American Crime Story

[save lilo!]

Mar 17, 2016 11:00:21 GMT -4 scarlet said:

My favorite scene in the latest episode was Marcia tearing down the conspiracy theory at the bar to Darden's friends. Sarah was fantastic in it--not to mention, it really just laid out how ludicrous the theory was.

I cringed at the glove scene, even though I knew what was going to happening.

Did the Oakland trip really happen? I haven't been reading all the articles regarding truth vs. fiction.

[Carolina]

Mar 17, 2016 21:11:54 GMT -4 save lilo! said:

Mar 17, 2016 11:00:21 GMT -4 scarlet said:

My favorite scene in the latest episode was Marcia tearing down the conspiracy theory at the bar to Darden's friends. Sarah was fantastic in it--not to mention, it really just laid out how ludicrous the theory was.

I cringed at the glove scene, even though I knew what was going to happening.

Did the Oakland trip really happen? I haven't been reading all the articles regarding truth vs. fiction.

According to Vanity Fair, yes the trip really happened. In real life though, it was apparently to visit Chris Darden's daughter and family rather than to attend a friend's birthday party

[Wenton]

I loved that scene. I'm enjoying the way they're giving Marcia Clark something of a redemption just by showing her as an intelligent, qualified person who got sucked into a carnival of the absurd.

[laboria]

Episode 8 -Revenge of the Jurors

1. Did not realize they expected the trial to last two months. I remember a six month estimate.
2. Poor juror with the breakdown.
3. The reason jurors kept being dismissed was because the lawyers were digging up dirt on them (and in one case, at least, making it up).
4. Poor DNA guy, he was ripped apart on the stand.
5. The Furman tapes came because of a tip line. And I thought all of his testimony was at once. Did not know he was called back to the stand with the tapes. That's why I was confused in the other episode when the racist stuff did not come up. Do they know who ratted him out, or was it an anonymous drop off?

[Deleted]

I can not imagine being sequestered for 8 months. That is brutal. The juror who tried to escape was released and ended up being hospitalized with an anxiety attack. She later posed for playboy. You could not make this stuff up.

Fung was actually cross examined for 8 days straight. I think that was why he shook everybody's hands after. He was probably totally numb and shell shocked. Which is an interesting parallel to what the jurors were experiencing. Marcia Clark wrote in her book that she hated Schrek more than any of the lawyers because of his treatment of Fung. She said he could've gotten the same information from him without being so nasty.

If they hadn't played Fight the Power I wouldn't have realized the jurors were protesting. I wear all black almost every day.

I can't believe there is only 2 episodes left, I'm guessing next week is Furhman again and then the finale is the verdict.

[Deleted]

Mar 16, 2016 15:57:52 GMT -4 Baby Fish Mouth said:

The gloves were frozen and thawed several times, so they had shrunk. Plus OJ hadn't taken his anti-inflammatory arthritis medication for several days, so his joints were swollen. I don't remember if the prosecution even tried to make the jury aware of these facts.

From the RS fact check of Episode 7:

According to Toobin, it was even worse. "The defense lawyers spent much of the [June 15 lunch break] examining — and goofing around with — the gloves. Just about every lawyer tried them on.” Cochran and Shapiro, together, realized that since the gloves didn’t fit them, they probably wouldn't fit the client, either. This was a fact the prosecutors knew as well; even Vannatter, who according to Toobin had "a big, meaty fist," saw that they wouldn't fit. Not that they wouldn't have fit at some point. "These gloves were several years old, had been through extensive DNA testing, and had several small samples of the leather cut out," Toobin writes. Clark and Darden had tried to get nearly identical, though new, gloves admitted into evidence for the defendant to try on, but Ito hadn't allowed it. And even though they offered the jury testimony explaining how the gloves might have shrunk over time, the damage was done.

So the prosecution tried, but the damage could not be undone. The fact that Ito wouldn't allow the prosecution to admit new but identical gloves is another glaring example of his shitty decision making and bias towards the defense. It seems to me that history has let him off easy. I pinned a lot of the blame on Ito for what happened back in the day, so I'm a little disappointed with his not being raked over the coals now. I'm also disappointed that Jay Leno hasn't been highlighted as part of the media circus. His comedic exploitation of the trial is the definition of "too soon."

[Baby Fish Mouth]

Wow. If anyone thought being on a sequestered jury was glamorous, this episode clears that up. Loved how the jury was fighting over Martin vs. Seinfeld.

So much good music too - Folk Implosion, Queen, Public Enemy.

[save lilo!]

Wow, this jury episode was the most interesting one.

[scarlet]

I could definitely see how maybe at the beginning being sequestered wasn't awful, but as time went on they got more and more irritated by everything.

I don't understand why the court couldn't have arranged a time when the jury could use the pool. Maybe they did and that was poetic license. Also? One episode of "Martin," then one of "Seinfeld." There, kids, fixed it for you.

[Neurochick]

Mar 24, 2016 10:03:54 GMT -4 save lilo! said:

Wow, this jury episode was the most interesting one.

I liked this episode, especially the Martin vs. Seinfeld portion. I believe it was in the 90's where some study was done that showed black people and white people watched totally different TV programs.

Here's my un-PC opinion: I think this trial stunned some white people who were shocked how some black people felt about the trial, and the dueling TV shows was a perfect example. There are some white people, not racists all of them, who are sort of narcissistic when it comes to black people and people of other races. They see us as reflections of them; like "We should all like the same TV shows/food/music, we should all wear our hair the same way (remember that Glamor Magazine article that stated the natural hairstyles of black women were 'unprofessional?'). This is also how the US treats other countries, especially those in the third world, where it's like, "why can't you do this the way we do? Don't you see it'll be better for you?" Patronizing.