Hello 1962,
Good luck on your paper. I have found a variety of articles that may
be helpful to you in your search. Most of these articles say it
better than I do. However, it seems to me that there were several
points to mentioned. I was around during the trials. But, I paid
little attention to it, as I believe that the American system of
justice, while flawed, is the pretty good. I thought it was up to the
judge & jury to decide the issue. However, most American’s seemed to
think that it was a matter for the mass media.
O.J. Simpson was a rich, famous and well liked sports figure. He was
“a credit to his race”, as it is so patronizingly said. That means
even though he came from a minority and repressed group, he
demonstrated that anyone in America can make it to the top through
their own hard work. While watching his murder trial on TV, the poles
showed that America was split primarily on racial grounds as to
whether they thought he was guilty or not. This suggests that his
race became more important than the evidence for making a decision.
It is interesting to me the comparison that you are proposing.
Because it struck me that during this entire trial, the media kept
presenting it as a racial issue. But, it seemed to me that it was
actually a gender issue. A woman had been murdered. There was
evidence that O.J. had previously beaten her in jealous rages. Yet,
the media refused to address the gender issues involved. Just as
Desdemona was an innocent victim of the evil machinations in Othello,
Nicole Simpson never really seemed to be the real issue of the trial.
Instead, it became a black vs. white issue that was more important
than justice and more important than the lives of this woman and man.
I think the following on line articles can help you. Also, there are
more references listed below those that may be of help.
ONLINE articles:
Emotional Coherence in Legal Inference
http://cogsci.uwaterloo.ca/Articles/Pages/oj.html
Support for O.J. Simpson: Murderer
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Lane/7250/thoughts/ojsimpson.html
Social Position and Political views.
http://www.pinkmonkey.com/studyguides/subjects/am_gov/chap7/a0707301.asp
Documentary filmmakers interview
http://www.salon.com/nov96/paradise961118.html
Did the Media go too Far?
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/5019/media.html
More references:
Here is a list of popular articles that may help you with your paper.
http://www.physics.unlv.edu/~farley/humor/K/ojpopul.htm
Patricia J. Williams, "American Kabuki," Birth of a Nation'hood: Gaze,
Script, and Spectacle in the O. J. Simpson Case, ed. Toni Morrison and
Claudia Brodsky Lacour (New York: Pantheon, 1997): 273-92.
Reasonable Doubts: The O.J. Simpson Case and the Criminal Justice
System. Alan M. Dershowitz
Simon and Schuster, 238 pp
The Search for Justice: A Defense Attorney's Brief on the O.J. Simpson
Case. Rert L. Shapiro. Warner Books, 363 pp.
I Want to Tell You. by O.J. Simpson. Little, Brown, 208 pp.
Keywords Used:
american values "oj simpson"
://www.google.com/search?q=american+values+%22oj+simpson%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=20&sa=N
I hope this helps.
PbA
Google Answers Researcher |
