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CNN Special Reports
The OJ Verdict: Shock of the Century. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired October 06, 2015 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:01] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: CNN Special Report, "THE OJ VERDICT: SHOCK OF THE CENTURY" starts now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The following is a CNN Special Report.
KYRA PHILIPS, CNN HOST: O.J. Simpson on trial for two grisly murders.
CHRIS DARDEN, LA COUNTRY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: He killed her because he couldn't have her.
PHILIPS: After nine months of riveting twists and turns.
BARRY SCHECK, ATTORNEY FOR O.J. SIMPSON: How about that Mr. Fung.
JOHNNY COCHRAN, ATTORNEY FOR O.J. SIMPSON: If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.
PHILIPS: The one moment...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We the jury find the defendant not guilty of the crime...
PHILIPS: That mattered most. Now, 20 years later, go behind the scenes.
You said you had your killer. Why did he walk free?
Inside the jury room. And outside the courtroom for reaction.
ALAN DERSHOWITZ, ATTORNEY FOR O.J. SIMPSON: People said, either he's as guilty and terrible as could be or he's an innocent victim or racism. There was no in the middle.
PHILIPS: The O.J. Verdict, Shock of the Century.
It's minutes after midnight June 13th, 1994, Los Angeles Police arrived to a crime scene at Bundy Drive in Upscale Brentwood. They find no witnesses, no murder weapons, just two murder victims.
TOM LANGE, FORMER LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT DETECTIVE: Slashed, stabbed, everything else. Nicole was nearly decapitated. It was a very bloody scene.
PHILIPS: Nicole is Nicole Brown Simpson. Lying dead beside her, 25- year-old Ron Goldman. The prime suspect? Nicole's ex-husband, football legend, O.J. Simpson. Simpson promises to surrender and then disappears.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Los Angeles Police Department right now is actively searching for Mr. Simpson.
PHILIPS: Gasps from the press room. Only a sign of what is yet to come.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Highway patrol?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I think I just saw O.J. Simpson on the freeway and he's heading north.
PHILIPS: The famous low-speed chase covered live for hours rivets the nation. And ends with Simpson's eventual surrender at his home on Rockingham Avenue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here's what we know right now, lieutenant...
PHILIPS: It was just the beginning.
JIM MORET, FORMER CNN ANCHOR: This was the perfect soap opera. The O.J. Simpson murder case was the first true reality show for the country. This was the first wall-to-wall televised trial.
PHILIPS: July 22nd, 1994, a month after the murders, the legal proceedings against O.J. Simpson begins when he enters this defiant plea.
O.J. SIMPSON: Absolutely, 100%, not guilty.
PHILIPS: And to help him prove that, Simpson assembles a legal dream team.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Each one of them was famous.
PHILIPS: Jeffrey Toobin covered the trial for "The New Yorker."
TOOBIN: There has never been, in American history, more prominent defense lawyers on a single trial than in the O.J. Simpson case.
PHILIPS: There's Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz.
TOOBIN: An ideal intermediary between the ivory tower and the gritty world of trial practice.
PHILIPS: Famed criminal attorney, F. Lee Bailey.
TOOBIN: The person you go to when you are really in a lot of trouble and can afford it.
PHILIPS: And, of course, Johnny Cochran, who would take the lead.
TOOBIN: Flamboyant, outgoing, approachable, fun, and extremely charismatic, while also having considerable mastery of the details of the case. PHILIP: And known for defending celebrities like child actor Todd
Bridges, football legend Jim Brown and superstar Michael Jackson. But would the all-star strategy work?
DERSHOWITZ: The O.J. dream team was not a dream team. It was a nightmare team. Most of the lawyers didn't get along with each other. There was a lot of competition for the limelight.
PHILIP: But despite all that competition, consensus does emerge. The key defense strategy? Racism.
[21:05:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not just any city where an allegation of racist cop is being made. This is the LAPD.
PHILIP: And Simpson's attorneys know they can strike a chord. With secrete knowledge of scathing recordings about to surface, they seek permission to ask LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman if he's ever used the "N" word.
