‘He’s Going To Kill Me and Nothing Will Happen to Him.’
Published in El País
(Spain) on 14 May 2017
by Elvira Lindo (link to original)
Prosecutor Marcia Clark faced misogyny during O.J. Simpson trial.
I remember the impact that the trial of American football player O.J. Simpson had on us when we watched the CNN reports in 1995. Some 134 days passed with the U.S. media showing little else but the trial, making the whole thing look like a circus. It was. A live circus. That was how it was defined by the prosecutor, Marcia Clark, who was responsible for proving that the football player–one of the most adored men in America–had brutally murdered his wife and her friend. Despite evidence from the trial that pointed to his guilt, Simpson was found not guilty by a jury that was utterly blinded by the dishonest claims of the defense. It has been 22 years since the trial, and time has transformed the prosecutor, who wanted to put the athlete behind bars, into a heroine. If the American judicial system showed the worst of itself with that acquittal, for Marcia, the biggest loser, a kind of poetic justice has been served. This woman deserves to be compensated for her trouble. Her efforts resulted in a trial which destroyed the lives of those who fought for the truth without playing the racism card, which, in this case, meant that a man who had slashed his wife to death was spared prison.
Two film series have been created that give her the recognition she deserves: a work of fiction and a documentary, “O.J.: Made in America,” which we can watch in Spain (on Movistar). This precise, brilliant, amazingly honest account tells the story of a football player who left the ghetto and hit the big time, thanks to the academic importance that American universities placed on gifted sports people. The interesting thing about the series is that it simultaneously covers two affairs, also covering the rise of this black man who refused to associate himself with the civil rights movement and racial unrest in Los Angeles in the 1960s. Other black athletes compromised their careers in condemning police brutality, while Simpson continued to deny that color was an issue in the life of an American citizen. He lived in a society full of wealthy white people, constantly affirming that he wasn’t black, he was simply O.J. Simpson.
The irony of it all is that when he went to trial for Nicole’s murder, it was a black lawyer who defended him. Moreover, Johnnie Cochran, who was known for supporting victims of racial inequality but also for his fascination with celebrities, was cunning enough to use the race card to succeed, quite incredulously, in getting an acquittal for his client. The Simpson trial took place three years after a video surfaced, showing Rodney King being horrendously beaten by police. The defense decided to use this to play upon the country's black population, managing to make them believe that Simpson stood before a judge as an African-American and not a killer.
In the midst of this farce was Clark, who thoroughly suffered from the misogyny of those involved. If it wasn’t a judge who treated her as a second-class citizen, it was the press which wrote about her hairstyle rather than her professional abilities. Radio stations opened their phone lines so that listeners could share whether they thought she was a slut or a nice girl. In the papers, her new haircut provoked headlines such as “Curls of Horror” or “Marcia’s Hair Verdict: Guilty.” While paying for a box of tampons in the supermarket one day, the lawyer recalled how the shop assistant said, “Oh, the defense is in for a difficult few days.” Ripping her apart, Simpson’s defense and the press found the ultimate gossip: Mrs. Clark’s husband was disputing custody of their children, claiming that Marcia was a bad mother because she devoted all her attention to the trial. If that wasn’t bad enough, Clark’s ex-mother-in-law sold naked photos of her, meaning that Clark was forced to endure further humiliation at the hands of her enemies.
Everyone involved in the trial became characters in a tragicomedy which, fortunately, has inspired two great television productions. This honest documentary conveys how the trial encompassed a multitude of national troubles–fascination with success and money, racial inequality, the arbitrariness of justice, misogyny and violence from elite sports players toward women. Amidst all this, seemingly of little importance was Nicole, the woman who, before being murdered, had contacted the police on several other occasions. We can hear her broken voice: “He’s going to kill me, he’s going to kill me and nothing will happen to him because he’s O.J. Simpson.” Those words forever resonated in Clark’s conscience, and Clark, disillusioned with the judicial system, began to write and became the author of successful crime novels. She would have preferred the killer to pay for his crime.
