The George Zimmerman trial is an important opportunity for an honest dialogue concerning race and racial relations in America. Indeed, Not since the OJ trial has America had such a rich buffet of choices for debate and dialogue. You remember the OJ trial, right? It was the summer of 1994:
Former American football star and actor O. J. Simpson was tried on two counts of murder following the June 1994 deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman. The case has been described as the most publicized criminal trial in American history.[4] Simpson was acquitted after a lengthy trial that lasted over eight months which was presided over by Judge Lance Ito.[5]
Simpson hired a high-profile defense team initially led by Robert Shapiro[6][7][8] and subsequently led by Johnnie Cochran and also included: F. Lee Bailey, Alan Dershowitz, Robert Kardashian, Gerald Uelmen (the dean of law at Santa Clara University) and Carl E. Douglas with two more attorneys specializing in DNA evidence: Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. Los Angeles County believed it had a solid prosecution case, but Cochran was able to persuade the jurors that there was reasonable doubt about the DNA evidence (a relatively new form of evidence in trials at the time)[9] – including that the blood-sample evidence had allegedly been mishandled by lab scientists and technicians – and about the circumstances surrounding other exhibits.[10] Cochran and the defense team also alleged other misconduct by the Los Angeles Police Department. Simpson’s celebrity and the lengthy televised trial riveted national attention on the so-called “Trial of the Century”. By the end of the criminal trial, national surveys showed dramatic differences in the assessment of Simpson’s guilt between most black and white Americans.
There was this:
At 12:10 am[14] on June 13, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found murdered outside Brown’s Bundy Drive condo in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson had divorced two years earlier. Evidence found and collected at the scene led police to suspect that O.J. Simpson was the murderer. Nicole had been stabbed multiple times in the head and neck with defense wounds on her hands. The wound through her neck was gaping, through which the larynx could be seen, and vertebra C3 was also incised.
And this:
Thousands of spectators and on-lookers packed overpasses along the procession’s journey waiting for the white Bronco. In a festival-like atmosphere, some had signs urging Simpson to flee.[16]:88[22] They and the millions watching the chase on television felt part of a “common emotional experience”,[18]:23 as they wonder[ed] if O. J. Simpson would commit suicide, escape, be arrested, or engage in some kind of violent confrontation. Whatever might ensue, the shared adventure gave millions of viewers a vested interest, a sense of participation, a feeling of being on the inside of a national drama in the making.
And who can forget the bloody glove?
One dark leather glove was found at the crime scene, its match found near Kato Kaelin’s guest house behind Simpson’s Rockingham Drive estate.[10] Kaelin testified that he had heard “thumps in the night” in the same area around the guest house the night of the murder.[10] Brown had bought Simpson two pairs of this type of glove in 1990.[10] Both gloves, according to the prosecution, contained DNA evidence from Simpson, Brown and Goldman, with the glove at Simpson’s house also containing a long strand of blonde hair similar to Brown’s.[10]
I wrote a song about the OJ trial. Just thought we didn’t want to miss this opportunity to remember the lessons we learned from the OJ trial, now that the Zimmerman trial is foist upon us.
DON’T GAS THE JUICE (click the link if the player doesn’t appear on your screen)
Don’t gas the Juice
He weren’t to blame
You can’t out run fame
Turn him loose
Don’t gas the JuiceHe’s a black hero
In a white bronco
Like long ago
He is very aloof
Don’t gas the JuiceCalifornia son
Was holding a gun
Record setting run
Right into a noose
Don’t gas the JuiceWell, if Hertz did know
That old Cato
Was sellin’ him coke
It’d be a tooth for a tooth
Don’t gas the JuiceThey said there was a glove
And if that ain’t enough
It was covered with blood
That ain’t no proof
Don’t gas the JuiceSay that it’s a lie
‘Cause it’s making me cry
To watch OJ die
Circumstantial spoof
Don’t gas the JuiceDon’t gas the Juice
He weren’t to blame
You can’t out run fame
Turn him loose
Don’t gas the Juice