COCHRAN: And I'll use the word because it's -- I'm quoting him, all the niggers put them together in a big group and burned them.
PHILIP: But prosecutor Chris Darden wants no part of it.
DARDEN: It's the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language. It will upset the black jurors. It will issue a test, it will give them a test and the test will be, who's side are you on? The side of the white prosecutors and the white policemen, or you're on the side of the black defendant and his very prominent and capable black lawyer?
PHILIP: Cochran immediately fires back.
COCHRAN: Not every African-American feels that way. It's demeaning to our jurors to say that African-Americans cannot hear these offensive words.
PHILIP: The battle lines are drawn and race will now determine this trial's outcome.
January 24th, 1995, the trial of Orenthal James Simpson gets underway.
TOOBIN: There was a forest of satellite trucks, satellite dishes. People working in trailers. All built so that this trial could go out to the world.
MORET: Walking into the courtroom everyday, it was like the red carpet on an arrivals line or at the Oscars. How are you feeling today, O.J.? Oh, Marcia, how you doing, you know. How are your kids? What are you wearing? It's ridiculous. It was crazy.
PHILIP: Outside the courthouse, it's a circus. Inside, a real life drama unfolding. With millions of people watching.
TOOBIN: The Simpson case combined everything that obsesses the American public. It had violence, sex, race, sports, and the only eyewitness was a dog.
PHILIP: And the prosecution had it all, opening with a story of love, lust, and loss of control.
DARDEN: He killed her because he couldn't have her.
MARCIA CLARK, PROSECUTION ATTORNEY: That trail of blood from Bundy through his own Ford Bronco and into his house in Rockingham is devastating proof of his guilt.
PHILIP: But Johnny Cochran opens with a very different story.
COCHRAN: The evidence will show that this -- the careless, slipshod negligent collection, handling, and processing of samples, by basically poorly trained personnel from LAPD, has contaminated, compromised and corrupted the DNA evidence in this case.
PHILIP: Coming up, behind the scenes.
DAVID ALDANA, FORMER O.J. SIMPSON JUROR: It's the first time I've ever really seen a Heisman trophy.
PHILIP: And in court with a juror.
How did Mark Furman play a part if your decision when it came down to the verdit?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:12:18] PHILIP: This is how we knew O.J. Simpson. Football icon. Celebrity pitchman.
SIMPSON: Nobody does it better than Hertz.
PHILIP: And movie star. But prosecutors say that dashing public persona hides a much darker truth, that Simpson is a violent man, who beat his wife. And it didn't take long before a police detective testifies about such an incident in 1989.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A woman came running out of the bushes to my left, crossed the driveway. She was a female Caucasian, blond hair. She was wearing a bra only as an upper garment, and she had on a dark, lightweight sweatpants and started yelling, "He's going to kill me, he's going to kill me."
PHILIP: Then, jurors hear it for themselves, another chilling 911 call from Simpson's wife in 1993.
NICOLE SIMPSON, O.J. SIMPSON'S EX-WIFE: My husband just broke into my house, and he's ranting and raving.
PHILIP: Less than a year before her murder.
N. SIMPSON: He broke the back door down to get in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay, wait a minute. What's your name? N. SIMPSON: Nicole Simpson.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay. Is he the sports caster or whatever?
N. SIMPSON: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is he doing, is he threatening you?
N. SIMPSON: He's going nuts.
I was like, wow, he can be pretty bad.
PHILIP: Now, 20 years later, juror number 4, David Aldana, remembers that moment vividly.
So that 911 tape made an impact?
DAVID ALDANA: Yeah, it did, because when you hear somebody pounding on the door like that, and hearing Nicole said I think you know his record by now.
Nicole's sister, Denise tells prosecutors she has seen Simpson beat Nicole, in person.
DENISE BROWN, NICOLE SIMPSON'S SISTER: He's grabbed Nicole, told her to get out of her house. Wanted us all out of his house. Picked her up, threw her against the wall. Picked her up and threw her out of the house.
