The O.J. verdict introduced the world to social justice
by Tiana Lowe
October 05, 2019 11:02 AM The Los Angeles Police Department had been dispatched to the home of Nicole Brown Simpson nine times by the year that O.J. Simpson pleaded no contest to spousal abuse. Over three years passed before Nicole finally filed for divorce from the retired football star. But the cycle of abuse did not end with their marriage. Just as he had threatened, battered, and abused Nicole during their marriage, he continued to do so after their split.
O.J. had beaten his wife badly enough over the years that she wound up in the hospital, where she lied to a doctor that she'd fallen off a bike rather than expose her husband. Yet as it turned out, she didn't have to protect him. The LAPD would continue to do so prior to the night O.J. nearly decapitated her with a knife, killing Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman in cold blood. The people of Los Angeles would continue to protect O.J. after that.
Despite prosecutorial slip-ups and the LAPD's typically unprofessional conduct, the evidence against O.J. was overwhelming. It wasn't just the glove and the blood and the DNA and the absence of an alibi and the lies and the obvious cover-up. Nicole had documented O.J.'s abuse for years, not just with photos and journals corroborating her dozens of allegations, but also in 911 calls. Judge Lance Ito allowed the prosecution to play the audio for the downtown L.A. jury.
"Would you just please, O.J., O.J., O.J., O.J., could you please? Please leave," Nicole sobbed in a 1993 call from when O.J. was breaking into her house to beat her.
"I'm not leaving," the call recorded O.J. threatening in the background.
The jury didn't just know the facts of the case. They heard the sheer terror in Nicole's voice as she begged for her life the night of June 12, 1994.
Twenty-four years ago this week, the jury acquitted O.J. of all charges.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-o-j-verdict-introduced-the-world-to-social-justice
