American Tragedy by Lawrence Schiller

I just finished American Tragedy by Lawrence Schiller, a 900+ page inside look at the OJ Simpson trials (criminal and civil). Great read, great information. As a law student it was enthralling. My verdict (no pun intended): whether factually guilty or not, legally there was plenty of reasonable doubt to find OJ not guilty. The Rockingham search was illegal, the crime scene botched, the DNA samples mishandled, the Bronco (supposedly kept locked) was in fact opened by officers, the prosecutions timeline was too narrow, and of course, most of the pivotal evidence was found by a racist cop who bragged about framing blacks. Seating a nearly all black jury might have sealed the deal, but this white, Catholic Republican would have voted for acquittal.

I should point out that just as everything good in this world inspires some bad, the bad inspires the good. In the wake of the Simpson trial debacle LAPD procedures, training, and diversity all improved. Even the FBI refined their DNA procedures because of the trial. One commentator on the FBI - and I forget the exact quote - said the real title of the new FBI rules might as well have been "How not to screw up another Simpson case."

In an eerie parallel to the Simpson alibi, just about an hour after I finished the book I came home and tried to cut a pan of brownies. The knife slipped and drove into the palm of my hand. Not a bad cut, but a deep one, it left a nifty blood trail across my floor. Lisa immediately joked that it would screw any alibi for the next few hours and I should lay low. But it got me thinking - what if Simpson was telling the truth (he wasn't) and the cut on his hand was just an ill-timed coincidence? The world turns on the tiniest of details.