PHILIP: However, defense attorney Robert Shapiro counters with a completely different image of O.J. Simpson. Here he is with the Brown family just hours before Nicole's murder.
COCHRAN: We played for the jury the June 12th, videotape, where you saw O.J. Simpson at 6:00, 6:30 in the evening of June 12th. And you saw him, he was kissing the Brown family. He was shaking hands with Lee Brown. He picked his son up. He didn't look like a man who is down and bitter and raging.
[21:15:02] PHILIP: So was Simpson a warm family man or a violent attacker who cornered and killed two innocent people? The jurors and Simpson take a field trip to his house, and the crime scene.
CLARK: I think that this really assisted the jury in being able to understand the evidence better, the testimony better and how the victims were essentially cornered.
PHILIP: What do you remember the most about visiting O.J.'s house, actually going to the crime scene?
ALDANA: I was like, oh, wow, that's the first time I've ever really seen a Heisman trophy. We couldn't ask questions. Nothing was told to us. Don't talk amongst yourselves and don't touch anything.
PHILIP: And it's this home visit that leads to the very heart of the prosecution's case, the physical evidence against O.J. Simpson. CLARK: Can you please describe the appearance of the gloves sir?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It appeared a dark leather glove, it appeared to be somewhat moist or sticky. I didn't touch it, but it appeared that parts were sticking to other parts of the glove.
PHILIP: We don't know it just yet, but detective Mark Fuhrman was about to take on a starring role in this unfolding drama.
COCHRAN: And now Mark Fuhrman came up to you and told you he made some discoveries, is that correct?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
COCHRAN: And so that we're clear, it was Mark Fuhrman who allegedly found this glove out there near Kato Kaelin's room, is that correct? Outside?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
COCHRAN: And it was Mark Fuhrman who allegedly found the spot on the outside of the Bronco, is that correct?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's correct.
PHILIP: And then came this unforgettable witness.
KATO KAELIN, AMERICAN RADIO AND TELEVISION PERSONALITY: I heard a thumping noise.
CLARK: How many thumps did you hear?
KAELIN: Three.
PHILIP: Simpson's shaggy house guest, Kato Kaelin.
Did you ever expect what was going to happen when you got up there and took the stand?
KAELIN: No, not at all. I had -- that was my first time in a courtroom in my entire life. And I think I was 35 at the time.
PHILIP: Kaelin's four days on the stand thrust him into the national spotlight.
KAELIN: I even come up with a thing saying never has a man done so little to be recognized by so many.
JAY LENO, COMEDIAN: Today he testified, he said that O.J.'s maid never really liked him. Sure. She had to work for her room and board.
PHILIP: Why was Kato Kaelin so memorable?
ALDANA: He's an idiot.
PHILIP: Really? He's so full of -- oh, sorry. As a matter of fact, when we were doing our deliberations, he was like a no-brainer. The guy's an idiot and nothing he says, we can't go with or against it. He's null and void.
KAELIN: I was called so many things. I was called a celebrity, I was called a pariah, I was called a traitor, I was called a dummy, I was called a freeloader.
PHILIP: So it seems like you feel you were pretty much misunderstood for a really long time?
KAELIN: 100% misunderstood. This was something I took so serious that I was making sure that I answered everything correctly. So I was in deep thought going, okay, answer this right, Kato and that was it. If you pause, people go, he's making something -- he's lying, he's doing this. Furthest thing from the truth. It's for me to become even more honest. For me to make sure I answer this thing 100% honest.
PHILIP: Which brings us to the night of the murder. Kaelin and Simpson make a McDonald's run.
CLARK: About what time was it when you got home?
KAELIN: It was about 9:40.
PHILIP: Kaelin goes to his bedroom and prosecutors say Simpson disappears. A crucial hour passes before Kaelin hears a loud noise outside.
CLARK: And where did that noise seem to be coming from?
KAELIN: From the back of the wall.