I remember the impact that the trial of American football player O.J. Simpson had on us when we watched the CNN reports in 1995. Some 134 days passed with the U.S. media showing little else but the trial, making the whole thing look like a circus. It was. A live circus. That was how it was defined by the prosecutor, Marcia Clark, who was responsible for proving that the football player–one of the most adored men in America–had brutally murdered his wife and her friend. Despite evidence from the trial that pointed to his guilt, Simpson was found not guilty by a jury that was utterly blinded by the dishonest claims of the defense. It has been 22 years since the trial, and time has transformed the prosecutor, who wanted to put the athlete behind bars, into a heroine. If the American judicial system showed the worst of itself with that acquittal, for Marcia, the biggest loser, a kind of poetic justice has been served. This woman deserves to be compensated for her trouble. Her efforts resulted in a trial which destroyed the lives of those who fought for the truth without playing the racism card, which, in this case, meant that a man who had slashed his wife to death was spared prison.
Two film series have been created that give her the recognition she deserves: a work of fiction and a documentary, “O.J.: Made in America,” which we can watch in Spain (on Movistar). This precise, brilliant, amazingly honest account tells the story of a football player who left the ghetto and hit the big time, thanks to the academic importance that American universities placed on gifted sports people. The interesting thing about the series is that it simultaneously covers two affairs, also covering the rise of this black man who refused to associate himself with the civil rights movement and racial unrest in Los Angeles in the 1960s. Other black athletes compromised their careers in condemning police brutality, while Simpson continued to deny that color was an issue in the life of an American citizen. He lived in a society full of wealthy white people, constantly affirming that he wasn’t black, he was simply O.J. Simpson.
The irony of it all is that when he went to trial for Nicole’s murder, it was a black lawyer who defended him. Moreover, Johnnie Cochran, who was known for supporting victims of racial inequality but also for his fascination with celebrities, was cunning enough to use the race card to succeed, quite incredulously, in getting an acquittal for his client. The Simpson trial took place three years after a video surfaced, showing Rodney King being horrendously beaten by police. The defense decided to use this to play upon the country's black population, managing to make them believe that Simpson stood before a judge as an African-American and not a killer.
In the midst of this farce was Clark, who thoroughly suffered from the misogyny of those involved. If it wasn’t a judge who treated her as a second-class citizen, it was the press which wrote about her hairstyle rather than her professional abilities. Radio stations opened their phone lines so that listeners could share whether they thought she was a slut or a nice girl. In the papers, her new haircut provoked headlines such as “Curls of Horror” or “Marcia’s Hair Verdict: Guilty.” While paying for a box of tampons in the supermarket one day, the lawyer recalled how the shop assistant said, “Oh, the defense is in for a difficult few days.” Ripping her apart, Simpson’s defense and the press found the ultimate gossip: Mrs. Clark’s husband was disputing custody of their children, claiming that Marcia was a bad mother because she devoted all her attention to the trial. If that wasn’t bad enough, Clark’s ex-mother-in-law sold naked photos of her, meaning that Clark was forced to endure further humiliation at the hands of her enemies.
Everyone involved in the trial became characters in a tragicomedy which, fortunately, has inspired two great television productions. This honest documentary conveys how the trial encompassed a multitude of national troubles–fascination with success and money, racial inequality, the arbitrariness of justice, misogyny and violence from elite sports players toward women. Amidst all this, seemingly of little importance was Nicole, the woman who, before being murdered, had contacted the police on several other occasions. We can hear her broken voice: “He’s going to kill me, he’s going to kill me and nothing will happen to him because he’s O.J. Simpson.” Those words forever resonated in Clark’s conscience, and Clark, disillusioned with the judicial system, began to write and became the author of successful crime novels. She would have preferred the killer to pay for his crime.
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