[TV static]
[ominous music playing]
Him being a racist doesn't necessarily mean that he planted the evidence,
but if there is any proof of that,
it should have a bearing on the case.
He can't even get his lies straight in the courtroom.
There were moments where Johnnie Cochran would ask a question
and I'm like, "I was wondering the same thing."
"So if I'm wondering that, the jury must be wondering that."
"That's not good."
But the DNA.
I kept thinking, "There's no way they can excuse the DNA. There's no way."
[camera clicking]
The DNA evidence in this case should have been enough to convict anybody.
Now, it's 1994. And now we have this new thing,
this brand-new thing called forensic DNA.
We've advanced our ability to extract information from blood
with the development of DNA testing.
The only question is whether you could get a jury to believe it.
O.J. is traveling or moving between the two bodies,
and he's transferring blood and DNA
from Ron to Nicole and Nicole to Ron, and on to himself.
They had the classic, what criminalists call, the two-way transfer.
Blood of the victims on items that's associated with O.J.,
blood of O.J. on items associated with the victims,
which, at first glance, looks pretty darn incriminating.
And you have the DNA of three different people inside the Bronco,
which is now parked at his house.
This bloodstain was on the console that is consistent with a mixture
of the defendant, Ron Goldman, and Nicole Brown.
Where could he get the DNA of the two dead victims
and mix it with his own unless he was at the crime scene?
My brother's DNA was where it shouldn't be if it wasn't him.
You could figure out a way to explain why Nicole's was there
because they were involved, right?
The kids were coming in and out of the car. "Okay, I could…"
But my brother's hair and fibers? Why were they on the killer?
Why were they on his hat? Why were they on the glove? In his car?
The socks, thrown hastily at the foot of the defendant's bed.
The blood on one spot matched the defendant.
The blood on another spot matched Nicole.
O.J. Simpson's blood was found both at the crime scene
and on the bloody glove at his house.
[man] Consistent with a mixture of the samples of Mr. Simpson,
Nicole Brown, and also Ronald Goldman.
Because of the blood discovered in the various locations,
it was not just beyond a reasonable doubt,
it was beyond all doubt that O.J. was there,
that O.J. fled the scene,
that O.J. was the murderer.
[Clark] And that is the aim of DNA testing.
[tense music playing]
You can listen and you'll say, "By God. I think the man did it."
Guilty as sin. There's so much evidence.
O.J. said, "Mike, I believe in DNA. I see the evidence."
I mean, they've got evidence on me. I can't explain some of this stuff.
"Wouldn't I know I did it?"
I remember thinking, "I don't know what you would know and what you wouldn't."
So at that point, I really thought that he may have done it.
[man] Do you think plea bargain when you hear these DNA results?
Are you kidding? You here today? Absolutely not.
If DNA testing is done well, properly and presented in a responsible way,
very powerful, wonderful stuff.
But it doesn't matter how definitive the DNA test is
if you don't know whether the DNA you're testing in the sample
came from where you thought it came from.
There were many examples of tampering, planting, gross negligence.
[music intensifies]
[suspicious music playing]
[Douglas] After the murders,
each of the news organizations were filming during all the data collection
and different angles and different cameras.
Peter and Barry watched hundreds of hours of raw footage
taken from the scene.
[tape winding backwards]
Barry was meticulous to try to find out how evidence was being collected.
And he had far greater experience explaining the infinitesimal ways
that evidence could be cross-contaminated.
[Thomson] It was clear that Fung and the other crime scene people
were not strictly following protocols.
They did not realize and were not adequately trained
to appreciate the potential for transfer
of small quantities of biological material
that could create problems with DNA testing.
We knew we would have to tell a story
where Fung was either dishonest or incompetent.
The minute cross-examination began of Dennis Fung
in the collection of evidence,
the defense began to tee off on the LAPD.
[music fades out]
[tense music playing]
My name is Dennis Fung. D-E-N-N-I-S F-U-N-G.
Good afternoon, Mr. Fung. How are you, sir?
[Thomson] Scheck, he's a feisty street fighter.
He came up as a public defender in the Bronx.
He actually said, "We're gonna do a Bronx defense."
A defense that would appeal to a lower-class jury
that's skeptical of the police.
[Scheck] Would you agree that it is the role of the criminalist
to preserve the integrity of evidence?
[Fung] That is one of the roles. Yes.
And that would mean that it's your job to make sure
that evidence is not contaminated?
Yes.
I did not like Barry Scheck at all. I said, "Man, he's abrasive."
"I don't think the jury's gonna bite. I don't think they're gonna like him."
I said, "O.J., you gotta fire that guy."
O.J. said, "Mike. I love him."
O.J. ended up being right.
When you arrived at the crime scene,
you saw that there was a blanket over the body of Nicole Brown Simpson.
Did you make any inquiry about where that blanket had come from?
No, I didn't.
[Scheck] Know where the blanket come from?
Probably the inside of the house.
[Scheck] Do you know whether there's trace evidence on that blanket or sheet?
- Trace evidence? - [Scheck] Trace evidence from her body.
I would have no way of knowing what was on that blanket.
That's how we had to protect that evidence, there's no other way.
And Mr. Goldman's body was eventually placed in the area of that blanket?
[Lange] Yes.
This creates the possibility of transfer of items
from inside the house to the crime scene.
There could've been all kinds…
O.J.'s hair could have been on that blanket for all we know.
[Scheck] That's a terrible mistake
from the point of view of a criminalist, isn't it?
I would prefer that it was not done.
If I hadn't done it, what do you suppose they would've criticized me for then?
"Well, why didn't you protect the body? It's evidence."
One of the themes we wanted to develop was that
the detectives and the evidence technicians were bunglers.
That they were incompetent.
[Scheck] Officer Riske, I want to show you on exhibit 56
two photographs side-by-side.
You take a look at the envelope in these two different photographs.
- See the grouting here? - Yes, sir.
[Scheck] Envelope's on the other side?
[Riske] Yes.
[Scheck] Can you explain how that envelope got moved?
No.
- [Scheck] You can't? - No.
A good trial lawyer will take the smallest mistake
and grow it into something unrecognizable.
Do mistakes happen? Yes.
So do you throw the baby out with the bathwater?
No.
[Scheck] You never saw the glove in any different position
prior to the time it was collected?
I don't recall it being in a different position. No.
There was evidence to support the theory of planting of those items.
[Scheck] You'll notice the fingers of the glove
are pointed toward a tennis shoe.
- Do you see that? - [Riske] Yes.
[Scheck] This next exhibit. Can you see where the V part of the glove
is now pointing in another direction?
[Riske] Yes, sir.
[Scheck] And that the fingers of the glove are now pointed in a different direction?
- [Riske] Yes. - [Scheck] The glove moved.
- You see that? - Yes, sir.
- Were you there when this happened? - No, I wasn't.
Hmm. That's very important.
Now we had unchallenged proof evidence was being moved.
Evidence was ending up somewhere where it wasn't supposed to be.
[Kim Goldman] I remember thinking, "This is not good."
But I was like, "No, it's science. Nobody can argue science."
It is quite easy to transfer biological material from one item to another.
If you are not wearing gloves, it can be on your finger.
If you are wearing gloves, it can be on the glove.
[Scheck] When you are collecting an item,
you would not touch that item with your bare hand, would you?
[Fung] I would try not to.
Well, you say you'd try not to. It would be wrong to do that, wouldn't it?
[Fung] If it was for prints, yes.
Though he conceded if he picked up items of evidence without gloves, that'd be bad,
he denied ever doing it.
Did you touch that envelope with your bare hands
while collecting it, Mr. Fung?
No.
- Sure of that? - [Fung] Yes.
No question about it in your mind?
Yes.
Your Honor, with permission, I'd like to show this clip.
[music intensifies]
- [music stops] - [tape clicks]
[Scheck] There! There!