PHILIP: That, prosecutors say, is Simpson hitting an exterior wall and dropping a bloody glove. At 10:55, a limo driver waiting to take Simpson to the airport spots a black person, six feet tall, 200 pounds.
ALLAN PARK, LIMOUSINE DRIVER: I saw a figure come into the entrance way of the house.
PHILIP: Allan Park says he'd been buzzing the intercom since 10:40 and received no response. Proving, prosecutors say, Simpson had not been home.
PARK: This time, there was an answer, which was Mr. Simpson. He told me that he overslept and he just got out of the shower and he'd be down in a minute.
PHILIP: Both Park and Kaelin noticed a dark duffel bag near the rear of Simpson's Bentley.
PARK: He came out and Kato offered to get the bag. And he said, "No, no, that's okay. I'll get it. I'll get it."
PHILIP: So what was in the bag? And what did Simpson do with it? Detective Tom Lang has a theory. [21:20:03] LANGE: So You want to know what happened to the knife and
the clothes, and we know that from a witness out at the airport. I believe. Saw him getting out of the limousine when he left that American Airlines the night of the murders and had his arm buried in a trash container.
PHILIP: Next, with so much evidence, what went wrong?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's people's 77.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chris Darden blew it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILIP: No weapons, no witnesses but a wealth of forensic evidence. The team prosecuting O.J. Simpson for murder believes they can prove he butchered Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This appeared to be an overkill or a rage killing.
PHILIP: There was blood everywhere. At the Bundy crime scene, at Simpson's Rockingham estate, and scattered along the route in between. Blood, prosecutors say, is Simpson's.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does that mean that these characteristics that Mr. Simpson has that are also found in the Bundy walk bloodstain are only found in approximately 1 out of 170 million Caucasians or African Americans?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, approximately.
[21:25:00] PHILIP: And that's not all. Blood consistent with both victims was found in Simpson's Bronco, on that glove discovered behind his house, and on these socks in his bedroom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You described that material, that bloodstaining as matching Nicole Brown, is that right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's correct.
PHILIP: Then there were the bloody shoeprints in the Bronco and on Nicole's dress. FBI expert William Bodziak says the prints came from Bruno Magli designer shoes, in Simpson's size, 12.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you include him as a candidate who could have worn the shoes that created the impressions in this case?
WILLIAM BODZIAK, FBI EXPERT: Yes, I could include him as a candidate for having possibly worn the shoes.
PHILIP: As the trial wears on, attention turns from socks and shoes, to gloves. One found at the murder scene. The other? Behind Simpson's house. Proof prosecutors believe that Simpson is a cold blooded killer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Handing Mr. Simpson the glove. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's People's 77.
PHILIP: What were you thinking when you heard prosecutor Christopher Darden request that Simpson try on those gloves?
LANGE: I was sitting in the courtroom, I couldn't find a seat, so I was kind of in the back. And when he did that, F. Lee bailey came up to me and he grabbed me and whispered into my ear, he was kind of laughing, "Why the hell did you let him do that?" I said, "I didn't know he was going to do anything." No, Chris is a good man, he's a good prosecutor, he's a bright man. He should have known better.
TOOBIN: I remember watching the gloves in the courtroom and thinking to myself, he's not going to ask O.J. to put on the glove. That's too much of a risk. You never ask a question in a courtroom, much less do a demonstration where you don't know what the outcome is. And it was like a slow-motion disaster movie for the prosecution. As O.J. milked the moment for all it was worth and pretended to try on those gloves.
PHILIP: Christopher Darden would later admit that move was a mistake.
LARRY KING, FORMER CNN ANCHOR: When it happened in court, did you know you were in trouble?
DARDEN: I knew that it hadn't gone as well as I had hoped it should have gone.
KING: Did you regard it as like earth shattering to the case?
DARDEN: No, not necessarily. Not particularly. It wasn't until I went upstairs and left the courtroom that I realized that people thought that it was a monumental failure, a monumental mistake.
PHILIP: Was it Chris Darden that blew this case?
