Racial Tensions During the Simpson Trial

In a few short years, it will be 20 years since O.J. Simpson was put on trial for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Orenthal James “O.J.” Simpson is currently serving prison time in Nevada on an unrelated charge – and will most likely remain in there for the rest of his natural-born life. One can only imagine that for these families of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, this is only a small relief to see the man they believe to have killed their loved ones behind bars – as it is as a result of a 2007 robbery charge, leaving the families with the feeling of massive injustice. Simpson was later found guilty of wrongful death in a civil suit and ordered to pay over $33 million dollars to the families of the deceased. The charges of murder the Simpson was acquitted of, and the trial preceding such – has resulted in him being one of the most infamous people to have ever been tried for murder in the United States. Not to mention his status as a retired professional football athlete and actor, already having had made him a household name – well before the criminal trial. As in any criminal trial’s outcome there are multiple facets that are involved in dissecting the effects of bias on trial conclusions, and determining whether their influences were enough to sway the outcome one way or the other. For the case of criminal murder trial: People VS. Simpson, events that had occurred prior to the trial that had heightened national racial tensions may have had an effect on Simpson’s acquittal.

Three years prior to O.J. Simpson being charged with Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman’s murders – racial tensions in Los Angeles, California were becoming so heightened that it was attracting national attention. The Los-Angeles Riots that caused massive amounts of devastating damage to the city in 1992, can be cited as a national event that created huge racial divides nationally. (Chidley) One of the catalyst events in the LA riots is the beating of LA African American resident, Rodney King. In November of 1989, Rodney Glen King entered a convenience store located in Monterey California, threatening the store clerk and demanding money out of the cash register till. He made out of the robbery with only $200 cash and was caught and arrested by the police shortly thereafter. King was convicted of the crime and sentenced to two years in a California state penitentiary, of which he only served a year. After one year of his prison sentence, King was paroled and released. (Linder) On March 2nd of 1991, Rodney King had spent the night drinking with friends. He proceeded to enter his vehicle and drive onto interstate 210 into the San Fernando valley of Los-Angeles. Approximately half an hour past midnight, the California Highway Patrol took notice of King’s excessive speeds on the Freeway and attempted to perform a routine traffic stop. Knowing that he had been drinking, and his blood alcohol content would be over the legal limit, (which would result in a violation of parole – and a return to prison for the remainder of his suspended sentence) King attempted to evade the officers and flee, leading them on a high-speed pursuit. (Linder) The pursuit reached high speeds and continued from the Freeway into residential neighborhoods; King’s speeds maxing out at over 80 MPH. (Chidley) Multiple patrol cars and a helicopter were utilized in an attempt to get King to cease driving erratically. After approximately eight miles, King found himself cornered and was forced to stop and exit the vehicle by five officers at the scene.

The behaviors he exhibited upon exiting the vehicle were indicative of King being under the influence of alcohol. (Eg: Waving, laughing, grabbing at himself.) The police took King’s drunken stumbling and groping at his own back pockets as signs of searching for a weapon. (Chidley) King was then “swarmed”, an open-handed technique used by officers without having weapons drawn to reduce the risk of accidental deadly force. (Linder) When King resisted the officers, he was then tasered and hit with batons a total of 33 times and received six kicks from the four officers who were all involved in the swarm. (George Holliday) A gentleman by the name of George Holliday was videotaping the incident from an apartment adjacent to the intersection where the arrest and beating took place. A few days post-King’s arrest, Holliday took the tape to the media, and the videotape of the arrest and beating turned into a media frenzy. King suffered multiple injuries from the incident, including: “11 skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken [bones and teeth], kidney damage [and] emotional and physical trauma.” As cited in his negligence claim filed with the city of Los-Angeles. (Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department) King was awarded by the city of Los-Angeles a total sum of over $3 million dollars payment for these damages. (Chidley) When charges were filed against the responding officers who used the excessive force against King, by the city of Los Angeles's District Attorney, the Holliday video (still being circulated by the media) was creating great racial divides in the nation. After much deliberation not only regarding the case itself, but the race of the jurors, and the venue of the trial – on April 29, 1992 three of the four responding officers were entirely acquitted of all charges associated with any excessive force used against King. (Chidley) The aftermath of the outcome of the acquittal of the Los-Angeles police officers had devastating effects on the already heightened national racial tensions.

