By chance we came upon another effort to go into the OJ trial. Esquire TV aired it this weekend and is repeating it this coming week (April 4-9) as a twelve part series. Two or three segments will be shown each morning between 7:00 and 10:00. The content has no commentary but shows only excerpts from the trial and some news conferences from that time.
Two things are clear: One, the things the jurists actually heard and saw are different from what Jeffery Toobin and every other writer about the trial has said. Two, what was presented, viewed from the present day, makes the "not guilty" verdict look understandable
First, as my wife and I have been watching, we were seeing things that we hadn't seen or heard before, little details that now mean something we either missed or that the book writers missed, whatever their viewpoint. There is so much richness of detail. All of the versions of the trial leave out so much that, while it helps to read as many books as possible, it appears that it will be necessary to go back to the actual trial transcripts to be sure what was said.
Second, the editors of this Esquire series have chosen some of the more interesting moments of the trial so it is also dramatic television. It certainly gives the viewers a chance to make up their own mind about two key witnesses, Kato Kaelin and Mark Fuhrman. Each takes up at least two episodes and more. The closing arguments refer again and again to each of them and their credibility.
In any event, it is another effort to participate in the current interest in the case. We found it to be well worth watching. I hope it encourages you to go back to the transcript.
(I'm a duffer, though, about the internet and am trying to sort out how to access it. I am currently working on simpson.malraven.org/.
If you can find a site that is more user friendly, let me know.)
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