Oct. 2, 2025

8 Days of O.J. - "THE PROSECUTION COLLAPSES: Fuhrman Tapes and Complete Chaos" - Day 7

Show Notes
Transcript

Reid Carter examines July-August 1995 - the months the Mark Fuhrman tapes emerged with 41 uses of the N-word, destroying his credibility and the prosecution's case. Laura Hart McKinny's screenwriting interviews expose Fuhrman's lies about racial slurs while he pleads the Fifth on planting evidence. Judge Ito loses complete control, crying over insults about his wife as the courtroom descends into chaos. The exhausted prosecution rests in defeat while the defense presents their parade of reasonable doubt with Dr. Henry Lee finding "something wrong" and wild theories about Colombian drug cartels. Sixty-two days watching the prosecution realize they'd lost everything before closing arguments even began.

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Calirogus Shark Media. This is read Carter, Thursday, October two,

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twenty twenty five, Day seven of eight days of OJ

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we're examining. July and August nineteen ninety five. The months

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everything that could go wrong for the prosecution went catastrophically wrong.

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The months the Mark Furman tapes emerged and destroyed what

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little credibility the LAPD had left. The month's judge lance

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Eto completely lost control of his courtroom while crying over

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personal insults. The months the prosecution finally admitted defeat. Sixty

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two days of watching the justice system collapse under the

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weight of its own failures. Sixty two days of watching

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reasonable doubt become unreasonable certainty that OJ Simpson would walk free.

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July brought us the Furmin tapes, forty one uses of

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the N word from the day detective who'd sworn under

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oath he'd never used that word in ten years. August

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brought us a defense case built entirely on reasonable doubt

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and conspiracy theories that somehow seemed more believable than overwhelming

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evidence of guilt. By August thirty first, the prosecution knew

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they'd lost not just the case, but any hope that

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evidence would matter more than performance, that truth would matter

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more than narrative, that justice would matter more than sending

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a message about police racism. I'm reed, Carter. This is

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day seven of eight days of OJAY. Welcome to the

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months we watched the prosecution collapse completely and the defense

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prepare for their victory lap around the corpses of Nicole Brown,

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Simpson and Ronald Goldman. July nineteen ninety five, the month

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Mark Furman went from racist liar to the star witness

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for the defense. The month Judge Eto proved he cared

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more about his personal feelings than judicial integrity. The month

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the prosecution realized that all their evidence, all their science,

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all their proof meant nothing to a jury that had

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already decided the LAPD couldn't be trusted with a parking ticket,

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let alone a murder investigation. July began with a bombshell

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that should have been expected, but somehow still shocked everyone involved.

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The emergence of the Furman tapes. Laura Hart McKinney was

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a screenwriter working on a project about police officers between

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nineteen eighty five and nineteen ninety four. She conducted extensive

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interviews with Mark Furman, recording hours of conversations where Furman

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shared his experiences, his attitudes, and his language as an

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LAPD officer, and that language was exactly what f Lee

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Bailey had been fishing for during his cross examination months earlier.

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July fifth, the defense reveals they have these tapes, hours

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of recordings where Mark Furman uses the N word, not once,

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not twice, but forty one times. Forty one times. The

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detective who had looked directly at the jury and sworn

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he hadn't used that word in ten years, had been

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recorded using it repeatedly during the exact time period he'd denied.

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But the racial slurs were just the beginning. The tapes

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revealed Furman's attitudes toward women, minorities, and police misconduct. They

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showed a cop who bragged about violence, who described planting evidence,

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who talked about police brutality like it was a recreational activity.

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And here's what I think really happened with these tapes.

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I think the defense had known about them for months.

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I think they'd been sitting on this nuclear weapon, waiting

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for the perfect moment to detonate it. And July nineteen

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ninety five, after the prosecution had spent months building their

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case on Furman's credibility was the perfect moment. July twelfth,

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Judgedo begins reviewing the tapes to determine what the jury

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should hear. And this is where Edo's personal involvement in

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the case finally destroys any pretense of judicial neutrality. The

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tapes don't just contain Furman's racial slurs. They contain specific

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comments about Eto's wife, Captain Margaret Yorke. Furman had made

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derogatory remarks about York during his interviews with McKinney, calling

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her incompetent and making sexist comments about female officers. Judge

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Edo breaks down in chambers when he hears what Foreman

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said about his wife. He starts crying. He considers recusing

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himself again. The trial nearly collapses because the judge can't

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separate his personal feelings from his professional responsibilities. And watching

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this thirty years later, I can see exactly what's happening.

