8 DAYS OF O.J. - "THE DREAM TEAM ASSEMBLES: How O.J. Simpson Bought His Freedom in January 1995" - Day 1

0:03 Caaleroga Shark Media. This is Reed Carter, Friday, September twenty sixth, twenty twenty five. For the next eight days, we're taking a break from live trial coverage to examine the trial that changed everything, The trial that taught celebrities how to get away with murder, The trial that turned justice into entertainment and evidence into theater. Eight days, eight months, one episode for every month of the trial that lasted from January through September nineteen ninety five. Eight months that felt like eight years if you were the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman watching a killer perform for cameras while their loved ones became props in his defense.

0:50 October third, nineteen ninety five, thirty years ago. Next week, the day one hundred and fifty million Americans watched a double murderer walk free. Four hours of jury deliberation that ignored mountains of DNA evidence, ignored a trail of blood from the crime scene to the defendant's bedroom, ignored everything except the color of the defendant's skin and the badges of the cops who caught him. This is the story of how oj Simpson bought his freedom, How Johnny Cochrane sold a jury on conspiracy theories. How Marcia Clark lost the case before it started. How Judge Lance Edo turned his courtroom into a television studio. How the prosecution handed the defense every weapon they needed to commit legal murder. Look.

1:35 I've covered trials for fifteen years. I've seen prosecutors fumble cases. I've seen judges make terrible decisions. I've seen juries nullify evidence. But what happened over these eight months wasn't just a miscarriage of justice. It was a systematic dismantling of the concept that evidence matters more than performance. Eight episodes examining how a straightforward double homicide became a referendum on race, celebrity, and police corruption. How two innocent people, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman became footnotes in their own murder case. I'm reed, Carter, Welcome to Eight Days of OJ. This is how you get away with murder in America. January nineteen ninety five, Bill Clinton as president, the Internet barely exists, Court TV is two years old, nobody has heard of DNA evidence, and OJ Simpson, former football hero turned accused double murderer, is about to teach America that fame plus money equals a different kind of justice. The stage was set the moment Judge lance Eto walked into Department one h three of the Los Angeles Superior Court. Ito should have been a footnote in legal history. Instead, he became the biggest celebrity judge in America because he couldn't resist the cameras. Picture this January third, nine, eighteen ninety five, the media is already circling like vultures. CNN wants wall

3:05 to wall coverage. Court TV sees ratings gold and Judge Eto, who'd spent his career in relative anonymity, suddenly has the most famous court room in the world. What does he do. He could have banned cameras, could have moved the trial, could have controlled the circus. Instead, he embraces it. He allows full television coverage. He starts giving interviews, he poses for photographs. Judge lance Eto just became the first reality TV judge and he loved every minute of it. That decision allowing cameras changed everything. This wasn't going to be about evidence anymore. It was going to be about performance, and nobody understood performance better than the team. OJ Simpson was assembling with his millions. January fourth, nineteen ninety five, the arraignment, OJ pleads not guilty to murdering Nicole Brown, Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Standard stuff, except nothing about this case would ever be standard because of the man standing next to OJ at the defense table, Johnny Cochran, the best defense attorney money could buy, and OJ Simpson had a lot of money. But here's what really gets me about January nineteen ninety five. This wasn't just in competence.

4:19 This was systematic failure over thirty one agonizing days. Thirty one days where every decision made Nicole and Ron's families watch their loved ones killer assemble the most expensive legal team in history. January fourth, nineteen ninety five, the arraignment, OJ pleads not guilty to murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Standard stuff, right, accept Nothing about this case would ever be standard because of the man standing next to OJ at the defense table, Johnny Cochran. And I'm going to tell you something. Cochran knew he was going to win this case the moment he saw the jury pool. I've watched the footage, I've read the transcripts. Cochrane had this case figured out before the prosecution even understood what they were up against. Cochrane wasn't just a lawyer. He was a showman, a preacher, a magician who could make juries, forget about evidence and focus on emotion. He specialized in police misconduct cases, which meant he knew exactly how to make the LAPD look like the villains instead of the investigators.

