How OJ’s ‘Guilty’ And ‘Not Guilty’ Verdicts Explain American Justice

As Americans debate police reform, MSNBC's Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber reports on the key differences between two systems of justice in the U.S. and how the famous O.J Simpson case illustrates American courts, and implications for potential reforms of how Americans can take police to court. This is an excerpt from a longer Special Report. (This interview is from MSNBC’s “The Beat with Ari Melber, a news show covering politics, law and culture airing nightly at 6pm ET on MSNBC. ).

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30 comments

  1. The most important thing we can do in this country is to keep GYM Jordan and Matt Gaetz away from our children

  2. The “justice ” system has always been deeply flawed and predicated on discrimination and vengeance. –

    1. It’s also predicated on stereotypes and all kinds of other psychological BS within the heads of some of the judges. I’ll be very selective with who I call “your honor” since many of them have none!

  3. Cities and counties don’t like getting sued. Usually when an officer is sued, the city or county entity are included in that suit because they are the employer and they have liability insurance. So the cities and counties grant their employees Immunity.

    1. When people don’t perform their job with professionalism, they need to be held accountable, a doctor can’t just remove a person’s left kidney when they are suppose to remove the diseased right kidney because that could mean a patient’s demise.

  4. Odd that after OJ was acquitted, they never did find the “real” killer. 🤔🙄
    I imagine that’s the running joke at the BHPD….put the rookie on the OJ case.

    1. Detectives investigate murder cases—-not rookie cops.
      Thought at the time OJ was probably guilty, if not directly then indirectly; some people blamed the jury for finding him innocent, some blamed OJ’s defense lawyers, but most legal observers and many people like myself thought the prosecution botched the case.
      Police have too often zeroed in on one suspect, determined to find them guilty, ignoring other possible suspects, sometimes planting evidence or giving false testimony to get a guilty verdict. Too many times they have locked up innocent people, sometimes killing them with the death penalty, who are later found to have been innocent through DNA or other means. If that person charged and tried is acquitted, rarely see law enforcement expanding much time or energy investigating further to find another suspect, so we rarely see them charging anyone else for the crime. But sometimes they do find the “real” killer after an acquittal, or the “real” killer comes forward and confesses.
      Many murder cases each year are unresolved.

  5. “Justice” can start with locking child-trafficker Matt Gaetz up and throwing away the key, _then start looking at harassment charges against Marjo’roid green!_

    1. I think that this will continue downhill unless the 45th is convicted! They feel that they are inmunes to every ethic and reason.

  6. The prosecution failed to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. One of their key witnesses purjured himself, the crime scene was tainted, and the police “lost” OJ’s blood.

  7. The outcome verdict of first OJ trial for murder was a definitive moment to me for justice in the United States until now…ginormous disappointment and loss of faith.

    1. Casey Anthony after that… people who were so clearly guilty but walked—national spectacles.🤦‍♀️🕳

  8. American justice is absent from the SCOTUS down to judges for traffic tickets. America is dead with the demise of truth, democracy & justice.

  9. This is one time the supreme court made a very big mistake – when they made up this ruling out of thin air. New laws need to be made to hold police accountable.

  10. Oj did it, if the context was different at which Rodney Kings Blokes Police brutality were supposed to be guilty

  11. That stunt prosecutors pulled, having OJ try on the gloves, that was total stupidity! When leather gloves get wet, they shrink, and have to be stretched out by wearing them. Those gloves had been soaked in blood, and frozen and thawed, and dried. In addition, OJ had been on medication, and was wearing latex! One glove was found at the crime scene, the other at OJ’s residence. That was all that was needed! Then, there was the cry of: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

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