The Los-Angeles Riots of 1992 can be seen as more or less a direct result of the acquittals of the responding officers that had beaten Rodney King. The riots caused 53 deaths and more than 2,500 injuries. An estimated 7,000 fires were started, and looting of stores and structural damages to buildings was rampant. (Chidley) The city of Los-Angeles, quite literally, erupted into flames after the verdict was handed down, and the white police officers who had so determinately injured African American King were acquitted of any charges. After six days of rioting, the city suffered over one billion dollars worth of financial damages. (Tervalon and Sierra 74) Adjacent urban cities, whose residents were also enraged by the verdicts also erupted into violence and riots (San Fransisco and Las Vegas). The end recorded result of the riots was more damage done than any other riot in United States history, and the United States Marine Corps and the California National Guard were needed to help restore order to the city and help after the looting and devastating structural damage. (Tervalon and Sierra 10)

Additional lesser causes to the Los-Angeles Riots can be cited in other urban racial issues of the time period. The murder of Latasha Harlins, a 15-year-old African-American Los-Angeles student by Korean convenience store owner Soon Ja Du, 13 days after the Holliday tapes of the King beatings were released to the media, only exacerbated the racial divides in the city of Los-Angeles. Du had been under the impression that Harlins was attempting to shoplift from her convenience store when she witnessed Harlins putting a container of orange juice into her bag. After a brief confrontation, Harlins was shot clutching two dollars in her hand – and Du was fined and sentenced to probation. (Chidley) The racial tensions in Los-Angeles that had been felt for years had come to a boiling point during the 1992 riots. Notable advocates such as Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton among others have also cited sources of the riots to be the economic poverty experienced by minorities in Los-Angeles for “decades”. (Jackson) These national events and racial divide that happened during the early 1990s is indicative of the attitudes that were held by the Los-Angeles Police Department during the same time – the same years that O.J. Simpson was being accused of murder, as well.

During the 1990’s it was not uncommon for police to be accused of excessive force – or racial profiling even when it’s not an appropriate label to place on their actions. However, during the early 1990s in Los-Angeles, there are documented truths behind claims of such brutality and racism, besides the King beatings. Police cruisers in the Los-Angeles area shamelessly sporting bumper tags such as “I’m a member of the KKK” and “Property of the South African Government” (Chidley) were nothing if instigation techniques used by the LAPD in an attempt to get a rise out of African American LA residents. In any given week, there was an average number of 350 complaints against the police within the city limits of Los-Angeles, and a yearly average of eight million dollars paid out to civilians who had filed claims of police brutality against the LAPD. In addition, there is evidence to support that the LAPD would stop African American residents for unlawful reasons and false arrests, and antagonize or even dare them to take any action against them for it – for no other reason other than for the color of their skin. (Chidley) This evidence likens to a direct correlation to the outcome of the Simpson trial. If one is to assume that the Los Angeles Police Department (as a whole) had in the early 1990’s – a personal bigoted and racist vendetta against African Americans, and had been known to make arrests and weave false arrest reports around African Americans for no reason other than blatant racism – it then can be assumed that the jury’s controversial burden during the final decisions in the Simpson murder trial could have been backed by the knowledge that the LAPD was running the investigation, and they were known to have a reputation of racist tendencies.

