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COURT TV SPECIAL EDITION: THE O. J. SIMPSON TRIAL
{PART 1 OF 4}: OPENING STATEMENTS (TV)

Summary

Part one of four. This four-part special recaps the double-murder trial of former football great O. J. Simpson. Court TV anchor Gregg Jarrett begins this installment, "Opening Statements," with a brief overview of the chronology of events leading up to the trial itself. Over footage taken at the crime scene, Jarrett explains that Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, was murdered alongside her friend Ronald Goldman in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles on June 12, 1994. Jarrett then introduces the major players in the case: the judge, Lance Ito; prosecutors Marcia Clark, William Hodgman, and Christopher Darden; and defense attorneys Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, F. Lee Bailey, Carl Douglas, and Gerald Ullman. The prosecution's opening statements kick off the trial; Darden begins by emphasizing Simpson's "two distinct, separate personas" -- the popular sports hero and actor in public and the wife-beating sociopath behind closed doors. Darden suggests jealousy as Simpson's motive for murder, then plays an audiotape of a domestic-abuse call Nicole Brown Simpson made to 911 after being beaten by her ex-husband. Clark takes over the opening statements and begins to introduce what she repeatedly refers to as the "mountain of evidence" suggesting Simpson was the killer; blood and fibers on Simpson's clothes and car seem to link him to the crime scene. The defense opens its case by stating that "sloppy policework compromised and tainted the evidence." The case hits its first major snag when Ito orders Court TV to stop filming the proceedings after a courtroom camera accidentally films one of the alternate jurors, who are supposed to remain completely anonymous. At the end of the episode, Ito has reconsidered his position and agrees to allow cameras in the courtroom as long as they present only a static shot of the proceedings. Continues with T:47249.

Cataloging of this program was made possible by The New York Community Trust - Haas Foundation Fund.

Details

  • NETWORK: Court TV
  • DATE: November 30, 1994
  • RUNNING TIME: 0:51:47
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: T:47247
  • GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Trials (Murder)
  • SERIES RUN: Court TV - TV series, 1995
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Steve Johnson … Executive Producer
  • Carolyn Kresky … Senior Producer
  • Suzanne Worden … Producer, Writer
  • Mark A. Harris … Producer
  • Anne Dorfman … Associate Producer
  • Gregg Jarrett … Host
  • F. Lee Bailey
  • Marcia Clark
  • Johnnie Cochran
  • Christopher Darden
  • Carl Douglas
  • Ronald Goldman
  • William Hodgman
  • Lance Ito
  • Robert Shapiro
  • Nicole Brown Simpson
  • Simpson, O. J. (Orenthal James Simpson)
  • Gerald Ullman