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Eto has completely lost control of his courtroom, his case,

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and himself. He's more concerned about his wife's reputation than

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about justice for Nicole and Ron. He's more worried about

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personal insults than about legal integrity. The prosecution begs Eto

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to limit what the jury hears from the tapes. They

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argue that Furman's racism, while reprehensible, doesn't change the physical

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evidence he found. They point out that racist cops can

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still find real evidence of actual crimes, but it's too late.

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The damage isn't in what the jury will hear, it's

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in what everyone already knows. Mark Furman lied under oath.

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The detective who found the most important evidence in the

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case committed perjury about his racial attitudes. July twentieth, the

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jury hears portions of the Furman tapes, not all forty

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one racial slurs, but enough to destroy any credibility Furman

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had left, enough to prove he'd lied during his testimony,

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enough to cast doubt on everything he'd found and everything

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he'd said. But the most devastating moment comes when Mark

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Furman himself is recalled to the stand. The prosecution needs

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him to explain the tapes to salvage something from the

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wreckage of his credibility. Instead, Furman takes the Fifth Amendment.

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He pleads the fifth when asked if he planted evidence.

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He pleads the fifth when asked if he falsified his

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police reports he pleaded here's the fifth when asked if

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he lied during his previous testimony. The detective who found

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the bloody glove just told the jury he couldn't answer

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questions about planting evidence without incriminating himself. The man whose

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investigation built the case against O. J. Simpson just admitted

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he might be guilty of manufacturing evidence. Game over, case closed.

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The prosecution's star witness had become the defense's best argument

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for reasonable doubt, But July brought worse news for the prosecution.

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They were exhausted. Marcia Clark looked like she'd aged ten

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years during the trial. Christopher Darden appeared defeated every time

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he stood up. The prosecution team was running on fumes,

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fighting a case they knew they were losing. July thirty, first,

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the prosecution rests their case. They've presented overwhelming evidence of

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OJ's guilt, DNA, blood, hair fibers, timeline, motive, opportunity. They've

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proved beyond any scientific doubt that OJ Simpson and killed

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Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. But they've also watched

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that evidence get explained away by contamination theories, conspiracy allegations,

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and police misconduct. Claims they've seen their strongest witnesses destroyed

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by defense attacks. They've realized that proving guilt isn't enough

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when the jury doesn't want to convict. August nineteen ninety

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five brought the defense case, and it was a masterclass

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in creating reasonable doubt without presenting any actual evidence of innocence.

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The defense didn't need to prove oj didn't kill Nicole

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and Ron. They only needed to prove the prosecution's evidence

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was questionable, and with Furman's perjury and the LAPDS incompetence,

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that was easy. August fifth, doctor Henry Lee takes the

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stand for the defense. Lee is one of the world's

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most respected forensic experts, and his testimony is devastating for

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the prosecution. Lee examines the blood evidence and declares that

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something wrong with the patterns at the crime scene. He

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doesn't say the evidence was planted, he's too careful for that,

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but he plants the idea that the evidence doesn't make sense,

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that the blood patterns are inconsistent with the prosecution's theory.

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This is brilliant defense strategy. Lee's reputation is unassailable, so

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when he says something is wrong, juries listen. He doesn't

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have to prove what's wrong, he just has to say

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that something doesn't add up. But August also brought some

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of the most ridiculous alternative theories in legal history. The

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defense suggested that Nicole and Ron were killed by Colombian

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drug dealers. They implied that Nicole's drug use had led

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to her murder by professional killers who just happened to

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leave evidence pointing to o Jay. This was insane. Nicole

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Brown Simpson wasn't involved with drug dealers. She wasn't killed

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by Colombian cartels. She was killed by her abusive ex

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husband who couldn't accept that she'd moved on with her life.

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But it didn't matter if the alternative theories made sense.

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They only mattered if they created doubt about Ojay's guilt,

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and with a jury that had already decided the LAPD

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couldn't be trusted, any alternative theory was more believable than

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police evidence. August also revealed the prosecution's fundamental failure to

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understand what this case had become. They kept treating it

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like a murder trial when it had become a referendum

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on police racism. They kept presenting evidence when the jury

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was more interested in sending a message. The prosecution thought

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they were in a courtroom arguing about Ojay's guilt or innocence.

