In the latest recap for The People vs. OJ Simpson, the prosecution believes they’ve found a key piece of evidence but if the glove doesn’t fit….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
In a trial marked by stunning moments, both the prosecution and defense had golden opportunities to seize control of the case but while one group of attorneys triumphed the others fell tragically on their faces.
This week’s episode of American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson covers a lot of ground — as they seem to do every week — but the culmination led to one of the most infamous moments during the entire trial.
OJ Simpson attempted to put on the bloody gloves found between the murder scene where his ex-wife and her friend were butchered and his own Rockingham estate next to witless Kato Kaelin’s house.
While the defense has been taking subtle jabs since the beginning of the trial pointing to a police conspiracy that was build to frame Simpson, the prosecution walked blindly into a demonstration directly in front of the jury that probably left more doubt in their minds than any other moment during the entire eight months spent in that courtroom.
Really it’s hard to get away from that lone moment.
Simpson standing just a few feet away from the jurors, struggling to put on the gloves that were worn during the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Simpson’s big meaty paws just couldn’t fit and despite Christopher Darden’s best efforts to wiggle the fingers into the glove plus a failed attempt to hold onto a marker, which is a poor man’s stand in for a knife handle, he stands there with egg on his face.
A disappointed Marcia Clark staring back at him. Just like the previous weekend when they were one kiss away from a jump in the sheets while away together in Oakland.
It was not Chris Darden’s best day. At all.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of The People vs. OJ Simpson titled ‘Conspiracy Theories’….
Colombian Necktie
During the cross examination of Tom Lange, the bumbling detective who decided to keep OJ’s bloody shoes in his trunk overnight, Johnnie Cochran gets a well timed fax from his friend Alan Dershowitz with two words scrawled across the paper — Colombian Necktie.
See Dershowitz is back at home teaching students while watching the trial on TV and he suggests that no matter how much you sequester the jury, what happens outside the courtroom always finds a way to bleed back inside. In this case, allegations that Nicole Simpson’s friend Faye Resnick was mixed up in a bad drug trade and the murders took place as some kind of retaliation. So Cochran picks up the paper, a big smile creeps across his face and he proceeds to ask Lange about the brutal murders and if a Colombian necktie fits the crime that was committed. Lange has no idea what those words mean so it takes Cochran’s expert explanation about the kind of cartel killing that involves a victim having their throats slashed so viciously that it nearly decapitates them to watch the jury’s eyes all bulge out in shock and awe.
Did Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman get killed by a vengeful drug cartel? Almost certainly not but Cochran’s vivid explanation sure sounds interesting and all he needs is one shred of doubt to get planted and then grow over the course of this trial and he’ll get Simpson acquitted.
Trouble at Home
As well as things have been going for the defense thus far, there are still plenty of nightmares to deal with inside the dream team.
Robert Shapiro, still feeling like an outsider after being ousted as lead attorney, gets dressed down by District Attorney Gil Garcetti for pressing the race button so vigorously during the trial that he’s begging for another riot. Shapiro attempts to mend fences by wearing a LAPD pin into the courtroom one day but not only does it fail to capture the attention of the cops he’s fawning over right now, but it pisses off Simpson to the point where he’s questioning his lawyer’s loyalty.
Johnnie Cochran then has to face the horror of his ex-wife and a side woman he had a child with many years ago appearing on “A Current Affair” where they dish about his marriage and a second life he led in secret with a second family. Cochran’s current wife knew all about this but she’s still not happy that their current lives are being splashed all over the gossip rags. To make matters worse, Cochran’s ex-wife talks about the domestic abuse allegations, which leads court reporters to skewer the lawyer when he walks in the next day while asking him bluntly if he beat his wife.
And finally there’s Robert Kardashian — OJ’s most loyal friend and the man who has believed in him since the first day he found out about the murders. But lately with all the evidence that’s being presented, he’s starting to see doubt creep into his own mind. How did OJ’s blood end up at Nicole’s house? How did Nicole and Ron Goldman’s blood end up at OJ’s house and in his Ford Bronco? Was this all one big conspiracy theory or was the evidence just too hard to ignore?
