People v O.J. Simpson: A Class Discussion
Having taught the O.J. Simpson murder trial in my Forensic Science class for the past decade, I have found that teenagers are just as engaged as their parents were with the case. The intersection of celebrity, class, power, race, privilege and forensic science each year grips them. Now, they also get to see this play out on national television in the tv show The People v. O.J. Simpson. Their reactions are priceless...their friends have asked for “no spoilers” (as if) and they are generally annoyed by the scenes involving Kardashian kids!
While we are focusing chemistry and reading the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson in class, we have an extra credit discussion board running for each episode. Here are some of my thoughts from the discussion boards as well as a few students’ thoughts.
[Note: You can easily see my increasing love for this show with each episode]
EPISODE 1: FROM THE ASHES OF TRAGEDY: Of course I loved this episode! Having obsessed with this trial since 1994, this show is yet another way to think and analyze it. While parts were rather soap opera-ish (Kris Kardashian at the funeral- ugh!), it mostly brought the facts to life and made in some ways- it seem more real than the list of facts I reteach every other year in Forensics. Yet it is an entertainment show...NOT a documentary. I appreciate that they are sticking to the facts as laid out by Jeffrey Toobin's book. As a way to see how accurate the show is, take a look at Rolling Stone's article that fact checks the episode rating events on a scale of 0 to 5 "Gloves"- LOL.
EPISODE 2: THE RUN OF HIS LIFE: FACT CHECKING: Rolling Stone is fact checking each episode in a weekly article (rating events on a scale of 1-5 "Gloves"). This week's episode did a great job capturing some of the crazier events (yes, Dominos did great business during the 2 hour chase), but has altered events that maybe should have been left alone. The fact that the show has people of all races cheering side by side for OJ isn't quite how it really happened...the racial divide was apparent even that early in the case. Read the whole article here.
I'm glad they spent a whole episode on just the Bronco chase. Why? For me it sets the tone for so much of what goes on afterword...public obsession with the case...his privilege that kept him from being treated diffently (maybe harshly) by the police. Would a regular African American man in LA have been allowed to escape and run from the police?
STUDENT RESPONSE: I agree with that it was a good idea to spend an entire episode on the Bronco chase because it sets the tone for what's to come next! I do not think a regular African American man or any other black man (ex. jamaican, trinidadian) would have been allowed to escape. They also would not let a regular black man get arressted in his house. They would have shot the tires before everything would have escalated.
EPISODE 3: THE DREAM TEAM:
By far, this was my favorite episode so far- except for the intro with the Kardashians. But seeing the inside of the legal strategy forming at the beginning of the case makes me hopeful for the episodes to come where we will see the actual trial. It also makes me want to read the book by Jeffrey Toobin (in this episode he was the reporter from the New Yorker who visits Shapiros office...he also created the term "race card") that this whole series is based on.
STUDENT: It was interesting to see the different edits of O.J.'s mug shot on the covers of magazines. It was interesting to see Robert Shapiro and his team putting a plan together to make every bit of physical evidence even the slightest bit untrustworthy, so that the judge and jury could possibly question the validity of the evidence. The magazines started the idea that the case revolved around race. I don't understand why O.J. said, "I'm not black, I'm O.J.", or why O.J. didn't want Johnny Cochran to help his case. You would think that he would want to do anything to get out of jail, which is why this confuses me. However, the scene in the jail cell with Johnny Cochran and O.J. was touching, and it solidified the biggest factor in the case, which is race.
EPISODE 4: 100% NOT GUILTY: By far my favorite episode because it focused so much on the legal wranglings of both the prosecution and defense. As Rolling Stone's weekly fact checking article states, "The trial is finally getting underway: preliminary hearings, jury selection, Ross Geller trying his best to look lawyerly." Extra bonus: no Kardashian kids!! According to Rolling Stone, it looks to be a fairly accurate representation of what happened. While many people (mostly younger ones) are watching this without knowing how things end (not guilty) or why (jury doubted the police more than they thought OJ was guilty), we have the uncomfortable "honor" of knowing how clueless the prosecution was in underestimating the role race played in this case. I wonder if this happened today, would the awareness of the role race plays be more apparent? considered? dismissed by the prosecution?