How about that, Mr. Fung?
He's confronted with a picture of him holding the envelope with the glasses
in his bare hands.
And the classic line…
How about that, Mr. Fung?
[Scheck] You want to see that again in slow motion, Mr. Fung?
- I don't need to see it in slow motion. - [Scheck] All right.
So, what you said before wasn't true.
[Fung] It was to the best of my recollection at the time.
Dennis Fung had to admit he was wrong,
and that was the basis for our entire cross-contamination theme,
which was in essence to combat the DNA numbers that were so astronomical.
It was a "You got me!" moment.
He was a very inexperienced testifier.
He's not used to people pointing fingers at him and accusing him of things.
Barry Scheck offered the jury a reason to disbelieve all the forensic evidence.
He did a remarkable job of poking holes.
[gentle music playing]
[Thomson] The key piece of evidence from the crime scene
is the sample from the back gate
that had large quantities of DNA matching O.J.
[camera clicks]
We knew we had to attack that.
Scheck pointed out that the blood from the back gate
had not been collected the day after the crime.
It was collected like two weeks after the crime.
Why not? I don't know.
Maybe they got tired.
It seems like a really important thing to do. Does it not?
So Scheck came in and he said, "All right."
"Two weeks passed, they had O.J.'s blood samples."
"Somebody could've planted that blood on the back gate."
"But Barry, we're gonna have trouble arguing it was planted
if they have pictures of it the day after the crime."
So Scheck said, "Let's look at those pictures."
[camera clicks]
We pulled out the pictures taken the day after the crime…
[camera clicks]
and we were actually astounded to find that they did not show
the bloodstain that was collected two weeks later.
Where the bloodstain was said to have been collected two weeks later,
there was no blood.
I was floored.
[Scheck] You see what is marked as 116?
- [Fung] Yes. - [Scheck] That's a blood drop on the gate.
- [Fung] Yes. - [Scheck] That's what you saw on July 3rd.
Yes.
[Scheck] Let's look back at the picture of the gate on June 13th.
[tense music playing]
Where is it, Mr. Fung?
[Fung] I can't see it in the photograph.
Fung got about 99.9% of the blood. That's pretty good.
[Thomson] I think it's one of the most iconic moments of the trial.
Where was it? Nobody knows.
Issues concerning whether there have been any tampering of evidence in the past.
These are all relevant issues.
The person who'd had custody of O.J.'s blood vial
might have been able to take some blood from it
and plant blood on the back gate.
[tense, dramatic music playing]
There's a preservative that is found in test tubes
called EDTA.
It is an anticoagulant.
If it was a planted sample from the reference tube from O.J. Simpson,
it would have had this chemical substance called EDTA.
[Douglas] The blood on the gate that was not seen three weeks earlier
at the time of the murders
had the highest quantity of EDTA, well above any of the other samples.
The prosecution's own testing found EDTA.
What more does one need?
EDTA is found in liquid detergents.
It's also found in paint.
The back gate was painted at one point or another.
Oh, baloney.
I haven't seen any scientific workups
that say that it could have come from the paint.
Meanwhile, O.J. has provided a reference sample of his blood.
It's been carried around LA by Detective Vannatter.
There was no reason for him to be carrying this blood vial all over town
and taking it to the crime scene and taking it to Rockingham,
and keeping it that long before turning it in.
The whole circumstance is suspicious.
How many times have you taken blood from Parker Center out to a crime scene?
[Vannatter] This may have been the first time.
I don't know.
I can't recall right now any other times that I've done that.
I made the decision to hand-carry it to the criminalist
who was processing all the other evidence.
- Where was the criminalist? - [Vannatter] At Rockingham.
I drove straight to Rockingham, checked in,
and immediately gave the blood to the criminalist
who'd finished his work and was leaving.
[Scheck] In your experience, have you ever before been in a situation
where a detective obtained a blood sample from a suspect
and instead of booking it downtown where it was taken,
drive it all the way back to a crime scene?
I have…
I can't remember one instance where that's happened.
From my point of view, the sock was one of the pivotal pieces of evidence.
[Douglas] I got a call one day from an anonymous source
that said, "Test the socks, because it's planted."
And the test showed the blood on the sock
had a spike of EDTA higher than all the other samples
except for the blood on the gate.
[camera clicks]
The sock had been examined on three different occasions
without any blood being noted on it,
and then, all of a sudden, this big bloodstain consistent with Nicole
is found on it by the prosecution.
The prosecution said, "Well, blood on a black sock
is just hard to see, and so people…"
"It's just human error. They didn't notice it before."
Scheck took the sock and showed it to the jury.
[Scheck] Could you please start with Juror #1
and show her and the rest of the jurors here
that section that you saw the bloodstain with your naked eye
when you first received the sock?
Mouths were dropping open. It was like, "Oh my goodness."
Because from where the jury could sit,
it was easy to see that bloodstain.
It was crusty, puckered. That was a very prominent stain.
And so the idea that the sock had been examined three times
and nobody had seen that,
it didn't fly.
I will go to my grave believing…
I don't know what happened, I don't know who did it, but I think
blood on the socks was planted by someone
who wanted O.J. to be convicted of murder.
[man] Do you believe that it was planted?
Uh… Yeah. I think it's likely.
I think there certainly was hanky-panky going on there.
[dramatic music playing]
I did not know that they were going to shred Dennis Fung the way they did.
He essentially just came apart.
I'm not sure of that.
I don't recall if I did or not.
I don't recall saying that.
I don't recall.
The defense doesn't have to prove with certainty that planting occurred.
They just have to prove that it's sufficiently plausible
to create doubt in their minds.
The only problem with the DNA evidence they collected
is how it was collected and what they did with it.
That's where the problems came in.
It was clearly getting through to them
that something was not right about the evidence,
and they were starting to suspect
that there was something wrong with the prosecution's case.
So that made me think, "We've got a chance here."
All of this stuff is really just blowing smoke.
Nothing that Fung did undermines the integrity of this evidence.
This is DNA. If you take that blood evidence and test that stuff again,
it's all gonna come back to O.J.
We have presented an extremely compelling case concerning the science.
The defense has made accusations that are empty and baseless.
The most remarkable thing is
after, he came off the stand…
and shook all the lawyers' hands.
[gentle, mysterious music playing]
[Darden] Seeing Dennis Fung shake the defense hands,
you know, to me, it was surrender.
It may be, sort of, Stockholm syndrome, identifying with your tormentor.
Maybe he realized that the defense was making good points.
[man] Fung was reported to have gone up to Barry Scheck in the hallway and said,
"You're gonna owe me a beer when this is over."
It's never personal. We're just doing our job, I think he understood that.
[female reporter] Outside, Fung was hounded by reporters…
Green light!
[reporter] And not even the media cornering him at a red light
could dampen his glee now that it was all over.
[dramatic music playing]
Marcia felt early on that there's plenty of DNA evidence
that could convict anybody.
She was right about that.
But again, I've said time and time again
that you can never have too much evidence in a murder case. Never.
That includes witnesses.
One of the great unanswered questions that the prosecution couldn't answer was,
"Where's the murder weapon?"
The only thing the prosecution did not have
was the murder weapon.
I mean, that is a legitimate question.
I always thought that he probably got rid of it at LAX Airport.
I was told that they were going to call me as a witness
as soon as they finished the DNA evidence.
Well, that took several weeks. Marcia Clark never called me.
What was in the bag that O.J. took out of at the airport
and stuffed in this trash container, seen by this witness?
Marcia knew that. When I took this guy to her as a witness,
she said "It's one-on-one."
In other words, "I can't use him. I can't corroborate what he says."
That's not really true
because the limo driver verified that there was a bag and they saw it.
He had one of the duffel bags kind of strapped over his shoulder.
Well, what do you think was in the bag?
Was it having anything to do with a murder of two people?
