Summary Of O J Simpson Speech

Issues of race and justice were brought to the fore of America’s public conscience during the 1990s. No case laid bare these divisions more than the trial of the century, O J Simpson vs the State of California, which featured a black former NFL star, O J Simpson, accused of murdering his white ex-wife and her new partner. Despite extensive evidence compiled by the prosecution, the head of O J’s legal defense team, Johnnie Cochran, managed to persuade a predominantly African American jury to acquit O J through a series of arguments best summarized in his summation speech. The language Cochran deploys not only creates a complimentary tone but further aligns himself with the experiences of African Americans to gain the jury’s trust before deftly

He starts right at the start by thundering to the jury that “You are empowered” to do justice and “You are empowered” to ensure the legal system works, creating an anaphora which emphasizes to the jury that they are in control and thus bear the responsibility to make the right choice (386). While Cochran intends here to make the jury feel culpable, his early attempt to instill culpability in the third paragraph discussing the high stakes of the case may have proved less effective than he hoped. Later in the speech, after condemning the LAPD for incompetence and fraud before then tying Mark Fuhrman to institutional racism, Cochran proceeds to proclaim that, “you and I, fighting for freedom and ideals” must continue to “expose hate” (388). Having already raised the jury’s anger against institutional racism through the Fuhrman metonymy, Cochran here uses “must,” a piece of absolute language, to place the duty of fighting institutional racism on the jury (“you”) as well as on himself (“I”). Cochran here casts the verdict not as a judgement merely on O J Simpson’s innocence but more broadly as an indictment against the prosecution, in this case by tying the prosecution to institutional racism. Cochran further extends this indictment as one against prosecutorial fraud when he refers to the Bible’s proclamation (specifically from the Book of Proverbs) that “a false witness shall not be unpunished” (388). While the Bible literally intends for God to be the one who enacts the punishment, Cochran here implies in this passive construction that the jury must serve as the punisher who must carry out the will of God by reprimanding Fuhrman, the “false witness,” and thus the prosecution. He thus exploits the Christian faith of the jury to make an acquittal a religious prerogative, heightening the