Friend, the OJ trial was an intense, painful time for me (living in LA at the time, and a very good friend was a principal witness in the case), so I don't necessarily want to redredge the whole thing again.
But.
You said: "I think if the criminal court jury had seen photos of Simpson wearing those Bruno Magli shoes that made the bloody footprints at the murder scene, they would have had no choice. Not even the most brain-dead jury could say that racist cops faked that."
The majority of white people watching the trial were convinced beyond the proverbial shadow of a doubt that OJ did it. And we were stunned when he was acquitted.
Black people cheered in the streets. Even some of the ACTUAL JURORS said, when interviewed after the verdict, This is payback, for all the innocent black men who have been persecuted and wrongly prosecuted over the years (that's a near-quote).
Remember all the talk of jury nullification? The evidence didn't matter. I believe he would have been acquitted if Mark Fuhrman never existed.
I think you're right- good post there.
People dancing in the street after this injustice was almost as distasteful as middle-easterners dancing after 9.11.
I remember individuals not involved saying such things, but not jurors. I challenge you to find a bonafide quote from a member of that jury that comes close to that.
The evidence didn't matter. I believe he would have been acquitted if Mark Fuhrman never existed.
Fact of the matter is that Fuhrman did perjure himself when he responded to F. Lee Bailey's questions about racial slurs by saying he didn't use the word. When audiotapes surfaced proving he did, the die was cast. It didn't help that the LAPD violated its own protocol in the transmission of evidence, and lied about Simpson not being a main suspect. For jurors who may have been prejudiced against police, that was probably enough to suggest that Simpson was framed.
I don't believe that blacks by-and-large were so enamored of the lavish-living, blonde bombshell-loving Simpson that they would allow HIM to get away with killing two people to make a larger point. O.J. was not Rodney King, a common ghetto dweller who served as a beaten-bloody spokesman for blacks who feel like they're victimized.