I think it was a damn good possibility.
It became obvious, thinking back to that night,
that I probably witnessed him discarding the murder weapon.
[Darden] I never questioned, you know, Marcia Clark on her decision.
But time after time after time, our evidence is being undermined.
I'm thinking, "This ship is already sinking."
"Hell, it's half sunk."
"And all you can really hope is for a miracle. A Hail Mary."
- [music ends] - [crickets chirping]
But we had one of the most important items of evidence in this case,
the glove.
[tense music playing]
These bloody gloves are extremely incriminating
and hurtful to the defense.
[Darden] The tag reads, "Aris Leathers by Isotoner, extra-large, cashmere lined."
[Darden] I will try and win.
I will do some things that are unconventional
if I can give life, you know, to a case.
You could see in the courtroom that Darden was building up to it.
There'd been a sidebar.
Johnnie came back.
"They're gonna have O.J. put on the glove."
"Don't anybody react."
We had no idea what the fuck was gonna happen.
[music intensifies]
I told Daddy I wasn't going to do anything controversial.
And I did.
You could see Marcia Clark just slinking down in her chair.
Because certainly, she could understand the impact if it went wrong.
Your Honor, at this time, the people would ask that Mr. Simpson step forward
and try on the glove recovered at Bundy
as well as the glove recovered at Rockingham.
Number one rule in trial practices,
never ask a question that you don't know the answer to.
That rule is times ten
when it comes to a demonstration.
What did I think would happen when he tried on the glove?
Did I think it was gonna fit? I knew it was gonna fit. It did fit.
The judge wanted him to wear a latex glove.
It's a biohazard. Blood on it.
[Darden] I'm handing Mr. Simpson the… left glove, Rockingham.
[Ito] That's People's 77.
I said, "If you're worried about them fitting,
just don't take your arthritis medicine."
And he's… "Mike, if I don't take my medicine,
my knuckles are gonna get so swollen up." And I said…
Your Honor, it appears Mr. Simpson seems to be
having a problem putting the glove on his hand.
[Cochran] I object to counsel's statements.
[Ito] Sustained.
It was clear it wasn't gonna fit.
So O.J. goes into Naked Gun mode then.
[groaning]
He is gonna play it up.
All right.
Ooh.
Yup!
He's pretending to pull it down.
I was sitting there for all that, and him talking to the jury.
[Simpson] Too small.
"Wait a minute, you're not supposed to be talking."
It was just a shit show.
This is the murder glove,
and it won't fit the murderer's hands.
[camera clicks]
That image was seared into everyone who saw it.
O.J. made the most of it,
and it was a disaster.
Chris threw the dice and he lost.
It was a rookie mistake
with profound consequences.
It backfired big-time.
[Douglas] Lee Bailey has said to his death
that he baited Chris… into trying on the glove.
Words to the effect that,
"I dare you."
"You don't have the balls of a field mouse."
[Darden] I don't feel like I was tricked into it or anything else.
I did it.
Why in the world would you try on a pair of gloves
when you have latex gloves on already?
The second thing was the shrinkage factor.
These gloves had been damp. They were shrunk.
I think the jury understands that latex gloves,
in addition to some poor acting by the defendant,
contributed to the gloves not going on his hand completely.
They didn't fit like my gloves fit me, but that's, you know,
the way they fit on O.J. Simpson before.
I'd seen pictures of him in a glove.
I knew he had short fingers and a huge palm
and I knew his fingers weren't ever gonna reach the end of the glove.
[male reporter] Prosecutors just won't leave those gloves alone.
They've subpoenaed NBC Sports for copies of their football games.
[dramatic music playing]
[Darden] Can you tell us whether the glove worn by the defendant
in those photographs is style number 70263?
[man] Yes, it is.
But it was too little, too late.
It is the greatest misstep in televised litigation history,
and it is the most dramatic moment of my life.
The gloves at Rockingham and Bundy don't fit.
Do you understand that? Don't fit.
And they can never make them fit. Bye!
I feel terrible for Chris Darden because that is what gets pinned to him.
Christopher Darden and the glove, married together for all eternity.
When I die, bury me with a pair of Isotoner gloves.
It fit!
[tape winding back]
[tense music playing]
After more than 300 hours of testimony, and a parade of 58 witnesses,
the prosecution in the O.J. Simpson trial rested its case today.
[man] The defense case will start Monday morning.
Our case will be right to the point. Quick witnesses…
[Douglas] When the defense took over,
we had several witnesses ready, prepped, and prepared
who would contradict Fuhrman.
People that would attack his credibility
and by implication, attack everything he did.
You gotta remember what Lee's last two questions were.
[Bailey] Are you therefore saying that you have not used that word
in the past ten years, Detective Fuhrman?
Yes. That's what I'm saying.
"So if anyone else says it…"
[Bailey] …they would be a liar. Would they not?
Yes, they would.
"All of them?"
- [Bailey] All of them, correct? - All of them.
We had information from some investigators and other witnesses
that Fuhrman had racist attitudes.
Including reports of him using the N-word.
We were laying the groundwork of "You never said the word."
[Thomson] Bailey was setting up Fuhrman,
but had no idea how strong his proof would be that Fuhrman was lying.
[Douglas] One of our investigators got a tip
that there were tapes about Mark Fuhrman.
[dramatic music playing]
[Toobin] One of the clichés about LA
is that everybody's working on a screenplay.
Mark Fuhrman wasn't working on a screenplay.
But this woman friend of his was working on a screenplay,
and there were actual tapes of the back-and-forth between them
about his life as a police officer.
[Thomson] When F. Lee Bailey first cross-examined Mark Fuhrman,
nobody knew about the Fuhrman tapes.
People were stunned. It was extraordinary.
I really love being a policeman.
This job is not rules. This is a feeling.
Fuck the rules, we'll make them up later.
Mark Fuhrman talking about the violent, dastardly things
that he would do to Black and brown inmates or suspects or prisoners.
There were several references over the course of the tapes
where he would use the N-word.
[Darden] This isn't good for us.
If people hear this stuff,
it's gonna turn this trial on its head.
This is now a full-fledged, living, breathing race case.
[Douglas] Johnnie was very spiritual.
This was manna from heaven,
given to us to prove O.J. Simpson not guilty.
Prior to Judge Ito having an official ruling,
he allowed there to be a hearing outside of the jury's presence
so that we could play the tapes.
That was his nod to the media and to the public.
They sat for half a day
and we played excerpt by excerpt by excerpt by excerpt.
Leave that old station, Ed.
It's got the smell of niggers that've been beaten and killed in there for years.
Anything out of a nigger's mouth for the first five or six sentences
is a fuckin' lie.
[Darden] When I heard the tapes, it was shocking to hear.
Not entirely surprising.
We knew early on Fuhrman is a racist,
and now we get to hear it.
Niggers. They're easy.
I use them to practice my kicks.
Did you ever try to find a bruise on a nigger?
It's pretty tough, huh?
[Douglas] What he was talking about echoed the stories that I heard for decades
representing victims of abuse.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[Darden] These tapes are confirmation, you know, to the public, that the LAPD
is a racist police department and employs racist police officers
who employ racist tactics.
You've got 200 niggers that are trying to take you prisoner.
You just chase this guy, beat the shit out of him.
We basically tortured them.
We broke numerous bones in each one of them.
Their faces were just mush.
When you listen to those tapes and just hear how vicious this guy sounds,
taking pleasure in what was essentially torturing
these young suspects,
made my skin crawl.
I would be curious to hear how Fuhrman justified the words.
You know why we stopped the choke?
We stopped the choke because a bunch of niggers
have a bunch of these organizations in the south end
and because all niggers we've choked out and killed, 12 in ten years.
Really extraordinary, isn't it?
Um.
Laura Hart McKinney, she did screenplays.
I met her and said, "Did you ever do anything on police stuff?"
