This court case has been called "the trial of the century" and has been put on the same level as other famous cases like the Lindbergh baby case. The People vs. OJ Simpson received excessive media coverage. The LA Times covered the case on the front page for over 300 straight days. The Big Three Television networks gave more air time to the case than to the Bosnian War and the Oklahoma City bombings combined. The media coverage and the case itself were controversial; the issue of whether or not to allow any video cameras into the courtroom was among the first issues Judge Ito had to decide. Ultimately he ruled that live camera coverage was warranted. This decision has been criticized because some related to the case have stated that they were influenced to some degree by the media presence, and the publicity that came with it. The trial was covered in 2,237 news segments from 1994 through 1997
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The case for many American was less about the murders of two people and more about the underlying race issues in the country. OJ's trial happened three years after the death of Rodney King. A black man who had been a victim of police brutality in LA but all police officers involved were acquitted. The result of the King case resulted in the of the most dangerous race riots in history. Typical African Americans did not identify with Simpson because of his celebrity status and his wealth but because the evidence against him seemed as if it could have been tainted many sided with him on the grounds that the black community had been wronged times before by the LAPD. Whether people thought OJ was guilty or not he was going to be set free. With 9 or 12 jurors being black and the facts that many of the community saw the ruling of Simpson's case as reparations for the Rodney King decision. The African American community of LA felt that it was nice to see a rich black man doing what rich white men had been doing for a long time and that was beating the system by having a really good lawyer. At the time people believed that you got the kind of justice that you could afford.
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Because was connected to the Rodney King decision and all other race related instances it took over American lives for the duration of the trial. People were captivated by it because so many had such strong beliefs about it that people still hold true to today. White people who thought he was guilty in 1994 still believe he is guilty to day and blacks who thought he was innocent then still believe that now. Both groups of people watched the same events play out but because of their backgrounds they view the case differently.
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