Kardashian’s real ‘come to Jesus’ moment this episode happened when Shapiro mentioned the video that was taken of him leaving Simpson’s house with a bag the night when the murders first happened. Questions have been fluttering around if Kardashian might have been involved or even hidden the murder weapon for his friend. Shapiro even suggests another plea deal to keep both him and Simpson from rotting in prison for many, many years.
Kardashian explains that it was just an overnight bag that Simpson asked him to store, but he also knows he never opened it to see what was inside. Back at his house along with Al Cowlings, Kardashian finally peeks inside and to his relief he only finds a suit, some socks and no knife whatsoever. He does start to hint around about his doubts involving the case, but before Kardashian goes that far, he recants and he’s back on Team OJ.
Hit and Miss
With a weekend off from the case, Chris Darden invites Marcia Clark to take a trip with him to Oakland to celebrate a childhood friend’s birthday. It’s time to get away from Los Angeles and the constant bombardment they are both receiving about the Simpson trial. Of course it doesn’t hurt that Darden and Clark have been flirting non-stop for several weeks so maybe this is the trip where they finally take the next step in whatever this relationship is turning out to be.
At the party, Darden and Clark are enjoying a night out together with a bar full of friends but it’s not long before OJ Simpson’s name is uttered. One of Darden’s friends is convinced that the dirty LA cops planted all that evidence just to frame an innocent man.
Without batting an eye, Clark — along with a few shot glasses — breaks down in the best detail you’ll ever hear how the cops, including Mark Fuhrman, would have been the greatest “super secret cabal of OJ hating racist cops” to be able to plant and place all the evidence that’s been found and used in an attempt to convict him. It’s a compelling argument — one that even has Darden’s friend questioning his unwavering loyalty to Simpson and complete distrust of the LAPD.
Following a night out together, the two attorneys head back to the hotel but despite a shared moment of silence that could have easily transitioned into a passionate night together, Darden fails to pull the trigger and he freezes at exactly the wrong time. Marcia hits him with a ‘goodnight Darden’, which is more or less the kiss of death.
Fits Like a Glove
As the prosecution has been searching for another smoking gun to convict Simpson after the Colombian necktie disaster, Tom Lange redeems himself when he pores through Nicole’s belongings and finds a credit card bill with a purchase from the early 1990’s — the exact Isotoner gloves in the exact size that were found at the murder scene and at OJ’s residence. Clark and Darden celebrate because they believe this is everything they need to put Simpson in a guillotine with no chance to escape.
But after all the debacles that have happened thus far, Darden believes the smoking gun would be Simpson trying on the gloves to prove they fit, which would be stunning visual evidence the jury could see directly in front of them.
Clark is adamantly against this idea but Darden won’t let it go.
Following a recess where the gloves had been examined by witnesses, Robert Shapiro redeems himself for all the bad moves he’s executed thus far when he takes a look at the gloves and attempts to put them on but can’t. Immediately, Shapiro draws Simpson and the other attorneys into a room and demands that they have him try to put the gloves on. Shapiro’s hands are smaller that Simpson’s and if he can’t fit the gloves, there’s no way the former football star could do it.
But F. Lee Bailey strikes the biggest blow when he suggest that they don’t even try to play for the glove fitting — instead they force the prosecution to do it for them. And sure enough when Bailey heads back into the courtroom he mutters to Darden that he must have balls the size of mouse for not asking OJ to put on the gloves out of fear of what might happen next.
And Darden takes the bait.
A few moments later, Simpson is fumbling and stumbling trying to get the gloves onto his hands — over latex gloves mind you — and all the jury can see is this disastrous display along with OJ saying ‘the gloves are too small’. Never mind the fact that the gloves had been soaked in blood, dried, frozen and unfrozen again for trial, which obviously could have altered the true size — all that matters are those 12 jurors watching Simpson try to put a square peg in a round hole — and fail miserably.
Clark puts her head down in disgust. Darden puts his head down in defeat.
And OJ Simpson is one day closer to an acquittal.
The People vs. OJ Simpson returns next Tuesday night at 10pm ET on FX