DERSHOWITZ: Chris Darden blew this case. Marcia Clark contributed pretty heavily of blowing the case too, but Chris Darden blew it. When O.J. was able to walk in front of the jury and say, it's too small, he didn't have to testify. Because he had already testified in front of the jury and he wasn't cross-examined. So for us, it was a win-win.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He appears to have pulled the gloves on, counsel.
PHILIP: But to juror David Aldana, it didn't seem like a big deal.
O.J. Simpson was right in front of you when he put on that glove.
ALDANA: He was about maybe two feet away from me.
PHILIP: What do you remember from that moment?
ALDANA: You know, a lot of people make a big deal about it, but I was a truck driver. I wear gloves all the time. I know that when my gloves get wet, they shrink up.
PHILIP: After 92 exhausting days of testimony, 58 witnesses and 488 exhibits...
CLARK: We ask the court to receive all the people's exhibits and the people rest.
PHILIP: Next...
COCHRAN: The LAPD'S laboratory is a cesspool of contamination.
PHILIP: The defense unleashes a blistering attack.
SCHECK: How about that, Mr. Fung?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:33:07] COCHRAN: We think the evidence will show that he did not, could not and would not committed these particular crimes.
PHILIP: Johnny Cochran on the attack and on the offenses.
COCHRAN: The LAPD'S laboratory is a cesspool of contamination.
PHILIP: Citing police incompetence.
COCHRAN: Some had gloves, some didn't have gloves. Picking up the evidence.
PHILIP: Even suggesting a conspiracy to frame O.J. Simpson.
COCHRAN: The fact that blood mysteriously appears on vital pieces of evidence is devastating evidence of something far more sinister.
PHILIP: Then came a turn no one expected.
SCHECK: How about that Mr. Fung?
PHILIP: Defense lawyer Barry Scheck blasts LAPD criminologist, Dennis Fung.
SCHECK: Did you touch that envelope with your bare hands?
PHILIP: Confronting him about not wearing gloves while handling evidence. And picking apart inconsistencies in his testimony.
SCHECK: So you did begin evidence collection before the coroners left?
FUNG: Yes.
SCHECK: So what you said before wasn't true?
FUNG: It was the best of my recollection at the time.
PHILIP: What do you remember the most about Fung just getting torn apart by Scheck?
ALDANA: Oh, man. SCHECK: Does that refresh your recollection? Is that a concern of
yours? Are you sure of that?
ALDANA: Barry Scheck is one heck of an attorney. He just ripped him apart.
PHILIP: You truly believe that evidence was planted?
ALDANA: Yes. From this day until the day I die, I think it was planted.
PHILIP: And who does the defense accuse of planting evidence? Mark Fuhrman. The same detective prosecutors say found the glove outside Simpson's home.
[21:35:04] F. LEE BAILEY, ATTORNEY OF O.J. SIMPSON: Did you find a glove in the Bronco, Detective Fuhrman?
MARK FUHRMAN, FORMER LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT DETECTIVE: No.
BAILEY: You did not?
FUHRMAN: No.
PHILIP: Did you ever, for a moment, believe that the police wanted to frame O.J. Simpson?
ALDANA: Frame him? I think that was in Fuhrman's mind.
BAILEY: And you say on your oath that you have not addressed any black person as a nigger or spoken about black people as niggers in the past 10 years, Detective Fuhrman?
FUHRMAN: That's what I'm saying, sir.
BAILEY: So that anyone who comes to this court and quotes you as using that word in dealing with African-Americans would be a liar, would they not, detective?
FUHRMAN: Yes, they would.
BAILEY: All of them, correct?
FUHRMAN: All of them.
BAILEY: I was focused on Mark Fuhrman, his every twitch, his every eye movement and so forth. I had no notes. I only wanted one thing from him. Denial.
FUHRMAN: No. Never. No.
BAILEY: Once he said never in 10 years have I ever used the "N" word, I knew we had him.
LANGE: When he was asked that question by F. Lee bailey about using the "N" word, everybody in the world knew that he was being set up but him.