5:20 And in January nineteen ninety five, the LAPD had handed him everything he needed. But Cochrane wasn't working alone. OJ was spending millions millions to assemble what the media dubbed the dream Team, and this took weeks to put together, week after week in January, while Nicole and Ron's families watched their killer by his freedom, one attorney at a time. This wasn't just legal defense. This was an all star lineup of attorneys, each with their own specialty, each costing more per hour than most people make in a month. And here's what I think really happened. I think Cochrane called each of these attorneys and told them exactly what he was planning, not just to defend OJ, but to put the LAPD on trial instead. Robert Shapiro had the celebrity connections. He'd represented Hollywood stars and understood how fame could be weaponized in court. Shapiro knew that O. J.

6:15 Simpson the celebrity, was more valuable than OJ Simpson the defendant. He'd make sure the jury remembered Nordberg from the Naked Gun movies, not the man whose blood was found at the murder scene. F Lee Bailey brought the cross examination reputation. Bailey had destroyed witnesses for decades. He could take a police officer's testimony and turn it into a confession of incompetence. He was surgical with words, and he was about to perform an autopsy on the LAPD's credibility. Alan Dershowitz provided constitutional expertise. Dershowitz knew every loophole, every technicality, every way to challenge evidence before it reached the jury. He was the insurance policy against prosecutorial overreach, which in this case meant any evidence that pointed to Ojay's guilt. But the secret weapon was Barry Sheck. Barry Sheck understood DNA evidence better than the prosecutors who were trying to use it.

7:09 DNA was new in nineteen ninety five. Juries didn't understand it, prosecutors barely understood it. But Sheck Shech could make DNA evidence disappear in a cloud of scientific jargon and contamination theories. This was the dream team. Five attorneys who together cost more than most people's houses, Five legal superstars who were about to teach America that the right lawyers can make evidence irrelevant, witnesses unreliable, and murder look like persecution. And against this dream team, the prosecution decided to send Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden, two overworked District Attorney's office prosecutors, against the most expensive legal defense in American history. It was like sending a public defender to argue against the Supreme Court. January twenty fourth, nineteen ninety five, opening statements.

8:05 This is where Marcia Clark should have won the case. She had everything, DNA evidence, blood evidence, a trail of domestic violence, opportunity, motive. She had oj Simpson's blood at the crime scene and the victim's blood in his car and his house. But instead of presenting a simple murder case, Clark decided to give a lecture. And this frustrates me to this day because I think, and I could be wrong about this. I think Clark was so overwhelmed by the media circus that she forgot who her audience was. She wasn't talking to scientists, she was talking to twelve people who just wanted to know who killed Nicole and Ron. Clark talked about the complexity of DNA evidence. She explained the sophisticated testing procedures. She showed charts and graphs that made jury members eyes glaze over like they were back in high school chemistry class. Clark's opening statement lasted two days, two entire days of scientific testimony that no one understood, two days of technical details that proved oj was guilty but convinced no one he was evil. She forgot the first rule of prosecution. Don't just prove they did it, make the jury want to convict them. Meanwhile, Johnny Cochrane stood up and delivered a masterpiece of manipulation. No charts, no DNA lectures, just a simple story about a man being framed by racist cops. And watching this thirty years later, I can see exactly when Cochran won this case. It was the moment he said, rush to judgment, ladies and gentlemen,

9:36 of the jury, Cochran began, this case is about a rush to judgment. This case is about police misconduct. This case is about planting evidence to frame an innocent man because the real killers got away, planting evidence, police misconduct, rush to judgment. Cochrane wasn't defending O. J. Simpson. He was prosecuting the U, the LAPD, and with Mark Furman about to be exposed as a racist liar, Cochrane had the perfect villain to replace OJ as the real defendant. Cochrane's opening was poetry. He talked about how OJ was a hero who broke barriers, how he was beloved by fans of all races, how he was being destroyed by corrupt cops who couldn't accept that their investigation was sloppy and their evidence was contaminated. The real killer or killers are still out there, Cochrane declared, And the police, rather than admit their mistakes, have chosen to frame mister Simpson frame job. That was the defense, not that OJ didn't do it, but that he was being framed for something he didn't do. It was brilliant because it didn't require proving innocence, It only required proving doubt, and with the LAPD's reputation for corruption, reasonable doubt was going to be easy to sell. But the prosecution made another fatal mistake that month. They appointed Christopher Darden as co prosecutor and the reason to provide racial balance against Cochrane. Think about that.

