No one I knew wanted to see O.J. go down.
But there was an expectation he would be convicted for the brutal murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald L. Goldman.
Isn’t that how it always went when the crime involved a Black man and a white woman?
The O.J. Simpson trial had race at its core.
From Simpson’s flight in a white Bronco to his lawyer Johnnie Cochran’s court argument: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” the trial also captivated the public like no other.
Most people can probably tell you where they were and what they were doing in 1995 when the shocking verdict was announced, clearing Simpson of the murders.
Shocking, because there was no scenario that I could think of that would explain how Simpson’s ex-wife and Goldman ended up fatally stabbed in 1994 outside her townhouse in Los Angeles and Simpson ended up with a bloody glove.
But at that moment, Simpson, a celebrated football star, actor, and pitchman, became every Black man who had been put on trial, locked up, or murdered after being accused of assaulting a white woman. No words were needed.
All one had to do was look at the starkly different reactions of Black and white people crowded around a TV when the not guilty verdict was announced to see America’s great divide.
Black people were elated, while white people were stunned.
As perplexing as it was for some, it was easy to understand why some Black people celebrated.
To many, Simpson, with his expensive defense lawyers and his celebrity status, got a fair trial — something thousands of falsely accused Black men didn’t get.
He had a jury trial with lawyers who knew every trick in the book.
The debate over his guilt or innocence was palpable, especially after the victims’ families filed a civil lawsuit and he was ordered to pay $33 million in damages.
But his luck ran out in 2007.
After he and five other men, some armed, stormed into a hotel room to allegedly recover stolen memorabilia, Simpson ended up in prison for nine years.
Even then, there were people who believed the robbery was a set-up and another way to punish him for the killings.
Simpson died Wednesday from prostate cancer.
Some will remember him as a celebrity who beat an unfair judicial system.
But he was never the victim.
His ex-wife and Goldman were the victims.
While his popularity waned and his later years have been lived out of the public spotlight he craved, the question of Simpson’s guilt or innocence in his ex-wife’s murder is still being debated.
In my household, we don’t talk about O.J.