BAILEY: What I didn't know was we also had him on tape.
PHILIP: Four months after Bailey versus Fuhrman, the defense gets a tip from an unlikely source. Screenwriter, Laura Hart McKinny. She interviewed Mark Fuhrman for a script that she was writing, a very candid conversation all on tape.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's just a real racist scum.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now what we're going to look at is Fuhrman and what a scumbag he is.
PHILIP: Fuhrman says the "N" word dozens of times, but Judge Ito decides the jury will only hear two. The excerpts are brief, yet powerful and disturbing.
FUHRMAN: They don't do anything. They don't go out there and initiate a contact with some six-foot, five-inch n***r who's been in prison for seven years pumping weights.
PHILIP: After the excerpt ended, the Fuhrman tapes, you broke down and cried at that moment. Why?
KIM GOLDMAN, RON GOLDMAN'S SISTER: Because I was worried of the ramifications because I watched them with this look of horror and like disgust, you know, and watched them turn. I was like, that's it.
PHILIP: That's it. Fuhrman had lied on the stand and used a racial slur. The defense now feels confident they have a racist who planted evidence, a charge Fuhrman denies today and refused to address at the time.
BAILEY: Detective Fuhrman, did you plant or manufacture any evidence in this case?
FUHRMAN: I assert my fifth amendment privilege.
COCHRAN: He refused to answer that question on the grounds it might tend to incriminate him. What more does anyone need?
PHILIP: Fuhrman is disgraced and dismissed from the case.
SCHECK: There's no doubt, Fuhrman is a liar.
PHILIP: Coming up...
COCHRAN: If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.
PHILIP: The unforgettable closing arguments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:42:20] PHILIP: Late September 1995, for nine long months, the trial of the century has been a national obsession.
MULTIPLE SPEAKERS: Stop domestic violence! Break the code of silence!
PHILIP: But a casualty of the constant hype is the freedom of 14 men and women the jury has been sequestered hundreds of days.
ALDANA: We were told it was going to be about three months and then when the third month came and then it was four and then five and it kept going, it just went on and on and on.
PHILIP: Back in court, O.J. Simpson cites the juror's fatigue as one reason he's not going to testify.
SIMPSON: I'm mindful of the mood and stamina of this jury. I have confidence, a lot more it seems than Ms. Clark has, of their integrity. And that they will find, as the record stands now, that I did not, could not and would not have committed this crime.
PHILIP: Four days later, the end is finally in sight.
JUDGE ITO: You have heard all of the evidence.
PHILIP: No more witnesses, no more delays. Just closing arguments. First up, lead prosecutor, Marcia Clark.
CLARK: Let me come back to Mark Fuhrman for a minute, just so it's clear. Did he lie when he testified here in this courtroom saying that he did not use racial epithets in the last 10 years? Yes. Is he a racist? Yes? But the fact that Mark Fuhrman is a racist and lied about it on the witness stand does not mean that we haven't proven the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
SCHECK: How in this country...
PHILIP: Then comes defense attorney Barry Scheck.
SCHECK: There's no doubt Fuhrman's a liar and a genocidal racist. There's no doubt about that. But there's merely no doubt either that they played with the (inaudible). And if that can happen, that's a reasonable doubt for this case, period. End of sentence, end of case.
PHILIP: Finishing for the defense, Johnny Cochran with probably the most memorable quote of the trial.
COCHRAN: If it doesn't quit, you must acquit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have not used that word...
PHILIP: After nine months of testimony, hundreds of exhibits, more than 260 days isolated in a hotel, jurors are finally sent to determine O.J. Simpson's fate.
[21:45:04] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks for joining us on a day that many of you probably thought would never arrive.
PHILIP: And everybody had an opinion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's going to be a conviction. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would say probably a hung jury.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe absolutely there's sufficient evidence to acquit.
PHILIP: Why were you so confident he was going to be found guilty?