11:07 The District Attorney's office looked at the most important murder case in decades and decided they needed a black prosecutor to counter the defense's black attorney, as if race mattered more than competence, as if justice was about matching skin colors instead of presenting evidence. Darden was talented, but he was also emotional. He took the case personally. He saw Cochrane's racial appeals as attacks on his own credibility, and when you take a case personally, you make personal mistakes, fatal mistakes. The biggest mistake came with jury selection. January turned into February, with the prosecution helping Cochrane pack the jury with people predisposed to acquit. The defense wanted African American jurors who'd experienced police misconduct. The prosecution should have fought this, should have looked for jurors who'd convict based on evidence, regardless of the defendant's race or the investigating officer's flaws. Instead, they accepted a jury that included people who'd sued police departments, people who distrusted the LAPD, people who saw OJ Simpson as a hero, and police officers as enemies. The prosecution let Cochrane hand pick a jury that would believe the LAPD was more dangerous than a double murderer. Jury selection is everything. You can have DNA evidence, blood evidence, witness testimony, and a confession, but if the jury doesn't want to convict, they'll find a reason to acquit.

12:36 And this jury was selected by people who didn't want OJ Simpson to be guilty. The media circus was already out of control by the end of January. Judge Edo's decision to allow cameras meant every moment was televised, Every objection was analyzed, every facial expression was scrutinized. The trial became entertainment, and entertainment doesn't require truth, just drama. Court TV made this case their Super Bowl, CNN covered it like a war. The three major networks interrupted programming for testimony. This wasn't just a trial anymore. It was America's favorite TV show, and TV shows need heroes and villains, not evidence and facts. We'll be right back with how the prosecution lost the case before February even began, and why Johnny Cochrane was already planning his victory speech. Welcome back to Eight Days of OJ. I'm Red Carter, and we're examining how January nineteen ninety five set the stage for the most outrageous acquittal in American legal history. By the end of January, the fix was in not because of corruption or conspiracy, but because of incompetence and ego. The prosecution had made every mistake possible, while the defense executed a perfect game plan. Judge Eto was more concerned with

14:08 his television ratings than controlling his courtroom. The prosecution was more concerned with appearing racially balanced than being competent, and the defense was more concerned with creating reasonable doubt than discovering truth. But let's talk about what was really happening behind the scenes in January nineteen ninety five. While Cochrane was assembling his dream team and Clark was preparing her DNA lectures, the evidence against O. J. Simpson was overwhelming. His blood was found at the Bundye crime scene, where Nicole and Ron were slaughtered. Their blood was found in his white broncho. Nikole's blood was found on the socks in his bedroom. Ron's blood was found on the glove behind his house. The timeline put him at the scene during the murders. He had fresh cuts on his hands the next day. He couldn't account for his whereabouts during the time of the murders. This wasn't a who done it?

15:02 This was a how did he think he'd get away with it? But OJ Simpson knew something about American justice that prosecutors didn't understand. Fame plus money plus the right lawyers equals reasonable doubt, even when guilt is unreasonable. The dream Team's strategy was already clear by January's end. They weren't going to prove Oj didn't kill Nicole and Ron. They were going to prove the LAPD couldn't be trusted to investigate anyone, especially a black celebrity. They were going to turn victim into villain and evidence into conspiracy. Mark Furman was about to become the real defendant. The racist cop who found key evidence would be exposed as a liar who said he never used racial slurs. The LAPD's sloppy evidence collection would be portrayed as deliberate contamination. The prosecution's strongest case would become the defense's best argument for acquittal.

15:55 Marcia Clark thought she was prosecuting a murder case. She was actually defended the LAPD's competence and the criminal justice system's credibility, and she didn't realize it until it was too late. Christopher Darden thought he was balancing the racial dynamics of the case. He was actually validating Cochrane's argument that race mattered more than evidence. Every time Darden spoke, he reinforced the idea that this case was about black versus white instead of guilty versus innocent. Judge Eto thought he was presiding over the trial of the century. He was actually hosting the reality show that would destroy public faith in the justice system. Every camera angle he allowed gave the defense more opportunity to perform instead of proving.

