- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins,Australia; First Edition edition (1 April 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060391839
- ISBN-13: 978-0060391836
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.3 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,125,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
An examination of the trial of OJ Simpson for the murder of his wife, for which he was recently found not guilty, which addresses the evidence brought forward in the trial and discusses the consequences of the not guilty verdict for the American legal and racial scene.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It's just over ten years since Nicole Brown Simpson and her lover, Ronald Goldman, were murdered in a savage frenzy in upstate Los Angeles, California. On October 3 1995 O.J Simpson, popular actor and football player and Nicole's abusive ex-husband, was acquitted of the murders despite a mountain of evidence that pointed to his guilt. In this book, lead prosecutor Christopher Darden gives his take on why the case went wrong, weaving his own backstory into his account. Darden is honest and thoughtful throughout, though at times the tone alternates from being bitter to regretful, with a slight hint of self pity.
It is clear that Darden was probably the wrong choice to prosecute Simpson. He is, by his own admission, a shy person and may have lacked the strength of character to cope with the pressure in this case. When he was selected, Darden had been out of the courtroom for three years, therefore his trial capabilities may have been limited.
However, Darden elucidates with clarity what lost him and his team what should have been, Simpson's celebrity aside, an open-shut case. There were too many lawyers on Darden's side with ever changing priorities, contributing to indecision over how to present the case and what evidence to include and leave out.
External issues such as defense lawyer Johnny Cochrane's playing of the race card (totally obscuring the case) coupled with a jury made up of people inflamed by recent racial tensions in Los Angeles, tensions made all the harder through the presence of racist copy Mark Fuhrman on the case, could not have made things easy.
The unprecedented media attention to the trial, including cameras in the courtroom, exacerbated this. Judge Ito, enamoured with his new celebrity status, repeatedly played to the cameras and was biased towards the prosecution. The constant threats to Darden, seen as a traitor to blacks for trying to prosecute Simpson, and the media focus on Darden's colleague Marcia Clark, engaged in a bitter divorce at the time, only served to drain the energy and competence of the prosecution.
Darden explains all of this with clarity, even his self-pitying tone is a bit off-putting sometimes. His final thoughts on the case demonstrate that he, perhaps better than anyone else, has a handle on the case and its place in American history:
"There is much to. Somehow we have allowed the murder trial of a simple football player to define race relations in America. We must all find more worthy causes and more significant points to debate - a moral and political center for the civil rights movement. If there is no other common ground, we must at least agree that there is more important business to attend to."
p. 382
Darden's book is thus a worthwhile insider's look at one of the most infamous murder cases in the last century.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
It allowed me to see into the man who is probably the most honest, sincere man in America. If you had more lawyers like him, searching for true justice, America would not have freed OJ Simpson. As a Canadian, and our system has flaws too, I can only say I would be outraged as an American that the racism that smoked out the real issues in this trial, was in fact the very same racism that let a double murderer go free. Shame on all of us. Empathy for Chis Darden and Marcia Clark. There are four hereos in this story 1) Nicole Brown, 2)Ron Goldman 3)Chris Darden and 4)Marcia Clark.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book confirms that Christopher Darden is an idiot! All is not lost however the pages of this best-seller server to line the floor of my bird's cage.
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