"Something, you know, really edgy?"
I'd been on the job long enough to observe, hear a lot…
hear a lot of stories,
and a lot of that was conveyed to her.
[man] Is any of it true?
That wasn't real life. It wasn't real interaction with people.
I was trying to give her what she needed to write.
[man] Do you consider yourself a racist?
I can't… I can't argue the point.
I can't, you know, I can't, um…
I can't undo what has been done.
If somebody says "You're a racist," I can't argue with them.
Whether it's a screenplay or not. It doesn't make any difference.
Do I like it? No.
Do I try to plead with people that that's not me?
"Forgive me"? No.
That's so unfair to anybody to even ask them of that.
We were not aware of the tapes.
- [man] Should he have told you? - We were not aware of the tapes.
The tapes were hours long, all put into evidence.
But the question is how much of that would the jury be allowed to hear?
This is a blockbuster.
This is a bombshell.
This is perhaps the biggest thing
that's happened in any case in this country in this decade.
And they know it. They've got to face up to it.
They are just going all-out to smear Mark Fuhrman
in the very cynical and shrewd effort
to pull this jury away from the evidence,
to manipulate them, to play them like fiddles.
[Cochran] They see their case floating out the window.
They cannot rehabilitate Mark Fuhrman.
There's no need to dance around this. He has committed perjury.
We were at the office when a copy of the order that Ito ruled
was faxed into our office.
There were more than 20 or 30, if not more, separate entries
and Ito allowed but two.
[tense music playing]
Johnnie was so incensed
that he called a press conference right then.
It is absolutely outrageous for us to have to endure this at this point.
This decision is inexplainable.
O.J. Simpson is a man who has been wrongfully accused
and, we believe, framed.
- The cover-up continues. - "The cover-up continues."
Those were very strong words.
[crowd shouting indistinctly]
He is one of the most disgusting human beings
I have ever had to listen to in my life.
Johnnie Cochran was defending his client the best way he knew how.
Release the Fuhrman tapes! Judge Ito is unfair!
The way he knew how in this case, and many others that he tried,
- was to put the LAPD on trial. - LAPD on trial.
He suggests that racism ought to be the most important thing
that any one of us ought to listen to in this court.
That any one of us in this nation should be listening to.
Are all cops racist?
Do all cops plant evidence?
Are all cops liars?
No.
You inject Fuhrman, people think, "They're all the same."
And it's because of racism,
we should put aside all other thought,
all other reason,
and set his murdering client free.
If they can railroad O.J. Simpson,
they can railroad every Black man, woman, and child in America.
[Douglas] Sometimes they lie.
Sometimes they do worse than lie.
If they lie to convict someone whom they think is guilty
and they win,
none of us are safe.
[crowd shouting indistinctly]
Now I've got to be called back on my testimony.
[tense music playing]
I, um… have an attorney.
He advises me… Well, one, um…
"Let's get ahold of Marcia Clark, let's see how she will respond."
I left messages for Marcia.
"Marcia. Just talk to me."
"I'll fall on my sword for you. Just talk to me."
Nobody talked to me.
By the time he was called back to the stand,
he had retained a private counsel.
And no, he didn't reach out to us.
He certainly didn't reach out to me.
I was pushed adrift in the middle of the ocean.
I was on my own.
My attorney, he goes,
"If we don't have the prosecution objecting and asking you questions,
you will just be eviscerated."
We have an expression in Latin, "sui generis."
"One of a kind."
You could hear a pin drop when he came into the courtroom.
[tense music playing]
Dead silence.
I mean dead silence.
I tried to make eye contact with Marcia Clark.
She would not even make eye contact.
I don't know what I expected him to do at that point.
[man] Detective Fuhrman, was the testimony that you gave
at the preliminary hearing in this case completely truthful?
I wish to assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.
Have you ever falsified a police report?
I wish to assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.
I have not seen a police detective take the Fifth.
You know, that's one for the ages.
You don't see murder cases, man, where a cop lies under oath.
Doesn't happen. Let alone take the Fifth.
On my attorney's advice, I had to plead the Fifth
because the prosecution, Marcia Clark,
would not participate in the courtroom testimony.
[man] Detective Fuhrman, did you plant or manufacture any evidence in this case?
I assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.
"Did you ever plant or manufacture any evidence?"
And he takes the Fifth.
We had caught him with his pants down.
There was nothing he could say.
So taking the Fifth, that was the cherry on top of the cake.
The cake was, we caught his ass!
When they asked him if he manufactured any evidence in that case
and he pleaded the Fifth, I thought,
"That was almost like a yes."
I did get nervous around that time.
Everything now that he said has been tainted.
We came to this court seven months ago, expecting a fair trial.
My son had a right to it.
This is now the Fuhrman trial.
It's not the trial of O.J. Simpson,
who is accused of murdering my son and Nicole.
I was like, "What are we doing here?"
Like, I'm so confused as to why all of these other elements
that have nothing to do with our case are being brought in.
But Johnnie Cochran was very smart,
and he found the Achilles' heel
and he kicked it and stepped on it
and twisted it and figured out a way to exploit it.
Johnnie Cochran saw the racial divide.
The tunnel that separated white and Black and he drove that train right through it.
What more does anyone need out there
to understand that we have now demonstrated this man had motive,
he had opportunity,
and now he's claimed the Fifth out of his own mouth.
Free O.J.! Free O.J.! Free O.J.!
I retired before our chief was gonna fire me.
I wanted to secure my pension,
because I didn't trust what the department would do,
what the chief would do,
and I was out.
At 7:30 in the morning, I slipped into Parker Center,
went up the freight elevator to Personnel, got my last paycheck,
got my badge, had it stamped "Retired."
I was walking down the hallway.
I looked up and we both saw each other at the same time
and he went, "Hey, Ron."
I said, "Hey, what's up, Mark?"
And he ran over to me and hugged me,
and he's not letting me go.
I said, "Mark, what the hell are you doing?"
And he goes, "Man, where's a camera when you need one?"
"I got a good Black man here." [laughs]
He did say that.
I looked at him and I said, "Mark, you're sick, man."
[laughs]
[Cochran] Mr. Simpson wants to testify.
He would like to set the record straight. Feels he has nothing to hide.
He always thought he was the best person on Earth
who could convince you that he's innocent.
[Gilbert] Problem was that he would have to face all the cross-examination
that would go on for days.
Johnnie's personality was strong enough to persuade him to not testify,
though he wanted to.
Good morning, Your Honor.
As much as I would like to address some of the misrepresentations made
about myself and Nicole, concerning our life together,
I am mindful of the mood and the stamina of this jury.
And in a sense he testified,
and he pandered to the jury that he was doing it for them.
I have confidence that they will find, as the record stands now,
that I did not, could not, and would not have committed this crime.
I have four kids, two kids I haven't seen in a year.
They ask me every week, "Dad, how much longer?"
[tense music playing]
[Douglas] Everything is based on the evidence,
and the evidence gave the route for the direction of the closing argument.
Mr. Cochran, he's been mouthing off for the past 12 months.
Okay, Johnnie. All right.
These are baseless allegations of conspiracies, contamination, and the like.
Now's the time to put up or shut up.
[Cochran] From the very first orders issued by the LAPD so-called brass,
they were more concerned with their own images,
the publicity that might be generated from this case,
than they were in doing professional police work.
Every line Johnnie made, he looked at every juror.
And it's up to you the jury to weed out the distractions, weed out the sideshows,
and determine "What evidence is it that really helps me answer this question?"
Where Marcia was pushing just facts,
Johnnie would bring in emotion.
Who then polices the police?
You police the police. You police them by your verdict.
You're the ones who send the message.
[Kim Goldman] Johnnie Cochran kept saying that. "Send a message."
"It's a message. It's a message to the racial inequities in our system."
I think that he was planting that seed
and making sure that you are the messenger.
