The trial is finally getting underway: preliminary hearings, jury selection, Ross Geller trying his best to look lawyerly. But cracks in the defense are starting to show, and Robert Shapiro is losing his hold over the case. He asks a room full of legal eagles on his side if they think O.J. did it, and they stare at him in horror. He informs his mentor, F. Lee Bailey the legendary white-shoe criminal defense attorney, played by Nathan Lane that hell be getting paid in publicity rather than cash, and the older man looks like hes been slapped. Then the dark-haired counselor sulks when his star client starts favoring Johnnie Cochran as a confidante, even though Shapiro would happily skip a visit with his client in jail in favor of a fancy dinner at a trendy nightspot. All of which allows John Travolta to trot out his best sullen, bruised-ego expressions and tantrums theres no telling where he could possibly take things from here.
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Like the rest of the series to date, this chapter still stays remarkably true to the source material, Jeffery Toobins The Run of His Life, even when its condensing an event or three. Check out these five details from Episode Four, fact-checked and rated on a one to five Glove scale for accuracy.
The Defense blocked the prosecution at every turn
One of the best scenes in this weeks episode happens during the preliminary hearing, when Sarah Paulsons Marcia Clark and Courtney B. Vances Johnnie Cochran tee off against each other for the first time. Its brilliance comes from the subtle way that Cochran undermines Clarks composure as she asks for a standard hair sample his falsely flabbergasted tone pushing her to become increasingly shrill. Excuse me your honor, she practically shrieks when he refuses her straightforward request. But this objection is beyond ridiculous!
Cochran clearly knows hes obstructing the prosecution but it was, in fact, Shapiro who objected to this request, as the eight-day hearing took place beginning June 30, 1994, i.e. before Cochran was officially part of the team. That said, Shapiro did make the same argument hes seen making in this episode, calling the request for roughly 100 hairs unduly invasive, and requesting a separate hearing. And while the prosecution was ultimately awarded 40 to 100 hairs, this moment helped establish the tenor of the case: The defense would question everything. As Travoltas courtroom pitbull puts it, We concede to nothing. If Marcia Clark wants to go to the bathroom, we object. If they say the sky is blue, hearsay. Nothing will be admitted without challenge and provocation. Its enough to make anyone shrill. (4/5 Gloves)
The prosecution accepted Donald Vinsons pro-bono jury research
Vinsons amazing, L.A. District Attorney Gil Garcetti tells Clark. He practically invented jury research. As Toobin explains in the book in great detail, Donald Vinson did more or less invent jury research, though it was usually a privilege reserved for defense attorneys; prosecutors tended to go with the less-exact (and cheaper) science of trusting their gut. His company DecisionQuest had only recently gone into the pro-bono business, after watching the Menendez brothers trial result in two hung juries in January 1994. So when he saw what was happening with Simpson, he got in touch with Garcetti who happily took his free services. (3/5 Gloves)
and Marcia Clark didnt like the results
As Clark says in the show, she knew who to go for: Black women liked her, shed taken on many as clients and some continued to send her letters long after their cases were closed. They were a segment of the population who were disproportionately affected by domestic violence, so they would relate to Nicoles situation. Or so she thought.
In an uncomfortable scene, Clark and co-counsel Bill Hodgman watch through a one-way mirror as mock jurors discuss their feelings about those involved in the case. Do they think O.J. was innocent? All the hands that went up were black. Guilty? Only white hands in the air. What were their thoughts on Marcia Clark? Well, she seems like a bitch, says one participant. The one thing everyone could agree on: The lead prosecutor was not someone they trusted. Clark looks on in disbelief. Was this really how the public saw her?
While the show condenses a couple of different panels there was one in LA and one in Arizona and leaves out what could have been a hilarious scene of Clark accidentally trying to get a gun through LAX security, the takeaway from the episode is dead on: She didnt like Vinson or his techniques, so went with her gut instead of the results. Clarks failure to separate the message from the messenger, Toobin writes, would have disastrous consequences for her case. (5/5 gloves)
Faye Resnick writes a book and it brings the trial to a halt
Nicole was my everything, Connie Brittons Faye Resnick croons to her ghostwriters. She was my confidant, my spiritual sister. A self-proclaimed socialite whod been friends with the late Mrs. Simpson since 1990, and was close with her after the couples 1992 divorce, she details how she and her best friend would do cocaine on a regular basis, and how Nicole was a fan of a Brentwood hello (sneaking into a mans bedroom and performing oral sex while he was still asleep). Unfortunately, the proof is in Nicole Brown Simpson: The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted, which Resnick wrote after a psychic told her to. But what could have been passed off as a piece of tabloid trash it was, in fact, co-written by National Enquirer columnist Mike Walker was given unnecessary weight when Judge Lance Ito ground the proceedings to a halt for 48 hours so he could read the book to see about possible jury-selection ramifications. The sensible course would have been to ignore Diary and, if the subject came up at all, to remind the jurors that they were to rely only on evidence presented in court, Toobin writes. Like every other sensation in the case, Resnick would have faded, too. But Ito, as well see, also loves the media attention. (3/5 Gloves)
Robert Shapiro suggested an alternate theory that would lead to a settlement by admitting that O.J. did it
In the episode, Robert Kardashian, Cochran and O.J. are sitting around a tiny conference room discussing a possible new witness who could throw off the prosecutions timeline. Shapiro walks in and declares that hes been going through some precedent cases in his office, and hes figured it out: They should settle. Settling was his specialty, and he could see that, if they proceeded to trial, Cochran would have an increasingly important role in the case.
What we say is that you were mad at Nicole for not inviting you to dinner at Mezzaluna, he says, referring to the site of Nicoles last meal and Ronald Goldmans place of employment. So you decide to get even with her. You take a knife to her place, to slash her tires, but you get caught. And youre humiliated. You dont know what to do. Your heart is racing. Your emotions are cracking. Things escalate. And you kill her, and you kill the Goldman boy, too, because youre jealous. No one even acknowledges what hes saying. Kardashian turns the conversation back to the potential witness.
Toobin writes that it happened in much the same way, except Shapiro came into the room claiming that hed talked to the prosecution, and the theory about O.J. being angry about dinner had come from them. His plan was to spin it into manslaughter, putting Kardashian on the hook for hiding the knife, but thats probably no more than five years for accessory after the fact. This seems to have gone over in the real courthouse about as well as it did on the show which is to say, disastrously. There was a stunned silence incredulity that Shapiro would propose a plea bargain at this late date, the author writes. Simpson did not reject the proposal so much as ignore it. The conversation simply moved on to other topics. In his last-ditch effort to keep control over the case, he tries to settle ultimately proving thats all he was qualified to do. (3/5 Gloves)
Previously: Episode 3