FRED GOLDMAN, RON GOLDMAN'S FATHER: I just couldn't possibly grasp the notion that with all of the overwhelming amount of evidence against him, that they could possibly find him anything other than guilty.
PHILIP: By the time, jury deliberations begin, the tension surrounding the trial is transparent. And a clear racial division emerges.
MORET: This idea of race was something that the defense wanted out there. They wanted that in the dialogue because it benefited them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two-thirds of Americans think O.J. is guilty. 77% of whites think he's guilty. 72% of blacks think he's innocent.
MORET: Based upon the way this case was going along racial lines by the end of the case, that if you had a videotape confession and even a videotape of the murder, you'd have people say, I don't believe it. That tape was doctored. That's how bad it got.
PHILIP: Despite rampant speculation outside the courtroom, there are only 12 opinions that really matter.
ALDANA: We walked into that room, well let's see, what do you want to do first? Well, let's just see where everybody stands. We went around the room, you know, guilty, not guilty.
PHILIP: It's two votes guilty, ten not guilty.
Now, you guys had been sequestered for nine months. You were tired. You hadn't seen your families, your kids, your friends. You wanted to get out of there. Were the majority of you working hard to get those two to come on board?
ALDANA: Actually, no. It wasn't arguing or yelling or anything like that. We just came to the -- took another vote and the other two came on board and they said "not guilty" and it wasn't because they thought that he was innocent. It was because the prosecution just didn't prove it.
PHILIP: Aldana still believes the police framed O.J.
How is it that with all this evidence against O.J. that he's set free?
ALDANA: Some of that stuff was planted. And when some of it was planted, what was and what wasn't?
PHILIP: How did Mark Fuhrman play a part in your decision when it came down to the verdict? ALDANA: Quite a bit. Because everything that he had anything to do
with it pretty much got thrown out. I knew he was dirty. After a while, you get a sense of people.
PHILIP: Do you truly believe that the police, the detectives, the criminologists were as incompetent as the defense had made them out to be?
ALDANA: Yeah. I think so.
PHILIP: Coming up...
ITO: Mr. Simpson, would you please stand and face the jury.
PHILIP: ... the dramatic verdict revealed. And a country divided.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:52:25] PHILIP: After a marathon trial, millions of people hold their breath waiting for the verdict to come.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How long do you think they're going to debate?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would be very surprised if they came back in less than two weeks.
COCHRAN: I think at least ten days.
MORET: Just never know. People always say, what do you think i's going to happen? Nobody knows.
Another development now in the O. J. Simpson trial. The jurors are being brought back into the courtroom.
PHILIP: But no one expected this.
ITO: After eight months of trial, it took the 12 jurors just four hours to reach a unanimous conclusion.
KING: We couldn't believe it, that it was so fast.
LANGE: It took longer to read the jury instructions than their verdict.
PHILIP: Simpson's fate decided but not revealed.
ITO: We are missing, as you can tell, several of the attorneys and I've indicated to them that I will accept the verdicts from you tomorrow morning at 10:00.
PHILIP: Judge Ito decides to hold the verdict until the next morning. The world would have to wait one more day.
MARC WATTS: Stunned and shocked may be underestimates as far as reactions go.
PHILIP: October 3rd, 1995. The sun rises and everyone everywhere is waiting. And watching.
KING: We were at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. We're standing in the suite. The television was on. Looked out. No one was in the street in Beverly Hills. No one was on Rodeo Drive. No one.
ALDANA: I heard that there was no crime for like two hours because everybody was too busy watching, waiting for the verdict.
PHILIP: People around the world stop what they're doing. The final moment in the trial of the century will be broadcast live.
ITO: All right, Mr. Simpson, would you please stand and face the jury?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the matter of the people of the state of California versus Orenthal James Simpson case BA-097211. We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant Orenthal James Simpson not guilty of the crime of murder in violation...
K. GOLDMAN: They read it and we heard that and then I just fell apart.
PHILIP: Fred and Kim Goldman are devastated.
F. GOLDMAN: It was as if your insides got yanked out of you. Everything that we knew to be certain that he had killed Ron and Nicole, suddenly as if, wait a minute, how is that possible?