You get to be the one to carry the torch.
Your verdict talks about justice in America
and it talks about the police and whether they're above the law.
It would be a tragedy if you found the defendant not guilty
in spite of all that
because of the racist attitudes of one police officer.
[Darden] I was told by folks in the DA's office
that I would not be permitted to give a closing statement.
I wasn't being allowed to participate in that
because of the gloves.
So I was being sidelined.
Like I was a baby.
And I objected to that.
Then I prepared my resignation from the DA's office.
And then I was permitted to give a closing statement.
Blame the police, blame the prosecution,
point the finger elsewhere, create a smokescreen,
and that's what they've done in this case, ladies and gentlemen.
Smoke and mirrors.
Mark Fuhrman is a lying…
Did he lie?
- …perjuring… - Yes.
…genocidal racist.
Is he the worst LAPD has to offer?
Yes.
Officer Fuhrman went on to say
that he would like nothing more
than to see all niggers gathered together and killed.
That does not mean
that we haven't proven the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
You may reject the whole testimony.
You can then wipe out everything that Fuhrman told you,
including the glove.
But remember, it's only the evidence that they can't otherwise explain
that they resort to the desperation theories
of contamination and planting.
Johnnie was smart enough to realize that in order to make a good closing,
it would require a really close analysis of the scientific evidence.
Barry Scheck was focused on the science.
Contaminated, compromised, and corrupted.
The planting theory is ridiculous.
But there's a fourth C that goes along with how these things happen
that relates to this forensic testimony.
And the fourth C has to do with cover-up.
Now, if you plant the blood,
aren't you gonna plant it close to the time you collect it?
What are you gonna do? Plant it, hope somebody finds it later?
Somebody… played with this evidence, and there's no doubt about it.
One thing to keep in mind,
closing statements are not evidence. It's all nonsense.
Stop this cover-up. Stop this cover-up.
If you don't stop it, then who?
Johnnie always thought about the impact of everything.
He always wanted to end on a crescendo.
The defining moment in this trial,
the day Mr. Darden asked Mr. Simpson to try on those gloves,
and the gloves didn't fit.
Remember these words. "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."
[music stops]
My faith is in one place now.
My faith is not in with the police, not with the LAPD.
My faith is in the juror.
After months of testimony and legal maneuvering,
jury deliberations begin today in O.J. Simpson's murder trial.
[dramatic music playing]
I was prepared for our deliberations to go for weeks.
And that's because we didn't all get along.
There's no hard and fast rule,
but generally we think that a jury is out one day for each week of trial.
So everyone thought they had several days before there'd be some decision.
Barry went back home to New York.
Dershowitz was in Boston.
Johnnie and his wife went to the Wine Country.
It's gonna be probably three weeks before they reach a verdict.
So, we're going to Maui.
[relaxing, tropical music playing]
We go in and we take the straw vote
and it comes back 10-2.
Okay. Now we're ready to work.
I was very shocked.
I thought it would be a bigger divide.
"So, let's get busy. Let's start talking."
"Let's open up these evidence books and start going at it."
When we decide to take another vote three to four hours later,
and it came back unanimous,
that was even a bigger shock.
Because now I'm thinking, "What is the world gonna think
that we've come to a decision within four hours?"
"They have a verdict! They have a verdict!"
Who has a verdict?
Because it was absolutely unheard of.
You got eight and a half months of testimony, four-hour deliberation,
and you come back with a verdict?
The jury in the Trial of the Century has reached a verdict.
They did it almost instantly
despite our astonishment, despite our shock.
I mean, this was a trial that went on months and months,
and the jury didn't even deliberate for one day.
[Darden] We're pushing a damn near one-year jury trial,
with a jury that's sequestered.
So I understood.
They wanted to go home.
I think people had been there long enough
and they didn't want to stay much longer. So…
[Kim Goldman] We didn't hear the verdict until the following day.
So the whole night was spent analyzing.
"What does that mean? It's four hours."
Everybody was talking about it. "We got him. We got him."
It could go either way.
Some people think when you have a quick verdict in a case like this,
it's good for the defense.
Others think it's good for the prosecution.
You know, if he's not guilty, you go, "Wow."
And if he's guilty, you're brokenhearted,
because of what this human being,
what this man once was.
I'm thinking, "I have to get to the jail. O.J.'s gonna be freaking out."
That evening, the night before the verdict was read,
the jailers let us stay 20 or 30 minutes past when you're supposed to leave.
O.J. had put his hand up to the glass.
He said, "Mike, if it's guilty, I never want to see you again."
"I don't want you to visit me in prison,
because my life will be exactly the same every day until I die."
"Yours doesn't have to be."
Everybody's bawling. We're all… We're all bawling.
[tense music playing]
I remember getting up the next morning, the day of the verdict.
I was driving down the freeway and there was an overpass
and someone had taken a sheet
and draped it over the side of the overpass
and it said, "We love you, Goldmans"
and… that was pretty awesome.
[dramatic music playing]
Would you get the fuck out of here, you fucking asshole?
Can I fucking hit him?
No.
[Crawford] We could look out the window and see all the people outside.
To see all the crowds out there, all the media, all the media trucks.
I'm sick. I'm nauseous. I'm nervous.
This thing really just took control over the whole country.
Four hundred cameras maybe, outside that building.
Because of the aftermath of the Rodney King verdicts,
the LAPD prepped and prepared for a potential uprising.
The streets were packed.
There was horses.
We were across the street trying to walk into the courtroom.
[indistinct shouting]
People were shouting and screaming.
[indistinct shouting]
[Rivera] Everybody in the country was fascinated.
You could not have launched a nuclear war then…
[loud rumbling]
…because nobody would have paid attention.
It was so captivating, so intriguing, so disturbing,
that nobody who had an option would have missed it.
Who's nervous? Is anybody nervous? Yeah.
[indistinct chatter]
I was all over the place in emotion.
I didn't sleep.
I remember standing outside the courtroom, um,
almost paralyzed.
I did not want to go in.
And then it was just panic sitting there.
I was at my house with my wife and my kids.
We decided to let the kids go to school in case it was bad.
[Crawford] When we walked in through the courtroom, every eye
was focused on the jurors as we walked in,
and I mean they stared the entire time we were in the courtroom.
They stared at us, waiting for every move that we'd make.
[Tom Brokaw] Now, let's go to the courtroom. The moment has arrived.
[Ito] All right, Mrs. Robertson, would you…
Do you have the envelope with the sealed verdict?
Yes, Your Honor.
[tense music playing]
[Ito] And I would caution the audience
during the course of the reading of these verdicts… to remain calm.
Mr. Simpson, would you please stand and face the jury.
Mrs. Robertson?
[Robertson] Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.
In the matter of the People of the State of California
versus Orenthal James Simpson, case number BA097211.
We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant Orenthal James Simpson…
[music stops]
…not guilty of the crime of murder upon Nicole Brown Simpson.
- Not guilty of the crime… - [cheering]
- Not guilty of the crime of murder… - [cheering]
- Not guilty… - [cheering]
[cheering]
[cheering fades out]
Johnnie told me after the first "not guilty,"
he started bending over and hitting O.J., holding on to him,
telling him, "You're going home, Juice."
"You're going home. You're going home."
Oh my God. I was elated.
I got my kids out of school. I let them know.
And they said, "Uncle O.J. can come home?"
I said, "Yeah. He can come home."
[Robertson] "We the jury in the above entitled action find
the defendant Orenthal James Simpson
not guilty of the crime of murder upon Ronald Lyle Goldman,
a human being as charged in count two of the information."
[gentle music playing]
- Not guilty of the crime of murder… - [gasps]
- Not guilty of the crime of murder… - [cheering]
Not guilty of the crime of murder… section 197-A, a felony.
[gentle music playing]
I can never forget the scream that Kim Goldman made
after the decision was read.
