1995 NY Times newspaper OJ SIMPSON Verdict of NOT GUILTY in the murder "TRIAL of the CENTURY" - inv # 8A-429
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SEE PHOTO(s) - COMPLETE ORIGINAL front news section of a NEWSPAPER, the New York Times dated Oct 4, 1995. This original newspaper front news section contains a prominent front page headline, large photo, and coverage of the "NOT GUILTY" verdict in the "TRIAL of the CENTURY", the O J SIMPSON MURDER TRIAL.
The People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson was a criminal trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court starting in 1994, in which O. J. Simpson, a former National Football League (NFL) player, broadcaster and actor, was tried and acquitted for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. The pair were allegedly stabbed to death by Simpson outside Brown's condominium in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on the night of June 12, 1994. The trial spanned eleven months, from November 9, 1994 to October 3, 1995.
Opening statements were made on January 24, 1995. Though prosecutors argued that Simpson was implicated by a significant amount of forensic evidence, Simpson was ultimately acquitted of both counts of murder on October 3 of the same year. The trial took place shortly after the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Commentators agree that the defense capitalized on anger among the city’s African American community toward the LAPD, which had a history of racial bias, to convince the majority-Black jury to acquit Simpson. The trial is often characterized as the trial of the century because of its international publicity, and has been described as the "most publicized" criminal trial in human history.
Following questioning by police detectives, Simpson was formally charged with the murders on June 17 after investigators found a blood-stained glove on his property. After he did not turn himself in at the agreed time, he became the object of a low-speed pursuit in a white 1993 Ford Bronco SUV owned and driven by his friend Al Cowlings. TV stations interrupted coverage of the 1994 NBA Finals to broadcast live coverage of the pursuit, which was watched by an estimated 95 million people. The pursuit and Simpson's arrest later on the same day were among the most widely publicized events in American history.
Simpson was represented by a high-profile defense team, referred to as the "Dream Team", which was initially led by Robert Shapiro and subsequently directed by Johnnie Cochran. The team also included F. Lee Bailey, Alan Dershowitz, Robert Kardashian, Shawn Holley, Carl E. Douglas, and Gerald Uelmen. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld were two additional attorneys who specialized in DNA evidence. While Deputy District Attorneys Marcia Clark, William Hodgman, and Christopher Darden believed they had a strong case against Simpson, Cochran and the defense team persuaded the jury that there was reasonable doubt concerning the DNA evidence in this case. They contended that the blood sample had been mishandled by lab scientists and technicians and that the case against Simpson had been tainted by LAPD misconduct related to racism and incompetence, in particular noting actions and comments of Detective Mark Fuhrman.
The trial was considered historically significant for the wide division in reaction to the verdict by the public. Observers' opinions of the verdict were related to their ethnicity, and the media dubbed this the "racial gap". A poll of Los Angeles County residents showed that most African Americans thought that the "not guilty" verdict was justified, while the majority of Whites thought it was a racially motivated jury nullification by the mostly African American jury. More recent polling shows this "gap" has narrowed since the trial. In 2013 more than half of polled black respondents said that they believed Simpson was guilty.
After the trial, Goldman's father filed a civil suit against Simpson. On February 4, 1997, the jury unanimously found Simpson responsible for the deaths of both Goldman and Brown. The Goldman family was awarded compensatory and punitive damages totaling $33.5 million ($56.5 million in 2021 dollars), but have received only a small portion of that figure. In 2000, Simpson left California for Florida, one of the few states where personal assets such as homes and pensions cannot be seized to cover liabilities that were incurred in other states.