During the O.J. Simpson criminal murder trial, the prosecution’s key witness Mark Fuhrman showed the media, the jury, and the public that he fits perfectly into the stereotype that the Los Angeles Police Department had created for themselves in the early ’90s: claiming to protect and serve the entire community and city of Los-Angeles, but when character was placed under a microscope, found to be racist. Mark Fuhrman was the officer who initially found the blood-stained glove that is so heavily referenced in the Simpson criminal trial. His claim of finding this glove was what gave him cause to enter Simpson’s home without a warrant – citing concern for Simpson’s well-being. (Addams) It was alleged by Simpson’s defense that Fuhrman falsified and planted this evidence in an attempt to frame Simpson for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. This claim was supported by Fuhrman’s outing by Simpson’s defense team as yet another Los-Angeles police officer guilty of racial profiling. The now infamous tapes that the defense played of Fuhrman, were recordings of him during an interview. During which time he made the following statement: “Yeah we work with niggers and gangs. You can take one of these niggers, drag ‘em into the alley and beat the shit out of them and kick them. You can see them twitch. It really relieves your tension.” (Addams) This was only after Fuhrman had claimed earlier in his testimony that he had not used the derogatory “N” word in over a decade, to his own recollection. (Addams) Subsequently after the acquittal of Simpson, as a result of these tapes that were played in the courtroom during the trial – Fuhrman was convicted on charges of perjury after being questioned in regards to whether he had ever filed a false police report, or tampered with evidence in the Simpson case. (Addams) Although the dishonesty regarding the colorblind racism that Fuhrman displayed, and was uncovered by the defense team during the trial, very well could have had clouded the jury’s judgment of how the entirety of the investigation was handled. Yet again, the conclusion can be drawn – if the Los-Angeles Police Department has had past racist tendencies, and the officer who found the evidence that almost the entirety of the case is supported by works for the Los-Angeles Police Department, and was found during the trial to be inherently racist – it would be difficult for anyone to be able to maintain a level of unbiased nature in determining the outcome of the case, especially when the jury is predominantly African American.

Jury selection in any criminal trial is a selective process. In the Simpson murder trial, it was an especially selective process. Taking into consideration his socialite standing as a professional football athlete and actor and especially as a black man being accused of murdering his white ex-wife and a white male, during a time when national racial divides were deep and rampant. The jury that oversaw and deliberated over the Simpson murder trial consisted of nine African American women, two white Americans, and one Hispanic. (Chidley) Prosecutor Marcia Clark incorrectly hypothesized that women regardless of their ethnicity would empathize with the victim – Nicole Brown Simpson, based on her gender and her assertions of domestic abuse as told via her sister on her behalf during the trial. (Addams) The defense correctly speculated that females would be more likely to acquit. However, it remains to be researched at length as to whether the events surrounding the Simpson trial was more of a determining factor in the jury’s decision making, and whether the nine African American women making up the majority of the jury were swayed to acquit Simpson based upon Fuhrman’s dishonesty, or other extenuating racial factors.

Even after almost two decades after the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the intrigue and mystery as to how and why Simpson was acquitted exist. There are numerous theories that are outside the scope of this brief research piece, including members of Simpson’s defense team, Kardashian, being accused of holding back pieces of evidence – and how that could have proven his guilt. The supposed guilt or innocence of Simpson is not irrelevant, as criminally there has been no one held accountable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman; which is a burden that the families of the deceased must bear, despite the current incarceration of Simpson, on an unrelated charge. The acquittal of O.J. Simpson on the murder charges, however, can be better understood when the racial tensions of the time and trial are taken into account. The Rodney King beating which then instigated the Los-Angeles riots of 1992, set the stage for racial divides nation-wide. The acquittal of the officers that used excessive force upon King, shed light upon the racism that was rampant among the Los-Angeles Police Department, including those who were involved in the Simpson trial and investigation. As of 2004, an ABC poll shows that 77% of African Americans polled still believe that Simpson is innocent. (Chidley) When taking all these factors into account, it’s a little easier to wrap one's mind around the acquittal of such a heinous crime.

Works Cited

Addams, Lorraine. "Search Stories Of Fuhrman Depict Racist Braggart." Advanced. Washington Post, 22 Aug. 1995. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.

Chidley, Joe. "The Simpson jury faces the race factor. (final week of the O.J. Simpson murder trial)." Maclean's. (1995): n. page. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.

George Holliday, Initials. N.d. 0. n.p.

Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department. N.p. Web. 17 Nov 2013. <http://www.parc.info/client_files/Special Reports/1 - Christopher Commision.pdf>.

Jackson, Jesse. "Terrible Rainbow of Protest." Los Angeles Times [Los Angeles] 04 05 1992, n. pag. Print.

Linder, D.. N.p.. Web. 25 Nov 2013. <http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/trials24.htm>.

Tervalon, Jervey, and Cristián A. Sierra. Geography of Rage: Remembering the Los Angeles Riots of 1992. Los Angeles, CA: Really Great, 2002. Print..