Today, October 3, marks 25 years since O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of murdering his estranged wife Nicole Brown Simpson in a trial that shocked the world and continues to captivate to this day.
The so-called trial of the century spanned nine months yet the jury found Simpson not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman in under four hours.
But why?
The verdict was read on October 3, 1995, but in the succeeding years, many of the jurors have spoken about their reasons for acquitting Simpson, with the events scrutinized for the last two decades.
The trial was once again hurtled into the zeitgeist in 2016 in the award-winning FX series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.
“If the glove does not fit, you must acquit.”—The now infamous words of John Cochrane which have served to come to define the trial which was so utterly contextualized by race relations in America at the time.
The jurors had a tough time of it during the trial, being sequestered for eight and a half months and under intense media scrutiny. 10 were dismissed from their role by presiding Judge Lance Ito with the final 12 consisting 10 women and two men of different races—10 out of 12 voted to acquit Simpson.
In a press conference the day after the trial, juror Brenda Moran said, per CNN: “In plain English, the glove didn’t fit.”
Moran also dismissed domestic abuse claims against Simpson, saying it “was a murder trial, not a trial about domestic abuse” and that focusing on those claims were “a waste of time.”
One of the men on the jury, David A. Aldana told The New York Times reported on by The Baltimore Sun that he voted not guilty because he said that “things just didn’t add up” in relation to the evidence they were presented in court. He also maintained that he can “sleep at night, no problem”
A four-night special was released on the trial in 2017 shortly after Simpson was granted parole after being sentenced to jail for his role in a 2007 armed robbery.
The Jury Speaks explored the trial from the perspective of the jury with one juror Yolanda Crawford recalling the moment Simpson tried on the glove.
“It might be the way he manipulated his hands, I don’t know,” Crawford said. “But I looked at [fellow juror] Christopher Darden, and I was like, I can’t believe you fell for it. And at that point, I’m like, what can you do? It didn’t appear to fit.”
“It was one of many, many mistakes,” Darden admitted.
The other man on the jury was Lionel Cryer, who said, “It was garbage in, garbage out” about the evidence.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times (per Bustle) the day after the verdict was delivered, Cryer said: “We felt there were a lot of opportunities for either contamination of evidence, samples being mixed or stored together.”
Cryer is also remembered for raising his fist in solidarity with Simpson when the verdict was delivered.
Of that, he told the L.A. Times: “It was like a ‘right on’ to you, Mr. Simpson. Get on with your life. Get your kids. Be happy. Get some closure in your life.”
