Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O. J. Simpson Got Away With Murder by Vincent Bugliosi

Author:Vincent Bugliosi [Bugliosi, Vincent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Murder, True Crime, Law, Social Science, Criminology, Legal History
ISBN: 9780440223825
Publisher: Random House
Published: 1997-04-01T10:26:14+00:00

Johnnie Cochran’s final summation to the jury was his best performance at the trial. Contrasted to the uninspiring and flat delivery of the two prosecutors, Cochran spoke with more style, flair, and, though the facts were against him and he was attempting to thwart rather than bring about justice, more passion. One quality Johnnie Cochran has which most trial lawyers don’t have, one that is essential to being a successful trial lawyer, is that he’s a fighter. Not a superb one at all, but an adequate one. He clearly demonstrated that he was more of a courtroom battler than either of the two lead prosecutors in the Simpson case.

But although Cochran spoke with more passion, he definitely did not, as the media proclaimed, give a stirring, fire-and-brimstone speech remindful of a Southern revivalist preacher. If that is the simile, Cochran was a rather pale imitation of such a religious orator, as just a few minutes of TV-watching on any Sunday morning will show. In fact, Cochran’s few transparent attempts at such evangelical tent-preaching for the obvious benefit of the black jurors rang hollow, since his cadence and intonation were obviously changed for effect.

Cochran, surprisingly, was more specific in his summation than either Darden or Clark. He quoted the actual trial testimony much more than they, and wasn’t saying “I think” the way the prosecutors so often did. He came across as being more confident and knowledgeable about the facts of the case than the prosecutors. This is inexcusable. A prosecutor should have an unexcelled command of the facts, which gives the argument he makes force and credibility.

And Cochran proved to be better than the prosecutors at the art of argumentation. Although his argument was very poorly structured and he rambled discursively from one issue to another, with the help of the many lawyers on the defense team (and even lawyers not involved in the case sending in suggestions), at one point or another in his summation he managed to point out to the jury all the small problems with the prosecution’s case. Though he could have gotten appreciably more out of many of his articulations on these points, he was nonetheless effective since he did make the points, and his tone and delivery throughout suggested these were actually big problems with the prosecution’s case. And although it should have been the prosecution expressing outrage at the conduct of the defendant and his lawyers, it was Cochran, and later Scheck, who acted as if they were on the side of truth and justice and had been wronged by the LAPD and DA’s office.

For instance, though they interviewed him, the prosecutors failed to call Robert Heidstra, a defense “timeline” witness who testified he heard Nicole’s Akita dog start barking crazily at around 10:35 p.m. (several prosecution witnesses said the time was around 10:15 to 10:20 p.m.), narrowing the time for Simpson to have committed the murders and do what the prosecution alleged he did before being seen back at his estate at 10:55 p.

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