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They were actually in a theater watching the defense perform

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a play about police corruption, and Nicole and Ron were

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just props in that performance. By August fifteenth, I think

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both sides knew how this would end. The defense knew

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they'd successfully transformed the case from murder trial to police

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misconduct hearing. The prosecution knew they'd lost control of the narrative,

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the evidence, and the jury. August twentieth, the defense rests

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their case. They've presented no evidence that Ojay is innocent.

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They've offered no alternative explanation for his blood at the

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crime scene. They've provided no alibi for his whereabouts during

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the murders. Instead, they've created a fog of doubt thick

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enough to hide a double murderer. They've made the jury

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more suspicious of the police than the defendant. They've turned

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reasonable doubt into unreasonable certainty that Ojay was framed. The

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prosecution had everything they needed to convict O. J. Simpson.

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DNA evidence that proved his guilt with mathematical certainty, blood

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evidence that showed his presence at the crime scene, physical

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evidence that connected him to the murders, But they didn't

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have what they really needed, a jury that cared more

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about evidence than politics, more about truth than narrative, more

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about justice than sending a message about police racism. By

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August thirty first, the evidence phase of the trial was

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over All that remained were closing arguments, jury instructions, and

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the verdict that everyone could see coming. The prosecution had

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proved O. J. Simpson was guilty beyond any reasonable doubt.

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The defense had proved that reasonable doubt was irrelevant when

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the jury had already decided what they wanted to believe.

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July and August nineteen ninety five, the months the prosecution

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collapsed completely and the defense prepared to send a double

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murderer home to freedom. We'll be right back with how

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the fem tapes and defense theories set the stage for

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September's closing arguments and October's shocking four hour deliberation that

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ignored eight months of evidence. Welcome back to day seven

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of eight days of OJ. I'm read Carter, and we're

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examining how July and August nineteen ninety five completed the

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prosecution's collapse and guaranteed oj Simpson's acquittal. What really happened

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during these two months The defense executed the final phase

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of their strategy, making Mark Ferman more important than the

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evidence he found, making police misconduct more relevant than Ojy's murders,

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making jury nullification seem like justice. The Furman tapes weren't

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just embarrassing. They were case ending, not because they proved

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oj was innocent, but because they proved the prosecution's star

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witness was alling racist who might plant evidence to frame

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black suspects. And here's what's most frustrating about the Furman disaster.

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It was completely predictable and completely avoidable. We'd been covering

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police misconduct cases for years before this trial. We knew

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the LAPD had credibility problems. We knew Foreman's background would

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be scrutinized. The prosecution should have anticipated this, should have

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prepared for attacks on Furman's character, should have built their

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case in a way that didn't depend entirely on the

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credibility of one detective. Instead, they put all their eggs

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in the Furman basket and watched that basket get destroyed

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by the defense's preparation and Furman's own racism. But July

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and August also revealed something else. How completely the defense

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had succeeded in changing what this case was about. By August,

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the jury wasn't asking whether OJ killed Nicole and Ron.

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They were asking whether they could trust any evidence presented

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by the LAPD, and the answer was clearly no. They

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couldn't trust Furman because he'd lied about his racism. They

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couldn't trust the evidence collection because it was sloppy. They

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couldn't trust the DNA testing because it might be contaminated.

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They couldn't trust anything that came from a police department

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with a history of misconduct. This was jury nullification disguised

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as reasonable doubt. The jury wasn't saying the evidence didn't

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prove OJ's guilt. They were saying they didn't care if

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it did. They were more interested in punishing police misconduct

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than convicting murderers. And here's what I think the prosecution

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never understood. This jury was never going to convict OJ

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Simpson no matter what evidence was presented. They'd been selected

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by the defense specifically because they distrusted the LAPD and

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sympathized with black celebrities who claimed to be persecuted by

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racist cops. The prosecution spent eight months trying to convince

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people who'd already made up their minds. They presented evidence

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to jurors who'd already decided that evidence didn't matter if

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it came from corrupt sources. Doctor Henry Lee's something Wrong

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testimony was the perfect example of how the defense strategy worked.

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Lee didn't prove anything was wrong with the evidence. He

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just said something seemed wrong, but that was enough for

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a jury that wanted to believe something was wrong. The

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Colombian drug cartel theory was even more ridiculous, but it

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served the same purpose, giving the jury an alternative to

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focus on instead of OJ's obvious guilt. It didn't matter

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if the alternative made sense. It only mattered if it

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gave them an excuse to ignore the evidence. By August Send,

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the defense had created a perfect storm of reasonable doubt.