[21:55:05] K. GOLDMAN: And then our side was in shock and then you hear the cheers...
F. GOLDMAN: The other side of the room.
K. GOLDMAN: ... and the jubilee going on on the other side.
LANGE: That division became what was seen across the TVs for several days. It was blacks cheering and whites crying.
PHILIP: Was that verdict about murder? Or was it about race?
LANGE: The verdict was undeniably about race.
MORET: The people saw what they wanted to see. And it's interesting how it was divided in this case right along racial lines.
DERSHOWITZ: I'll never forget when it was over, a woman came over to me and said the verdict was like being punched in the stomach. And I said, "You don't know any of the people, why was it like being punched in the stomach?" She said, "It was as if this was my brother and sister." Everybody was involved and everybody took sides.
PHILIP: Everyone had an opinion, and now? How do you feel 20 years later? Did he do it?
KAELIN: My opinion still is I think he is guilty. That hasn't changed. ALDANA: I found him innocent and I believe he's innocent.
PHILIP: With all your heart?
ALDANA: All my heart.
PHILIP: What's the one thing you can't get out of your mind 20 years later? From that trial?
F. GOLDMAN: That's easy for me.
PHILIP: What's that?
F. GOLDMAN: Son of a bitch got away with it. Simple as that.
PHILIP: As for Simpson, he returns to his home in Brentwood. But the Goldman and Brown families don't give up. They sue Simpson for wrongful death in civil court. Cameras are not allowed this time, but O.J. Simpson's deposition tapes are later revealed to the world. ABC's "20/20" played excerpts from the tapes. Goldman family attorney Daniel Petrocelli questions O.J. Simpson. Watch as he explains the bruising on Nicole's face.
DANIEL PETROCELLI, GOLDMAN FAMILY ATTORNEY: You see those bruises on her face?
O. SIMPSON: No.
PETROCELLI: You don't see anything?
O. SIMPSON: No. I mean, I see this eye thing.
PETROCELLI: You don't think this picture reflects any bruising or injuries or marks on Nicole's face?
O. SIMPSON: No, I don't.
PETROCELLI: What do you think this reflects?
O. SIMPSON: I think it reflects doing a movie that we're doing makeup.
PHILIP: And what about the shoes that left bloody footprints at the crime scene?
O. SIMPSON: I know if Bruno Magli makes shoes that look like the shoes they had in court that's involved in this case, I would have never worn those ugly ass shoes.
PHILIP: Simpson again denies wearing the Bruno Magli shoes, but Petrocelli does something the prosecutors in the criminal trial never could. He proves O.J. Simpson owned the very same pair of shoes.
PETROCELLI: And that is a picture of you looking at exhibit 1, correct?
O. SIMPSON: Of me, yes.
PETROCELLI: Looking at the close-up of the shoes, you believe that those were shoes you owned at that time?
O. SIMPSON: No.
PHILIP: The victims' families win the civil case and are awarded millions of dollars. But O.J. Simpson still leaves court a free man. Until 2007.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Simpson back in jail accused of rounding up a middle-aged posse and sticking someone up in a Vegas hotel room at a low -rent casino.
PHILIP: O.J. Simpson was on trial again for armed robbery and kidnapping in Nevada. But this time, a different verdict.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The state of Nevada plaintiff versus Orenthal James Simpson defendant, we the jury in the above entitled case find the defendant Orenthal James Simpson guilty.
PHILIP: Exactly 13 years to the day after he was acquitted in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, O.J. Simpson is found guilty on all charges. He's sentenced to 33 years in prison. At his age, it's possible he'll spend the rest of his life behind bars. But in the eyes of LAPD detective Tom Lange, it's for the wrong crime.
PHILIP: Does O.J. Simpson deserve to rot in jail?
LANGE: Not for what he's there for now, that's almost laughable. But, yeah, he deserves to be in jail for murder. For slaughtering two people. Not giving a damn one way or the other.