I can hear it to this day.
And I felt so bad for her.
It cut her deeply.
And I hated that we had to do that.
[sniffles]
Okay, how can I do this?
Um, I remember, you know, Marcia and Chris with their heads down.
Phil Vannatter and Tom Lange put their arms over the banister
to hold my hand.
We don't get over these things. You don't heal with time.
This is forever.
[Darden] I was shocked at how fast the "not guilty" verdict came.
I mean, who could imagine all of these things coming together,
all at the same time.
You know, you have all of this stuff, all of these events
that just create a perfect circumstantial situation
to get a "not guilty."
You know, either it's a beautiful thing or it's a travesty of justice.
I guess it's all about one's perspective.
O.J. is not guilty!
We got it! We got it!
[man] How do you feel about the verdict?
I think that this is a victory for all mankind.
I cried twice out of joy in my life.
Once when my son was born,
and once during the O.J. Simpson verdict.
I was so moved that I was brought to tears.
- [upbeat music playing] - [cheering]
[Darden] Seeing people celebrate after the verdict?
You know, some people believed he was innocent.
In the beginning, I knew O.J. was innocent.
Other people believed he'd been set up
and that the LAPD had been exposed.
There needs to be an investigation,
and maybe Fuhrman and some more people need to go to jail,
and also, LAPD needs to be reformed.
There are a lot of problems with this country
that we need to all get together to try to work out,
and I just hope that it can start today.
And some people felt that this was a way
to pay back the LAPD and the city
for what happened to Rodney King.
It's also for the millions of other Black men out there
that have gotten stomped and sent to prison,
that didn't have the resources to fight a case.
But if the celebration is or was
that a double-murderer got away with murder,
I don't want to be a part of that.
Not everyone here is happy. I noticed that you are not.
[woman 1] I feel so bad for her.
She said if he ever did it, he'd get away with it.
That's what she said. And he knows he did.
I think he's guilty as hell.
I think he got off because the jury was mainly Black.
[woman 2] If you are a hero, and you play football and you make a lot of money,
I guess you can commit murder.
The criminal justice process is rife with occasions and trials
where people of color think, "The system has not been fair to us."
People of color think that "We have been railroaded by the process."
As a Black woman, I was scared for O.J.
because we have seen it happen over and over again.
This divide's always there, always been there, still there today.
Different people, different races, different cultures
looking at the same thing and seeing something entirely different.
It was stark, undeniable, irretrievable,
and it is America.
I think it's absolutely appalling.
It gives me no faith in the jury system whatsoever.
There's something that a lot of white people didn't understand
in terms of what would be described as celebrating.
[cheering]
O.J. Simpson was just a vessel
from which all of the frustrations
and the anger and the disappointment over decades was funneled.
[frenetic music playing]
They weren't celebrating O.J. Simpson the man.
[cheering]
We were able to win in a system
where we'd rarely, if ever, win.
[horns blaring]
Oh, the Juice is loose. He's loose!
He's loose! He's loose!
The system worked, is what I thought.
I don't think they found him innocent. I think they found him not guilty.
Big difference.
[dramatic music playing]
I think that the killer was acquitted
because the jury wasn't…
brave enough to find him guilty.
I did not find O.J. Simpson guilty
because there was reasonable doubt in that case
and I… I couldn't ignore it.
It was there,
and that was the only decision I could come up with because of it.
[Fuhrman] When that verdict came out,
I was hoping for the best, preparing for the worst,
but I knew that if that verdict went sideways,
they're coming after me some way.
I actually had hopes that people could see through my life, my baggage…
I think Mark Fuhrman believed O.J. was guilty
and he was going to make sure that he was prosecuted for it.
[man] Detective Fuhrman, did you plant or manufacture any evidence in this case?
No.
And that's the way I would have testified.
I never planted evidence on anybody. That's… It was absolutely ridiculous.
And the department made sure that they investigated it
and they came up with nothing.
[man] And why should we believe you now?
The evidence is there.
If they want to believe a certain way, I can't change that.
It is what it is.
He tainted that case.
I just wish he was not there.
[helicopter whirs]
After the trial, we wanted him to go to the Bahamas for a week.
Go to Jamaica and chill out.
"Nah, I'm going back to Rockingham."
[Gilbert] He just wanted to go home.
[somber music playing]
He said, "I want to go home to where I had a life with Nicole and the kids."
[indistinct chatter]
- Yes! - Yes.
What happened with the… Oh, they're still talking? Is this live?
- Yeah. - Yes, that's live.
We are, all of us, profoundly disappointed with the verdict.
Apparently their decision was based on emotion.
That overcame the reason.
Look at this guy trying to… He's campaigning.
[woman] Oh, he's in pain.
None of you will ever know…
the personal sacrifices everyone here made.
Yeah, this was the one case, you got the wrong guy.
Like all those other cases you let who did it get away.
No one here has spared any effort.
Everyone here has put in 110%.
[Kim Goldman] I think Marcia was having a hard time finding the words,
but Chris was just devastated.
I'm not bitter.
And I'm not angry.
But I'd also like to thank the lawyers on our prosecution team.
I am honored to have…
[chokes back tears]
You know, it was kind of a shock to the system.
Um.
You know, somebody's responsible for this.
You know? And I'm partly responsible for it.
He still to this day feels like he has let us down.
He still carries that guilt with him.
You know, Ron Goldman fought for his life.
Ron Goldman was forced to grab the end of a sharp knife
to try to save himself.
Nicole deserved better.
She was moving on.
She was no longer catering to him.
He was no longer part of her family.
And he couldn't take it.
- [helicopter whirring] - [dramatic music playing]
[Thomson] Immediately after the acquittal, we had a big party.
The news helicopters were flying along and it was quite an event.
[man] Talk to O.J. Come on.
[indistinct chatter]
I don't think anybody in that house was thinking about Ron or Nicole.
I think they were just happy that O.J. was home.
[woman on TV talking indistinctly]
Bob Shapiro was the one lawyer who,
rather than going to O.J.'s house for the celebration,
immediately after the verdict, went on Barbara Walters' show
and had the audacity to complain
that we played the race card
and dealt from the bottom of the deck.
Barbara, my position was always the same,
that race would not and should not be a part of this case.
I was wrong.
Not only did we play the race card,
we dealt it from the bottom of the deck.
Why would you be disparaging your team after a successful victory?
I mean, I didn't understand.
I think it's just sour grapes
because he felt like he had been shouldered out of the case.
It was hypocritical,
because the whole theory from the very beginning, Mark Fuhrman.
It was something that was hatched in his office in Century City.
So for him now to have buyer's remorse
was beyond the pale to me.
This stuff about playing a race card is preposterous.
It would be malpractice if a man has racist views in a case
and a lawyer doesn't pursue that.
Anybody who says that
doesn't know how to try cases, doesn't know anything.
Ironically, O.J. bent over backwards not to live a Black life.
Then he became the champion for every Black man
that had ever been beaten by a cop or insulted by a cop.
A lot of people, including a lot of O.J.'s friends, say,
"O.J. didn't want to be Black. He thought of himself as being white."
He said, "Mike, it isn't that I want to be white
and surround myself with white friends."
"It's I don't want to be identified as a color."
He wasn't saying "I'm not Black." He was saying, "I'm O.J."
[tense music playing]
[camera clicks]
After the trial, he said, "I just want to be just a normal guy
that wakes up in the morning and, you know, take his kids to school."
I knew it'd never be the same,
but I thought we would get some semblance of a career back.
[camera clicks]
And he didn't.
[indistinct shouting]
He was tainted.
Don't play with O.J.!
His golf buddies desert him, his country club makes him feel unwelcome.
He became the ultimate pariah.
He couldn't go anywhere,
couldn't talk to anyone.
- It was almost like a facial tattoo. - [camera clicks]
He felt that "If the fans didn't love me, if they didn't want to see me…"
His image, everything, was gone.