16:40 By January thirty first, nineteen ninety five, the prosecution had already lost. They just didn't know it yet. The jury was selected by the defense, the media was controlled by celebrity. The judge was more concerned with fame than justice, and the defendant had assembled the most expensive legal team in history to make evidence disappear. January nineteen ninety five wasn't just the beginning of the OJ Simpson trial. It was the beginning of celebrity justice in America. The moment we learned that fame and money could buy different treatment under the law, The moment we discovered that the right lawyers could make DNA evidence meaningless and murder look like persecution.

17:20 Nicole Brown Simpson was dead, Ronald Goldman was dead, and their killer was about to become the victim in his own trial. Because America loves celebrity more than it loves justice, the dream team wasn't dreaming. They were planning, planning to turn the American justice system into a game show where the contestant with the most money and the best lawyer's wins, regardless of what they did or who they killed. OJ Simpson didn't just buy the best legal defense in history. He bought the blueprint for how celebrities escaped consequences in America, a blueprint that's been used by every famous defendant since. A blueprint written in the blood of two people who became footnotes in their own murder case. The prosecution lost this case in January nineteen ninety five when they let Johnny Cochrane pick a jury that would believe the LAPD was more dangerous than a double murderer. Everything that happened after that was just theater, expensive, nationally televised theater that ended with a killer walking free and justice dying on live television. That's day one of eight days of OJ, the month that decided everything before evidence was presented, The month the prosecution handed Johnny Cochran the tools to commit legal murder. Tomorrow, Day two, February nineteen ninety five, the blood evidence that should have convicted OJ Simpson, the gloves that would destroy the prosecution. Cato Kalin takes the stand

18:52 as the world's most famous HouseGuest, and Rosa Lopez becomes the defense's lying witness who fled to El Salvador. February nineteen ninety five was when the evidence was presented that proved O J. Simpson was a killer. It was also when the defense began making evidence irrelevant, when blood became contamination, when gloves became conspiracies, when facts became theories. Before we go, let me remind you what this series is really about. Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered on June twelfth, nineteen ninety four. Nikole was thirty five years old. She was the mother of two children who loved her. She was trying to build a life free from an abusive ex husband. She died in her own driveway. Her throat slashed so severely she was nearly decapitated. Ronald Goldman was twenty five years old. He was a waiter who was returning sunglasses Nicole had left at the restaurant where he worked.

19:46 He died trying to defend a woman he barely knew from a killer he couldn't fight. He was found with defensive wounds on his hands because he fought for his life and lost. They don't get to appeal their deaths. They don't get dream teams or million dollar defenses. They don't get to walk free after four hours of jury deliberation. They got graves and grieving families and a justice system that failed them spectacularly. Oj Simpson murdered two innocent people and walked free because he was famous and rich and lucky enough to kill them. In Los Angeles during a time when the LAPD's reputation was toxic, and cameras were allowed in courtrooms. This isn't just the story of how OJ got away with murder. It's the story of how America learned to love celebrity more than justice, how we turn trials into entertainment, how we let fame and money by different treatment under the law. Eight days, eight episodes, One comprehensive look at how the trial of the century became the travesty of the century. I'm reed, Carter. The prosecution lost this case thirty years ago next week, and Nicole Brown, Simpson and Ronald Goldman are still dead. Join me tomorrow for day two. If you're just finding us now, go back and listen to day one. This is a story that has to be told in order, the story of how justice died on live television. And remember, we'll be adding bonus episodes if any breaking news happens during our OJ retrospective, because while we're looking back at how celebrities escape justice thirty years ago, they're still escaping justice today.

21:18 See you tomorrow for February nineteen ninety five. The evidence that should have ended everything, but somehow didn't matter at all. The preceding episode is based on court records, news reports, and publicly available information from the OJ Simpson trial. While we strive for accuracy, some dramatic interpretation and creative license has been used for storytelling purposes. The opinions and interpretations expressed are those of the host and do not necessarily reflect the views of Calaoga Shark Media or its uses.