Retro Raunch Revisit

JUN 17, 1994: After failing to surrender to authorites to face 2 counts of 1st degree murder charges for the death of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, TV viewers across the USA are transfixed by a 2hr low-speed highway chase down Los Angeles Interstate 405, of the LAPD following a white Ford Bronco SUV carrying former pro-football star & actor O.J. Simpson. The pursuit became a 60-mile odyssey across Southern California freeways with people gathering on overpasses to wave & cheer, and some draping banners saying "The juice is loose!" Driver Al Cowlings mentioned that his friend O.J. all the while in the backseat held a gun to his head. After the chase ended with O.J.'s arrest in his own driveway back at his Brentwood home, what followed during his trial beginning in Jan 1995 was a national media sensation. From an assembled 'Dream Team' of defense lawyers to the public perception of the District Attorney's office which took a negative shift, the proceedings took many turns such as the legal tactics used by both counsels, allegations of police incompetence in the handling of evidence, and the notably bizarre sudden celebrity focus on the presiding Judge as well as some of the prosecuting attorneys' private lives, and further still involving witnesses on the stand who were either made instant reality stars for being the most famous bumming houseguest in the country or an LAPD detective who was blasted as a vicious bigot for a long past of deep prejudice on the job. What began as O.J. presented as an abusive husband with a history of domestic violence who killed his victims for having an affair became twisted over bungled presentations, weak cross-examinations, the shredding of DNA testimony and the overwhelming racial divide. The trial ended in Oct 1995 with O.J. acquitted and the verdict's announcement almost instantaneously causing an enormous split throughout America about the jury's decision; a lingering cultural impact that polarized opinions and heightened already heated debates on the concepts of criminal justice, ethnic tensions, equality & wealth. Although found not guilty, the Brown and Goldman families filed a civil suit which began in Oct 1996, and in Feb 1997 he was found liable for wrongful death and ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages which grew to over $100 million. O.J died in Apr 2024 having paid only $132,000 in grand total.