The focus of this episode is three fold, Detective Fuhrman’s racism, the competence of the detectives in the case, and the stresses on Marcia Clark. First, let me respond to what was shown as Clark’s experiences as a woman prosecutor in a high profile case.
The producers of the series were offering that as one of the reasons the DA’s office failed to get a conviction. They even made up the dance scene and apparent serious relationship that they presumed grew up between Clark and Chris Darden. I saw none of that in the books about the case. But the writers of this series were going for drama and the touch of romance suited their purposes.
However, the stresses were very real. Tough as Clark was, she still changed her hair style and clothes in response to media criticism. And her divorce situation was used against her in the media.
The jury saw none of that, though of course they noticed changes in her hair and clothes. They were almost as much in prison as OJ was during the trial, with little contact with the rest of the world and no contact with newspapers, radio, or television at the time. I have yet to see anyone from the jury remark about Marcia Clark’s appearance or stress.
The series writers did an interesting juxtaposition on Clark and Detective Fuhrman. Near the episode’s beginning, Clark was stopped by security, despite her notoriety as the lead DA on the trial. She was made to go back through the metal detector with the rest of the folks trying to get a seat in the court room. Near the end of the episode, Fuhrman and two aides were ignored by security as they marched past the metal detector and into the court room. I do not recall that ever in any of the books but it sure was dramatic. I don’t think the writers liked Fuhrman.
Second, the writers did show some flaws in the approach of the detectives to the case. In Vannatter’s book about the trial, he said he connected OJ to the crime the moment he saw the drops of blood on the drive from the Bronco to OJ’s house. But at trial, he finally admitted OJ was the chief suspect from the beginning after having testified in court that at the beginning he was still reserving judgment on whom the killer might be. Lange, upon cross examination by Johnny Cochran, admitted that he took OJ’s shoes home overnight before turning them in as evidence, something he admitted he had never done in any other case.
The defense took a similar hit when Rosa Lopez, the maid of the home next door to Rockingham, did not appear to be free of Cochran’s direct influence in discussing when she saw the Bronco at the Rockingham gate. In my reading, I found that Lopez was the second person Fuhrman spoke with at Rockingham the morning after the murders. After Vannatter and Lange went to find OJ’s older daughter and then make the call to Chicago, Fuhrman listened to Kato Kaelin’s rendition of the three thumps against his room’s back wall. Fuhrman went next door and spoke at length with Lopez. Then he went through her back yard to where he could see the air conditioner on Kaelin’s back wall. She told him that she had heard men’s voices coming from OJ’s property. They were in a heated argument for a few minutes. She thought it was around two or three in the morning. None of that got into the series’ telling of the trial so far. I add it because her testimony, manipulated by Cochran or not, may have had an impact on the jury as they sought to figure out what happened at Rockingham that night.
Third, this episode brings a crucial point according to the writers of the series. The “N…” word is spoken in court and the defense gets Fuhrman to claim he never used that word, ever. The writers see the line of questioning by lawyer F. Lee Bailey, as a “dog whistle.” African Americans on the jury would see Fuhrman as a liar if he said he never used it or as a condemnation of him if he admitted using it. It was a tactic with no real substance, as the writers seem to presume. What they forgot is the very point that Cochran made in his argument with Darden during the pre-trial phase: African Americans have heard that word so many times they were mature enough to look past it to see if its user is honest about it or not.
Most of you will remember where that all went and we can look forward to it in a future episode. I’m guessing it will be in the last episode because it seems to be the linchpin to the myth of why the mostly African American jury exonerated OJ. – As you watch the remaining episodes, check out that jury. There are three Anglos and one Hispanic. May I suggest that at least the one white man was not likely to be affected by Fuhrman’s racism. “So what else is new?” he would likely tell you and say it was other things, evidence, that led him to decide “not guilty.”
Finally, you noticed that Clark brought out a poster with several pictures on it, including the bloody gloves. She had Fuhrman point to the picture of the glove as the one he found at Rockingham. For cinematic reasons, you will not see that poster again. But in the trial, that poster and all the others that Clark felt told her story best were set up in front of the jury to ponder for most of the eight months of the trial. The evidence for OJ’s innocence or guilt were right in front of their noses that whole time. Unfortunately, you probably won’t get to see the posters again in this series. So we will have to see what else the writers say that the jury heard that led them to free OJ. Good drama ends with a surprise, a plausible surprise. It will be interesting how the writers pull that off, given everyone knows how the trial ended.