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Racist cops who might plant evidence, sloppy evidence collection that

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might cause contamination, alternative killers who might have committed the murders,

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DNA testing that might be unreliable. None of these doubts

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were reasonable when examined individually, The evidence against OJ was overwhelming.

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Despite Foreman's racism. The DNA testing was reliable despite collection problems.

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The alternative theories were ridiculous despite sounding possible. But together

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these doubts created a fog thick enough to hide a

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double murderer, and that fog was exactly what the defense

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needed to send Oj home to freedom. The prosecution's case

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hadn't just collapsed. It had been systematically destroyed by a

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defense team that understood exactly what they were doing. Cochran

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knew he couldn't prove Oj was innocent, so he proved

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the system was corrupt. Scheck knew he couldn't disprove the

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DNA evidence, so he discredited the people who called it.

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July and August nineteen ninety five were the months we

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watched the greatest legal performance in American history. Not the

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greatest search for truth, the greatest manipulation of doubt, not

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the greatest pursuit of justice, the greatest exploitation of prejudice.

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The defense didn't win because they were right. They won

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because they were better at telling their story than the

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prosecution was at telling theirs. They won because they understood

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that this jury cared more about sending a message than

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delivering a verdict, and that message was clear. Police misconduct

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will not be tolerated, even if it means letting murderers

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go free. Racist cops will be punished, even if it

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means ignoring evidence they found. The LAPD will be held accountable,

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even if it means sacrificing justice for Nicole Brown Simpson

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and Ronald Goldman. July and August nineteen ninety five, the

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month's reasonable doubt became un un reasonable certainty, the month's

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evidence became irrelevant, and politics became everything. The months that

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guaranteed O J. Simpson would walk free while two families

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watched their loved ones killer escape through the fog of

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manufactured doubt. That's day seven of eight days of oj

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July and August nineteen ninety five, the months the prosecution

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collapsed completely and the defense prepared for victory Tomorrow Day

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eight September and October nineteen ninety five, the closing arguments

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that sealed Ojay's fate, Darden's desperate final plea for justice,

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Cochrane's masterful appeal to send a message to the LAPD,

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Clark's last attempt to refocus on the victims, and then

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October third, nineteen ninety five, the day, one hundred and

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fifty million Americans watched four hours of jury deliberation that

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ignored eight months of evidence, The verdict that divided America,

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the acquittal that sent a double murry or home to freedom,

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the moment justice died on live television. But before we

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get to that final tragedy, let me remind you what

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July and August really proved. They prove that Mark Furman

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was a racist liar who destroyed his own credibility and

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the prosecution's case. They also proved that racist liars can

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still find real evidence of actual murders. They prove that

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the LAPD was incompetent and corrupt. They also proved that

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incompetent and corrupt police can still solve cases correctly, even

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if they can't prove it convincingly. They proved that reasonable

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doubt doesn't have to be reasonable to be effective, that

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conspiracy theories don't have to be believable to be persuasive,

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that alternative theories don't have to make sense to create confusion.

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Most importantly, they proved that this case was never really

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about oj Simpson's guilt or innocence. It was about whether

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the jury would hold police accountable. For misconduct, even if

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it meant letting a murderer escape justice. The Furman tapes

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were devastating because they proved the prosecution's key witness was

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everything the defense said. He was a racist cop who

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would lie under oath to protect his reputation. But they

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didn't prove oj was innocent. They only proved that guilty

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people sometimes get caught by flawed investigators. Nicole Brown, Simpson

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and Ronald Goldman deserved better than Mark Furman's racism and

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the lapds incompetence. They deserved perfect police work by officers

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who couldn't be attacked for their personal failures. They deserved

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investigators whose credibility couldn't be destroyed by their own words. Instead,

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they got the LAPD in nineteen ninety four. Racist, sloppy,

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sometimes corrupt, often incompetent, but still the police department that

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correctly identified their killer, even if they couldn't convince a

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jury to care about that identification. July and August nineteen

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ninety five were the months we learned that being right

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isn't enough if you can't be trusted. Evidence doesn't matter

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if the people presenting it are flawed. That truth doesn't

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guarantee justice when the jury cares more about sending a

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message than delivering a verdict. Join me tomorrow for the

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final episode September and October nineteen ninety five. The closing arguments,

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the deliberation, and the verdict that proved celebrity justice means

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never having to face consequences for murder. I'm read, Carter.

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The Furman tapes proved Mark Furman was a racist liar.

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The evidence still proved O. J. Simpson was a murderer.

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Both things were true, but only one mattered to the jury.