[camera clicks]
Losing the adoration of the public
impacted him in ways that I could only imagine.
Why don't you sell the Brentwood estate, go away for a little while?
Go where?
They want me to go to Africa, is that what some of those people want?
Then came the civil trial.
[ominous music playing]
After the verdict, I remember the first thing I did is I went to the cemetery,
and I apologized to my brother,
because I felt like I had let him down in some way.
I know I didn't.
But I feel like I could have done something different.
We moved very quickly into the civil case.
In a criminal case, punishment is prison, jail time.
In a civil case, it is monetary.
But that's not what we were pursuing.
We wanted 12 people to say that he was responsible.
[woman] Opening arguments began today
in the wrongful death suit against Simpson,
filed by the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
The difference between the two cases was largely about burden of proof.
The criminal case, you had to find O.J. responsible
beyond a reasonable doubt.
The civil case only turned on "More likely true than not true."
So it's an easier standard to meet.
[woman] The entire Brown family now are making their way to the courthouse.
The sisters Dominique, Tanya, Denise,
mother and father Juditha and Lou Brown, as well.
[Toobin] The trial was in Santa Monica with a different jury pool.
Less Black, more white.
You know, they had the opportunity to watch the criminal case,
see what our mistakes were,
see which witnesses were effective, which weren't.
[Rivera] They did not have Mark Fuhrman.
Scarcely had any law enforcement.
It was with a very different judge,
who did not allow cameras.
Oh, right. And O.J. testified.
- [man 1] Swear the witness. - [man 2] Raise your hand.
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you give in this deposition
will be nothing but the truth, so help you God?
I do.
You could tell O.J. had challenges
acknowledging or accepting responsibility
for the domestic violence portions.
- [man 1] Did you ever strike her? - No.
- [man 1] Did you hurt her? - Yes.
- [man 1] Physically hurt her? - Yes.
- [man 1] You bruise her? - Yes.
[man 1] Did you ever make her black and blue?
- I didn't hit her. - [man 1] What'd you do?
- I wrestled her. - [man 1] What does that mean?
O.J.'s testimony was contradictory, unconvincing.
He lied.
What? Ask me the question like they asked. I'll give an answer.
[man 1] Where were you between 10 and 11?
I don't know if they asked me that question. I was home.
[man 1] If they did ask you, what did you say?
I don't recall if they asked me, so I don't know what I said.
- Why don't you ask me? - [man 1] I just did.
- Why don't you ask? - [man 1] Because…
[man 2] Wait. Time-out. We're gonna take a break right here.
All right.
[chuckles]
[upbeat theme tune playing]
Hi, everybody. I'm Geraldo Rivera. We have a verdict in the Simpson case.
[sirens wailing]
- [solemn music playing] - [cheering]
He was unanimously found responsible for causing the death of Ron and Nicole.
You know, to have 12 people
sit down and go, "Oh, yeah, he took your brother's life,"
that was pretty incredible.
There's a sense of pride and of accomplishment.
There's just a rush of emotions.
Our family is grateful
for a verdict of responsibility,
which is all we ever wanted.
And we have it.
[voice breaking] Thank God.
- [man] Kim? - Ron is proud.
- We did this for Ron.
[man] Okay, that's gonna be it.
It's something we wanted to hear since two and a half years.
And it finally came.
And we know justice will be done some day,
but I always said I'd still like to hear it.
But the day that he, you know, was found responsible,
he walked out the same doors that we did, and that felt weird.
The person that a jury just said killed your loved one
is just driving away in their Suburban.
[man] Before he went home, he stopped by this Baskin-Robbins in Brentwood.
[Kim Goldman] And then he went and got ice cream.
That was a weird, jarring thing to have to process.
[man] So there will be no celebration at Rockingham,
no party like the one we saw following the criminal jury's verdict.
I can understand anyone saying,
"It's more likely true than not true that O.J. was responsible."
I understand that.
I knew we were gonna lose that one. I think everybody knew we were gonna lose.
So I felt that it would go that way.
What I didn't expect was that ridiculous amount of money.
They imposed damages of $33.5 million.
He said, "I'm never gonna pay them." [laughs]
Yeah. He was not happy. He was pissed.
It is up to you to collect on that judgment.
The system does not provide you with the resources to do that.
So while we were between the two families awarded,
you know, a ridiculous amount of money, we were not handed a check
because he was able to hide all of his assets
and most of his assets are protected.
We've collected nothing.
[man] Are you expecting to ever see any of that money?
We are never expecting to see it,
but if I can make his life miserable in the meantime, hell, yeah.
[inaudible conversation]
For so many years, we had a purpose. We were showing up to court every day.
We had people surrounding us always.
There was always a camera, always a reporter, always people.
When the civil case ended and people kind of went away
and the media stopped doing the stories as much,
I thought, "Wait, what's happening? Where'd everybody go?"
And that was when I think the grief, um, took over for sure.
The IRS has filed a lien against O.J. Simpson's Brentwood mansion.
It says he owes more than $685,000
in back taxes, interest, and penalties.
He knew he'd eventually lose Rockingham, which was pretty crushing.
Well! C'est la vie.
That was kind of tough, because, like I say,
that was Graceland to all of us.
It was kind of ours. It wasn't just O.J.'s.
We moved everything out of there.
This is where…
blood drops were on the floor.
And then we had, starting on this staircase,
the pictures were all along these walls of the family,
Nicole and the kids and everything.
[Gilbert] And one night, we were still at Rockingham.
It was one of the nights where it's just us,
and we're sitting outside by the pool.
I'd never seen O.J. like that.
You could see he was very deep in thought, and very emotional, sentimental.
And he said, "Mike…"
"Do you see that tree?"
The chlorine from the pool would splash and it was killing the tree.
He says, "Nicole and I spent thousands of dollars to save this tree
and it's here."
And he started crying. "Nicole's not here. She's gone and she's supposed to be here."
"We couldn't save our marriage,
but we saved this tree."
It was just one of those moments, you know, that is right.
I said, "O.J., what happened that night? Just… what happened?"
He said, "What do you think happened?"
And I thought, "Do I do what agents do?"
You just, "Oh, yeah. No, I know you couldn't do it."
"I know you never would have done it."
Or do you tell the truth?
And I said, "You know, O.J.…
I always thought you did it."
And he glanced up.
I said, "Not because I see you as a murderer."
"Because I don't."
And he just kind of shook his head,
and he said…
[clicks tongue]
"If Nicole wouldn't have opened the door with a knife,
she would still be alive."
[ominous music playing]
I didn't sleep very well that night,
but I just remember laying there thinking,
"Where does our relationship… Where do we go from here?"
Do I walk away after everything that I'd invested,
or do I not judge him by the worst day of his life?
Uh, and so I quit.
[tense music playing]
[Rivera] O.J. moved to Florida
and then arrogantly flaunted his post-acquittal fortunes.
It's all about money.
See you later. I got a golf game to play.
I feel like he continued to want to be in the news.
He went on to try to do a reality show.
It was good for me.
Got me out of harm's way.
- Just sit in it. - Okay, I'll sit in it.
Even if there's a dead body in it.
Hopefully there's no bodies in this thing.
When he went to Florida, he was acting like a 20-something-year-old
rookie in the NFL.
Drinking, going to strip clubs, banging groupies, doing blow.
♪ Why do people wonder 'Bout my intentions… ♪
The remnants of O.J. in his post-trial life
was this person reduced to fleeting memories of glories past.
[Gilbert] I remember telling him toward the end, I said, "You know, O.J.,
you're the worst of O.J. Simpson. You're becoming that person."
"That part of America that hates you… you're proving them right."
Las Vegas police detectives spent the night questioning O.J. Simpson.
They're investigating memorabilia stolen from a casino hotel room.
