'People vs OJ Simpson': Did New Yorker Piece On Racism Really Impact Case Greatly?
Jeffrey Toobin, who wrote the 1994 New Yorker article about racial issues potentially being involved in the O.J. Simpson case, recently spoke out about its importance.
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The latest episode of FX's American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson centered on the defense team citing racism as a prevailing factor in Simpson's case. Things escalated to a national level when Bob Shapiro (played by John Travolta in the show) went to Toobin (played by Chris Conner) to spread the news that police officer Mark Fuhrman may have planted the famous glove at the crime scene for racially-motivated reasons.
Toobin recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about his New Yorker piece and how much impact it truly had on the case.
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"Oh, absolutely," he said, when asked if the piece was a turning point in the case, "you have to remember that at that stage no one knew that race was going to be a factor at all. Obviously we all knew that this was the police department that had the Rodney King case, but we had no idea that the defense was going to use it, much less in such a specific way. And I think that's why the story got so much attention."
Yet despite his article ultimately helping the defense, Toobin has his own thoughts on how the trial ended up playing out.
"I tend to take a more tragic view of the outcome of the trial today. Yes, there were mistakes that the prosecution made, but I think the case was largely lost in jury selection," he said. "That the prosecution didn't understand how poisonous the relationship was between the LAPD and the African-American community; once Johnnie Cochran made this case a referendum on the LAPD, there wasn't much the prosecution could do. They made some mistakes as well - having O.J. try on the glove was obviously a mistake - but I don't think it changed the outcome."
American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX.
