A CNN commentator said Friday that the double-murder trial of O.J. Simpson “represented something for the black community” because two white people were killed.
Commentator Ashley Allison said Simpson’s acquittal over the death of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman represented justice for the black community as their ancestors were once enslaved by white people. She further noted the killing of Rodney King by police officers in March 1991 which sparked deadly riots after the officers’ acquittal.
“What was it last night when we found out OJ had died? My premise is that it’s still rooted on race and the issue is the reason why that case was so charged — I too got to watch the verdict in 8th grade … — and I saw it happening. I cheered, I was happy. I don’t think I had a concept of like who was guilty and who was not,” Allison said. “I was a child. I probably shouldn’t have even been watching the case about two people being killed at the end of the day. But it was so racially charged because of what had happened just before with Rodney King, but also just how black Americans feel about policing.”
“It’s not like O.J. Simpson was the leader of the civil rights movement in his era. You know, he wasn’t a social justice leader. But he represented something for the black community in that moment in that trial, particularly because there were two white people who had been killed,” she continued. “And the history around how black people had been persecuted during slavery. There were just so many layers. And I guess I’ll just close with this. There was racial tension then, there is racial tension now. It might not be the backdrop of the Trump campaign, but until this country is ready to actually have an honest conversation about the racial dynamics from our origin story until today, we will always have moments like O.J. Simpson that manifest and our country will always be divided if we don’t actually deal with the issue of race.”
Simpson died from prostate cancer at the age of 76 Wednesday night surrounded by his four surviving children and grandchildren. The former running back for the Buffalo Bills was diagnosed with the disease in February. (RELATED: Left-Wing Pundit Says OJ Acquittal Was ‘Correct And Necessary’ Even Though He ‘Killed Two People In Cold Blood’)
Simpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife and Goldman after they had been found dead from stab wounds on June 12, 1994, outside of her Los Angeles home. After being ordered to surrender to police, Simpson attempted to flee from law enforcement in a June 17, 1994, low-speed chase in a white Ford Bronco, which had been viewed by over 95 million viewers on live television, according to Britannica.
Prosecutors argued Simpson killed his ex-wife in a jealous fury and presented blood, hair and fiber tests to link Simpson to the murders, according to Reuters. His defense team accused police of being racially motivated by framing Simpson for the crime.
The prosecution committed a serial flaw as they asked Simpson to put on blood-stained gloves found at the scene, believing it would fit perfectly and prove his guilt, Reuters reported. However, Simpson struggled to fit his hand into the gloves.
Many black Americans celebrated his Oct. 3, 1995, acquittal, who believed the defense’s argument that Simpson’s charges were racially motivated by bigoted police. A group of black audience members during Oprah Winfrey’s show cheered as they watched his acquittal live on-air, and many of the white audience members watched in disdain.
Live audience of Oprah Winfrey’s show were starkly divided by OJ Simpson’s acquittal
pic.twitter.com/WxAzPdXICg— Nicole Silverio (@NicoleMSilverio) April 12, 2024
A civil court found Simpson liable for murdering Brown Simpson and Goldman and ordered him to pay $33 million in damages in February 1997, according to The New York Times.