Abstract

This research paper covers the case of O.J. Simpson and the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman. The case have been subject to media’s coverage over the past 25 years and while most of the coverage is post-acquittal, the coverage before and during the acquittal shows media’s influence. The aim of the paper is to offer a background to the case, a discussion against criminal justice theory and offer a perspective on media’s involvement. This case is particularly peculiar based on the celebrity status of the suspect – Simpson – hence the extent of coverage. Although Simpson was acquitted, the case aligns with the crime of passion theory. Evidence shows that the media significantly influenced the public perception of Simpson after the murders possibly through erroneous and rushed reporting and false information. Overall, the media influenced the case outcomes.

Introduction

The media can influence the proceedings on criminal cases. According to an empirical study by Greene (1990), it is possible, for instance, that jurors would be biased towards certain perceptions due to media’s coverage of criminal cases in general. The case of O.J. Simpsons demonstrates this possibility of media’s influence on case outcomes. There is evidence for instance that perceptions of the Simpsons and of the criminal justice system by the public were affected by media coverage (Brown, Duane and Fraser, 1997). This research paper covers details of the case, offers a theoretical analysis and a perspective on the media’s influence on the case outcomes.

The crime in its historical setting

The O.J. Simpson’s case follows the murder of Nicole Brown, the ex-wife to O.J. Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman both who were stabbed to death in California on June twelfth in 1994 (Pak, 2019). Simpson’s case drew a lot of media attention not only based on the details of the crime but also his status as an NFL player. On the night of the murders, Brown had dinner with her friends and family at a Brentwood restaurant where her friend Goldman worked as a waiter. Brown’s mother accidentally forgot her glasses at the restaurant after the dinner and Goldman offered to drop them off at Brown’s residence in Brentwood (Pak, 2019). The dinner and the drop-off occurred between 6.30 pm and 10.41 pm. This is because between 10.41 pm and 10.45 pm, Brian Kaelin, a houseguest to Simpson heard some thumping noise outside Simpson’s Rockingham mansion and went out to check the source of the noise Rockingham. Simpson’s and Brown’s home were a couple of miles apart.

Between 10.50 pm and 10.55 pm, a neighbor saw Brown’s dog by itself, barking and with bloody paws. Around 11.01 pm, Simpson was seen leaving his house and he went on to board a flight to Chicago where he checked into a hotel on June thirteenth at 4.15 am. The dead bodies of Brown and Goldman were discovered at 12.01 am and while police went to Simpson’s Rockingham house to inform him of the murder, they found his blood-stained Bronco and a glove that matches one found near the dead bodies.

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The police obtained a warrant and at 10.45 am searched Simpson’s home where they found more blood stains. Simpson’s returned home from Chicago and was arrested as a suspect in both murders. He was questioned for hours then released. Simpson then fled from the police in his white Bronco and a chase ensued. The Simpson case is partly popular since the chase mesmerizes the nation. As reported by Adams (2016), the chase was televised live and even interrupted the NBA programming in a historic twist of events. Simpson was later arrested and the prosecution suggested life imprisonment without parole if he was found guilty (Pak, 2019).

On third of October in 1995, the jury acquitted Simpson of all charged based on lack of incriminating evidence including the blood-stained glove that did not fit Simpson’s hand (Gallagher, 2016). Part of the acquittal also was due to the push by Simpson’s defense team to discredit the DNA found at the scene and the credibility of other pieces of evidence. Mark Fuhrman, a detective in the case, was used as a leeway to discredit evidence based on a recording of him hurling racial slurs and bragging about brutalizing suspects. He created a racial-bias perspective on the circumstances via which the evidence was obtained.

A theoretical analysis of the crime

The prosecutors in the Simpson case, Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden, argued that the reason for the murders was that O.J. Simpson killed the ex-wife because “he could not have her” (Pak, 2019). As such, the prosecuting team treated it as a crime of passion. The marriage between Simpson and Brown is reported to have ended as a result of abuse and unfaithfulness. According to Spargo (2016), Simpson had several affairs that affected their marriage and Brown fought back against these affairs as well as domestic violence. These circumstances of their relationship had been cited at some instances in the Simpson murder case with concern that the murders were a result of Simpson’s inability to let go of the ex-wife. Darden, in a prosecutorial statement pointed that Simpson’s view was that “…. if he couldn’t have her, he didn’t want anyone else to” (Claiborne and Henderson, 1995). This relationship between Simpson and Brown that lasted 17 years was described as that of possessiveness and jealousy.

