A new O.J Simpson series from Netflix has revisited the “Trial of the Century.”
The four-part Netflix documentary series revisits the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman thirty years after “the trial of the century” started.
Floyd Russ, the director of American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson, was only 11 years old when the trial took place, and he doesn’t recall much of the televised proceedings.
However, when his mother relocated, Floyd Russ’ life occurred in Brentwood, where O.J. Simpson and Brown Simpson resided.
The trial has inspired numerous documentaries and staged reenactments.
Floyd has claimed that his presentation of “key evidence to the viewer so that they feel like the jury itself,” including information that was never offered at the trial, and the perspective that comes from being three decades removed from the case distinguish his production.
From the murders to the trial and the Ford Bronco police chase, which attracted roughly 95 million viewers, “American Manhunt” chronicles the events chronologically.
During a sit-down with Goldman’s sister, Kim, Russ broke down in tears. Kim revealed that she believed her boyfriend was proposing when he encouraged her to call her father.
Instead, Kim’s father told her of her brother’s passing.
Unlike previous series’, American Manhunt makes clear—through text on screen—the information that strengthens the case against O.J., which the jury never heard.
The documentary series claimed that a bloody fingerprint found on a gate at Brown Simpson’s home was never gathered as proof.
Prosecutor Marcia Clark felt that Jill Shively, an eyewitness who says she saw an irate O.J Simpson driving close to Brown Simpson’s home at the time of the killings, had lost credibility after receiving payment for an earlier interview, therefore she never testified.
Skip Junis informed filmmakers that on the night of the murders, he witnessed O.J Simpson throw away “something long that maybe was wrapped in a cloth.”
Police never located the murder weapon, and Skip Junis was not called to testify either.
Arguably, the biggest revelation from the series came during an interview with O.J.’s former sports agent, Mike Gilbert.
In the conclusion of the docuseries, Mike claimed that one night, he summoned the courage to ask O.J. Simpson what had happened and informed his client that he had always suspected him of being guilty.
Mike claimed that O.J.’s response was: “Nicole would still be alive if she hadn’t used a knife to open the door.”
Mike reiterated this claim in his 2008 book How I Helped O.J. Get Away with Murder: The Shocking Inside Story of Violence, Loyalty, Regret, and Remorse.
While admitting that he was unable to verify the conversation, Floyd Russ, the director, claimed Mike Gilbert’s “realisation many years later, looking back on it, it wasn’t that Nicole came to the door with the knife.”
Floyd continued: “It was O.J. still making an excuse for why he would have murdered her. In a way, it’s O.J. almost blaming Nicole for why it happened.”
OJ was accused of violently stabbing his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman to death outside her Los Angeles home on 12 June 1994.
Police quickly pointed the finger at OJ ,and he was ordered to surrender himself, but he famously fled in his white Ford Bronco in a televised police chase that captured the world.
In what was dubbed “the trial of the century”, prosecutors argued that OJ killed Nicole and Ron in a jealous fury.
Perhaps the most memorable moment from the trial was when Simpson struggled to try on a pair of blood-stained gloves found at the murder scene.
Delivering the trial’s most famous words, OJ’s defence lawyer Johnnie Cochran referred to the gloves in his closing arguments to jurors with a rhyme: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
While the prosecution presented extensive blood, hair and fibre tests linking him to the murders, the defence countered that racist white police framed him.
Despite the extensive evidence against him, the former NFL star was acquitted of their murders in October 1995.
However, he was later deemed liable for their deaths in 1997 in a civil case brought by Nicole and Ron’s families.
He was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages.
In 2008, OJ was jailed for his role in the armed robbery and kidnapping of two sports memorabilia dealers in Las Vegas the year prior.
He was released from prison in 2017 after serving nine years behind bars.