[Gilbert] O.J. was arrested for robbery.
Apparently, he was trying to take back some memorabilia that had belonged to him
from some dealers that were staying at a hotel in Las Vegas.
He takes whatever stuff he felt was his
and a few other items.
Unfortunately, O.J. didn't know that the entire incident was being recorded
by one of the guys in the room.
Motherfuckers! Think you can steal my shit to sell it?
Don't let nobody out of here.
So they had O.J. dead to rights,
but the big issue was that they brought guns.
[male reporter 1] Las Vegas police have charged Simpson
with two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon.
Then the next morning, I get a call from LAPD
because my name and phone number was written on all these boxes
that were in the room.
And he said, "Okay. Well, we have a lot of your stuff here."
- And they started explaining the robbery. - [camera clicking]
"These guys had guns and they were looking for you."
I said, "Why are they looking for me?"
Give me that picture.
Give me my stuff!
I bought it from Mike!
Call up his number.
That's what I'm doing. It's under Gilbert.
It's a 559 number.
He thought I'm out selling all of his family photo albums
and all this kind of stuff.
[male reporter 2] For O.J. Simpson, what happened in Vegas
may keep him in Vegas for a long time.
When the story broke that he was arrested,
my dad and I felt like our pursuit of him,
if that's what pushed him over the edge to commit a crime,
then more power to us.
[Gilbert] The cops told me, "You're very fortunate that you weren't there."
And I said, "Why?"
They said, "The guns were for you,
and if you had been there, I don't think you'd be here today."
Now, they may have been saying that to get me to testify against O.J.
I don't know.
[woman] You do solemnly swear the testimony you're about to give
shall be nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Yes, I do.
[Gilbert] It felt very odd since I had been his defender
and his friend for so long.
He was the only client that I had that my kids called "Uncle O.J."
So it was… it was different
[Rivera] The thing about his memorabilia and going obsessively to retrieve it,
to me, that was him acting out a muscle memory almost.
It was O.J. trying to retrieve or hold on to the remnants
of what had been a wonderful life.
This is the last picture of O.J. Simpson holding his Heisman trophy.
I wasn't there to hurt anybody.
I just wanted my personal things, and I realized that was stupid of me.
I am sorry.
I didn't mean to steal anything from anybody,
and I didn't know I was doing anything illegal.
I thought I was confronting friends and retrieving my property.
I remember waiting to go in the courtroom.
There was a deputy letting people go in,
she started to close the door and I put my foot in the door
and I said, "You are gonna let us in the room."
"I don't care what you need to do, but we will be in that room."
[woman] We the jury in the above-entitled case
find the defendant Orenthal James Simpson guilty.
Thirty-three years. Is that fair?
I don't think so.
I thought that was an extremely harsh sentence
for what seemed like a really ambiguous situation.
Finally, justice was done.
He does belong in prison. He is now in prison,
um, and there's a sense of fairness to that.
There was an almost white people revenge
in the Vegas robbery case.
We're thrilled. It's kind of a bittersweet moment,
knowing that that SOB is going to be in jail
for a very long time, where he belongs.
I was absolutely 100% believing that this was payback for the acquittal,
and I was totally fine with that.
[tense music playing]
I was live in Nevada
on the first day he was eligible for parole
after serving nine years in the penitentiary.
I'm no danger to pull a gun on anybody.
You know, I never have in my life.
I've never been accused of it in my life.
Nobody's ever accused me of pulling any weapon on them.
Mr. Simpson, I do vote to grant parole when eligible,
and that will conclude this hearing.
[sighs] Thank you.
[female reporter] O.J. Simpson has been released from a Nevada prison.
[man] Juice, Juice, how's it feel to be out?
Y'all stalking me? [laughs]
[Rivera] Then he turned up on social media,
kind of a caricature of the public figure he was.
Hey, Twitter world, this is yours truly.
Now coming soon to Twitter, you'll get to read all my thoughts and opinions
on just about everything.
You know, I know I've been away for a while,
but I don't know what's going on with America.
What are we gonna do to stop this happening in the future?
Start convicting these guys. I'm just saying…
That's part of the past. I'm over it.
You almost get to the point you don't know what to believe.
Policemen committing perjury, planting evidence, all kinds of things…
Lying and stealing money is a little different than murder.
That's the American way.
Hey, let me take a moment to say thank you to all the people
who've reached out to me.
Uh… uh…
My health is good.
I mean, obviously, I'm dealing with some issues,
but, hey, I think I'm just about over it.
We're following some important breaking news now.
O.J. Simpson has died at the age of 76.
O.J. Simpson, the former NFL star…
Of course, one of the most divisive figures in modern America…
…succumbed to his battle with cancer.
He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren…
[Toobin] When I heard that O.J. died,
my first thought was, "He should have died in prison."
I don't make a habit of speaking evil of the dead,
but I made an exception in Simpson's case.
Because I really think that he was evil incarnate.
Good riddance.
[Gilbert] When he died, it was a shock.
People say, "Wow. O.J. totally destroyed your life."
And he didn't.
He gave me the opportunity to destroy my own life.
The fact that our case still 30 years later
conjures up so much emotion and discussion and debate,
conversations like we've never had before, I'm grateful for that.
[Darden] What's the difference between 1994 and now?
Not a whole hell of a lot.
You know, the racial divide in this country is wider, I think,
than it was 30 years ago.
I don't think the issue of race
is any better than it was 30 years ago.
- [man 1] What did we do? - [man 2] Put your hand up there.
I don't think we've improved at all.
[explosions]
[indistinct shouting]
- [woman] Hands up! - [all] Don't shoot!
[Darden] Justice is supposed to be color-blind.
But we know that in real life and in practice
it isn't always… that way.
- No, race does matter. - [camera clicks]
You can make a career out of parsing this thing out,
dissecting it.
You become a part of it,
and now you're tainted,
stained with the goddamn thing for the rest of your life.
[solemn music playing]
I've never done anything since this trial
that's been worthy of anything professional
that I really even care about.
I've had this burden on me forever.
I will die with it.
In my obituary, they'll say,
"The disgraced racist detective in the O.J. Simpson case."
It's just who I have to be.
I'm convinced that the jury got it right.
And I'm convinced that members of the LAPD
did things that were illegal
to convict someone whom they thought was guilty.
So I will sleep well every night,
like I have for the past 30 years.
At least as it concerns my work representing Orenthal James Simpson.
I think the most constructive thing people can take away from this case is,
it's the domestic violence.
You know, that's the lesson,
and people need to recognize the symptoms.
I am determined that Nicole's death was not in vain.
I pledge myself in the fight against domestic violence,
and I will continue to expose this dirty little secret
that has been hidden too long.
[Gilbert] What I think bothers me
isn't that I just believed him.
It's that
I didn't even give Nicole a voice.
[sobbing] He's going nuts.
He just drove up again. Could you just send somebody over?
He's in a white Bronco, but first of all, he broke the back door down to get in.
[Gilbert] She was afraid.
She was afraid, and she wanted help.
[Nicole breathing heavily]
You're going to hear him in a minute. He's about to come in again.
It really is painful to really listen to that
because that's a terrified person.
The kids are upstairs sleeping and I don't want anything to happen.
[Gilbert] And the more I thought about it over the years,
I started thinking "No."
"No."
"He went there to kill her."
In the big scheme of things,
I think that so many people involved have sacrificed and compromised
and lost so much.
And I feel badly about that.
It's forever changed all of us that were impacted, good and bad.
We are one of millions of people that this happens to.
But we have commercialized and sensationalized
grief and loss and trauma,
and I'm gonna do whatever I can to try to…
I can't stop that from happening, but if I can do anything I can to try to
teach you how to consume it
in a way that is still loving and supportive, um,
then that's why I'd still do this.
[solemn music continues]
[music fades out]
[tense, dramatic music playing]
[music fades out]