According to Guan et. al., (2017), a crime of passion can be explained as constituting violence or harm inflicted in an intimated scenario or also in the content of highly stressful and highly affective states. This means that the crime also does not have a premeditation and often is a result of impulse. Guan et. al., (2017) explain that perpetrators of crimes of passion may not have histories of criminal activity but also cautions that these does not mean they have no history of violence or bullying. Further, crimes of passion occur due to provocation or triggers that lead the perpetrator to impulsively make a decision to act. Coker (1992), in elaborating the context of heat-of-the-moment killings which are similar to crimes of passion notes that adultery or sexual taunts are used as provocations and often reduce murders to manslaughter. The context that Coker (1992) referred to was that of husbands or men that beat or murder their wives in ‘heat of passion’. The concepts of passion killing as explained by Guan et. al., (2017) and Coker (1992) thus align in the sense that they describe crime – murder – committed in an affective relationship where one party provokes the other into an impulsive decision.

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The case of Simpson, although the accused was acquitted, would fit within the theory of crimes of passion. The basis of this argument is the evidence presented by the prosecutors and their argument that Simpson simply killed Brown because he could not have her and hence could not let any other man have her. Additionally, as reported by Spargo (2016), there are several instances of domestic violence and jealousy, including Simpson watching Brown have sex with other men through her windows, that point towards a killing of passion.

A description of the media’s coverage of the crime

The case of O.J. Simpson is arguably the most televised legal proceeding in America. It drew millions of viewership and was covered by live TV, print and digital media. The chase between the police and Simpson in 1994 for instance was viewed by an approximated 95 million people across gender, racial and class divides (Babb, 2014). According to Babb (2014), the coverage of Simpson’s case could have redefined the media landscape in regard to the content created and how it is shared by audiences. This was in relation to the discovery that televising trivialities of everyday life could be captivating to the audiences. Some of the media outlets that grew significant viewership based on their coverage are Fox News, MNBC, Court TV and CNN (Babb, 2014). In addition to the extensive coverage during the case’s occurrence and litigation – 1994 and 1995 – there has been continued media coverage up until today. This is a 25-year span of news coverage into different details of the case including the aftermath of the critical parties in the case such as lawyers, jurors, judges, news reporters and even the car – white Bronco – used in the police chase with Simpson.

Prior to the murder case, O.J. Simpson had a positive media coverage that painted him as a trailblazer, a cultural icon, an accomplished athlete, an actor and rental car spokesperson (Heiss, 2018). He had a Q-Score – a broadcaster score based on recognizability, trust and likability – of 35 which was among the highest achieved at the time (Heiss, 2018). After the murder incident, Heiss (2018) notes that it only took a day for the media to change the perception of Simpson by the public from an iconic figure to a murderer. The transition in his perception was also without proper evidence of facts by the media since the timeline reports indicated he was not arrested until a day after the murders occurred. During this time the law enforcement were still gathering evidence from the crime scene. There was false reporting also as KCOP-TV erroneously reported that a blood-stained ski mask was found at Simpson’s house. Daily News of Los Angeles also erroneously reported existence of an entrenching military-style tool.

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A perspective of the media’s effect on case outcomes

There is convincing evidence that the media influenced the case outcomes in the case of O.J. Simpson. First, the is the idea of ‘trial by the media’ as explained by Heiss (2018). In the twenty four hours following the murder, the media is reported to have already painted the picture of Simpson as a murderer to the public. Many news outlets including KCOP-TV, Daily News of Los Angeles, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News and Los Angeles Times rushed their reporting, misrepresented key facts and ended up being biased hence the perception of Simpson as a murderer.

Biddle, while reporting for The Boston Globe in 1994 as captured by Heiss (2018), raised a concern that the media had already convicted Simpson without even the police confirming whether he was under investigation or not. The study by Brown, Duane and Fraser (1997) shows that public opinion in the case of Simpson was shaped by the media and resulted in a large racial divide. Juxtaposing this study against the one by Green (1990) where jurors are subconsciously influenced by the media coverage and portrayal of the courtroom, it is evident that the outcomes of the Simpson case were influenced by the media.

Bibliography

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