his death from cancer in twenty twenty four, and how
his acquittal created the playbook every celebrity defendant has used since.

(15:50):
Welcome back to the bonus episode of Eight Days of OJ.
I'm Red Carter, and we're examining thirty years of consequences
from the verdict that changed American justice. OJ Simpson spent
twelve years as a freeman after his acquittal, living the
life of a celebrity who'd beaten the system. He played golf,
signed autographs, and maintained his innocence while never actually looking

(16:13):
for the real killers he'd promised to find. But OJ's
freedom ended on September thirteenth, two thousand and seven, in
Las Vegas, a robbery at the Palace Station hotel and casino,
where OJ and several accomplices stole sports memorabilia at gunpoint.
OJ claimed he was just recovering his own property, but

(16:33):
the law didn't care about his rationalization. October third, two
thousand and eight, exactly thirteen years after his acquittal, OJ
was convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping. The irony was perfect.
The man who'd escaped justice for double murder was finally
going to prison for stealing his own memorabilia. December fifth,
two thousand and eight, OJ was sentenced to thirty three

(16:55):
years in prison, with possibility of parole after nine years.
The same justice system that had failed Nicole and Ron
finally caught up with their killer, even if it was
for different crimes. OJ spent nine years in Lovelock Correctional
Center in Nevada. Nine years of learning that celebrity status
doesn't matter when you're wearing prison uniforms. Nine years of

(17:17):
discovering that fame doesn't protect you from the reality of incarceration.
He was granted parole in twenty seventeen and lived his
final years in relative obscurity. The man who'd once been
the most famous person in America was reduced to occasional
sightings on golf courses and in restaurants. The celebrity who'd

(17:37):
commanded the world's attention for over a year had become
a footnote. OJ Simpson died on April tenth, twenty twenty four,
at age seventy six from prostate cancer. He'd lived almost
thirty years, longer than the people he murdered. He'd enjoyed
nearly three decades of freedom that Nicole and Ron would
never have. He'd died a free man while they'd died victims.

(18:01):
His death sparked renewed interest in the trial, but it
also marked the end of an era. The last major
figure from the trial of the century was gone, but
the template he'd created lived on. Because OJ Simpson didn't
just get away with murder. He taught every celebrity after
him how to do it too. Robert Blake studied the
OJ playbook when he was accused of murdering his wife

(18:24):
in two thousand and one. Blame the police, investigation, question
the evidence collection, create alternative theories about other possible killers,
make it about anything except the defendant's obvious guilt. Blake
was acquitted in two thousand and five despite overwhelming evidence
that he'd orchestrated his wife's murder. The OJ template worked again.

(18:46):
Confuse the jury, blame the cops, make the victims disappear.
Phil Spector used the same strategy when he was accused
of murdering actress Lana Clarkson in two thousand and three.
His first trial ended in a hung jury. His second
trial resulted in conviction, but only after years of legal
maneuvering that followed the OJ model of attacking the investigation

(19:09):
rather than proving innocence. Casey Anthony followed the template perfectly
when she was accused of murdering her daughter Cayley in
two thousand and eight. Her lawyers didn't prove she was innocent,
they created enough doubt about the prosecution's case to generate
an acquittal that shocked America. Anthony walked free in twenty
eleven despite evidence that she'd killed her own child. The

(19:32):
jury focused on prosecutorial mistakes rather than defendant's guilt. The
OJ template worked again. Even defendants who were eventually convicted
learned from OJ's playbook. Michael Jackson's two thousand and five
child molestation trial featured attacks on prosecution witnesses and alternative
theories about motives for false accusations. Jackson was acquitted, though

(19:55):
he died before facing additional charges. Harvey Weinstein's defense team
tried the U s Ojay approach in his sexual assault trials,
attacking the credibility of witnesses and questioning the prosecution's evidence.
Unlike OJ, Weinstein was convicted, but the strategy was familiar
to anyone who'd watched the trial of the century. The

(20:15):
template OJ created wasn't fool proof, but it was effective
enough to give celebrities hope that fame could overcome evidence,
that the right lawyers could create reasonable doubt even when
guilt was obvious. That money and celebrity status provided options
that regular defendants didn't have. But the OJ trial also
created our modern obsession with true crime as entertainment. Court

(20:39):
TV's wall to wall coverage of the trial proved that
Americans would watch legal proceedings like sporting events. The trial
became must see television, and every sensational case since has
tried to recapture that lightning in a bottle. The oj
trial created the expectation that major criminal cases should be
entertainment as much as justice, that courtrooms should be television studios,

(21:03):
and trials should be performances, that legal proceedings should generate
ratings rather than just verdicts. Nancy Grace built her career
analyzing high profile cases for television audiences hungry for more
OJ style drama. HLN, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC all

(21:25):
discovered that crime coverage generates ratings and advertising revenue. The
Menendez Brothers, Scott Peterson, Jody Arius, Amanda Knox, all of
them became household names because of media coverage that treated
their trials like entertainment. All of them benefited or suffered
from public attention that had nothing to do with the
evidence against them. But the most lasting impact of October third,

(21:49):
nineteen ninety five was the lesson it taught about American justice.
That wealth matters more than evidence, that celebrity status creates
reasonable doubt, that the right lawyers can make murder look
like persecution. OJ Simpson proved that some people are too
famous to face consequences for their crimes, that fame plus

(22:10):
money equals immunity from justice, That celebrity defendants get different
treatment than regular people accused of the same crimes. Thirty
years later, we're still living with that lesson. Every time
a celebrity faces serious charges, we remember OJ Simpson. Every
time wealth and status seem to matter more than evidence,

(22:31):
we think about October third, nineteen ninety five, the day
America learned that justice isn't blind, it's starstruck. That concludes
our bonus episode and our complete examination of eight days
of OJ. Thirty years after the verdict that changed everything,
we can see clearly what October third, nineteen ninety five

(22:54):
really wrought on American justice. OJ Simpson didn't just escape
justice for double murder. He created the blueprint every celebrity
defendant has studied since. He proved that fame plus money
plus the right lawyers equals immunity from consequences. He showed
that reasonable doubt doesn't have to be reasonable to be effective.
But the most tragic legacy of the OJ trial isn't

(23:17):
what it taught celebrities about escaping justice. It's what it
taught Americans about the justice system itself. That evidence doesn't
matter if you can't trust who collected it, That proof
doesn't matter if you can create better stories. That truth
doesn't matter if you can manipulate the right narrative. October third,
nineteen ninety five wasn't just the day OJ Simpson walked free.

(23:40):
It was the day America stopped believing that the justice
system works the same for everyone. I'm read Carter. This
has been eight days of OJ, the complete story of
how celebrity justice works in America and how regular justice
fails when celebrities are involved. Nicole Brown, Simpson and Ronald

(24:01):
Goldman are still dead. O. J. Simpson still got away
with murder, and the system still fails. When celebrity meets
justice in an American courtroom, remember their names, remember their lives,
Remember that they deserved better than what the trial of
the century gave them. October third, nineteen ninety five, The

(24:22):
day America learned that some people are too famous to
face consequences for murder. The day justice died while the
world watched. The day America stopped believing in justice and
started understanding that it's for sale.

All Episodes

BONUS - 8 Days of. O.J. - "THE AFTERMATH: What O.J. Wrought - How One Verdict Changed Everything"

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

24/7 News: The Latest

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}BONUS - 8 Days of. O.J. - "THE AFTERMATH: What O.J. Wrought - How One Verdict Changed Everything"