The Juice Was Loose... Then They Cleaned Up The Mess : 15 Years After OJ

Taken from Wikipedia

On October 3, 1995, shortly after 10 AM, OJ Simpson was found not guilty of a double homicide. 15 years later, at the age of 63, OJ sits in jail on kidnapping and armed robbery charges. I hadn't realized it had been that long since the biggest let down verdict of the Century, until I was flicking through the channels yesterday and came upon Oprah... Oprah was interviewing Mark Fuhrman. It got me remembering what went down all those years ago.......

I was just finishing 7th grade when the double homicide took went down in Brentwood. I was 12 going on 13 when it all started and I didn't really know who OJ was let alone who Nicole Brown Simpson or Ron Goldman were. In the media circus that followed, I found out pretty quickly who they were. We were headed into summer vacation and shortly after the untimely deaths the first tastes of Reality TV were dished out and it was a bitter meal by the end.

While by the end of summer vacation, kids are usually so bored they're almost begging to go back to school. By the end of that summer, I was so bored and so tired of the OJ drama that I almost raced to get out of the house. It was pretty sad that two people were savagely murdered and just because the prime suspect was famous, everyone wanted a piece of the action, whether it be the police, lawyers, the media, right down to the common folk. It was said that Murder, just like sex, sells. Whether it comes by News, fiction novels, true crime books (Ann Rule for Example), or fiction TV shows/Movies, murder will "up" it's value. It made me sad to know that people were glued to their TVs to hear about those two peoples' misfortune and the grieving families' torturous losses. It made me sadder to think that people were profiting from the deaths as well.

The trial seemed endless. I thought it was pretty sad that Nicole and OJ's 2 kids, Sydney and Justin, would have to start a school year without their Mum. I was heading into 8th grade, that's high school where I'm from, and I was still pretty dependant on my Mum, so I couldn't imagine the turmoil those kids went through. I'd come home from school to a familiar scene, the TV would be on.... It seemed as though no matter what channel you had it on, you'd see Judge Ito's face, or Kato Kaelin, or Marcia Clarke or Christopher Darden's, OJ's or one of the two victims' or their families, or maybe Johnny Cochran or one of the fabled "Dream Team" defence's. I wasn't even involved except for being on the other side of the TV watching what was going down, and I just wanted this thing to come to an end. I can't even begin to imagine what the families were going through.

The drama through out the trial seemed to fuel the media circus of course. The low speed Bronco chase, the "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit" line, Kato's testimony, Mark Fuhrman being deemed a racist bigot. I started 9th grade by now and the Brown-Simpson kids started another school year without their Mum. Finally, everyone could see the light at the end of the tunnel as the jury was sent to deliberate OJ's guilt or innocence. I remember the day the verdict was announced... I was sitting in Math class, hopeful they'd convict, but in the back of my mind I knew they wouldn't. The class went silent, the teacher stopped mid-lesson and we turned the radio on low... Not Guilty was what came back, and the sound of cheers from the classrooms below rose almost like an explosion.

I was shocked and pretty sick... Juries wrongfully convict the average citizen on way less evidence than the mountain they had on OJ. Here's a guy who has been known to have a violent past with his ex-wife, had all these bright flashing arrows pointing to him evidence wise, and he got to walk free. If you look Nicole Brown Simpson's biography up on Wikipedia, it plainly states "She was murdered at her home in Los Angles, California, US along with her friend Ronald Goldman by her ex-husband, O. J. Simpson...." Being that the verdict came back not guilty, I think that's a ballsy statement but I'm sure the wording is the least of OJ's problems. In his civil suit, OJ was found liable for their deaths. A small feat no doubt.

Here it is, 15 years later, and OJ is finally rotting in jail. It may not be for the right crime that most believe he committed, but at least he's where he belongs. It's too bad that two people had to lose their lives and he has barely compensated as per the Civil Suit ruling.

It's not always about me; I'm not the one who set The Juice loose!