First viewed : June 1994
Skategate became yesterday's news from the moment Nicole Simpson, the white trophy wife of former American "football" star and ropey actor O J Simpson , and another man were found dead outside her home. Despite a history of spousal abuse, Simpson was not arrested on the spot and, five days later, took part in the slowest police chase in history, an event broadcast live to a worldwide TV audience. After Simpson was talked down from suicide, the most famous murder trial in history began. As the judge allowed TV cameras into the courtroom, the trial became a media bonanza making stars of everyone involved.
In 1994 I saw part of the preliminary hearings where Simpson's daughter from a previous marriage gave some sullen answers to a set of routine questions, a passage reported the next day under the heading "Daughter Blocks For O.J.". When I returned to Philadelphia the following year, it was still going on and didn't conclude until that October.
We all know what happened. Simpson's lawyer played the race card and got the majority black jury to acquit him. The following year, a civil trial with a lower burden of proof awarded massive damages to the victims' families and in 2007 a broke Simpson took part in an armed robbery which meant he finally went to jail. He came out on parole last year.
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