OJ: Made in America - Part 3 (2016)

This segment covered more territory than I thought it would. It started with murders of Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman and went into a good portion of the trial.

There was a lot of material to cover and somethings didn't get quite as much of or the sort of focus that I thought they might. There is some discussion of the initial investigation. There are a number of police officers interviewed, many of whom also appeared in earlier episodes commenting on non-OJ related topics like the beating of Rodney King.

There are spotlights on Johnny Cochran, Marcia Clark, and Christopher Darden. Clark is the only one of the three interviewed for the documentary. Cochran passed away in 2005. Carl E. Douglas, a lawyer and member of the defense team has quite a bit to say about the case. There is also a spotlight on LAPD Officer Mark Fuhrman and the showdown of sorts that occurred between Cochran and Darden in court over the admissibility of Fuhrman's track record as a police officer.

There is some exploration of why the African-American community rallied behind OJ, who up to that point did as much as he could to distance himself from them. References are made back to past events such as the Watts riots, the beating of Rodney King and the trial and the riots that followed the trial, all of which were discussed in prior episodes.

One of the things that really sticks with me about this part of the story is the way two of his friends from childhood reacted differently to the murders. Al Cowlings stuck by OJ and was driving the white Bronco when OJ fled the police and headed home where he was eventually arrested after a long standoff. Ron Shipp reacted very differently, especially after he heard OJ tell different people different stories about how his hand was cut the night of the murders. The defense team asked Shipp to be a part of their team, but he declined.

The other thing that stuck me the most about this part of the story is the look on OJ's face in court. I'm not sure if it is accurate to say that he was enjoying watching his defense team work but he didn't seem down in the dumps in the footage they did show from court. I found myself drawn to watch him even when he wasn't the one speaking.

Once again, it was riveting to watch. I was out of the country for most of 1994 and don't have a coherent recollection of the series of events. Even after I returned I didn't pay much attention to the coverage in the news. Considering that this one ends in the midst of the trial I am eager to get back to this story and see how it is covered in the two remaining segments of the documentary.