...continued...
Do you think people underestimate that psychological toll?
They fail to realize, too, that all we had when we went back to our rooms at night — I mean, you could have music in your room, I think I had a CD player. But you couldn’t watch TV, you could read, but you listen to all this testimony throughout the day, so of
course you’re going to think about it when you go back to your room. You’re not supposed to discuss it with any of the other jurors, so we were constantly reliving and thinking about things. It wasn’t like it was going to take us a long time to, you know, think about this trial or come to a decision when it was time to deliberate.
[The lawyers] made it seem like the quick turnaround for the verdict was appalling.
I don’t know what people expected. Is there a protocol that jurors have to stay out for a certain number of hours, days, or weeks? If you come to a decision, then why prolong it, especially in our case.
There were a lot of things that we weren’t privy to that went on in the courtroom — almost as much as we were in the courtroom we were
out of the courtroom. We didn’t hear a lot of testimony that maybe we should have heard.
Like what?
Rosa Lopez. Even though I don’t think her testimony was all that, we never heard her testify, as they showed on the series. And she was supposed to be the housekeeper. And some of the evidence about the [Bruno Magli] shoes … More evidence came up about the shoes in the civil case than in the criminal case.
Then there was the press conference with Darden, when he said that the jurors made their decision based on emotion. How did you feel about that statement?
I disagreed with it. We followed the jury instructions. They didn’t even show that in the finale. I mean, they were long instructions, surely they wouldn’t have shown the whole thing. But they could have done a short synopsis of Ito explaining to us that if there was any reasonable doubt, that we would
have to acquit the defendant. The prosecution had to prove their case
beyondreasonable doubt. And all of that was just omitted.
Was there a moment in particular during the trial that really swayed your decision towards reasonable doubt?
Yeah, when they started talking about the blood evidence. There was, like, a milliliter of blood they couldn’t account for. And they found blood on the back fence of Nicole’s condo, and that particular blood also had the additive in there. That additive is only found in [a test tube of blood], so why would the blood sample on that back fence contain that additive unless somebody took the blood from the test tube and placed it there?
Do you think O.J. was framed?
I don’t know if he was necessarily framed. I think O.J. may know something about what happened, but I just don’t think he did it. I think it was more than one person, just because of the way she was killed. I don’t know how he could have just left that bloody scene — because it was
bloody — and got back into his Bronco and not have it filled with blood. And then go back home and go in the front door, up the stairs to his bedroom ... That carpet was snow white in his house. He should have blood all over him or bruises because Ron Goldman was definitely fighting for his life. He had defensive cuts on his shoes and on his hands.
O.J. only had that little cut on his finger. If [Goldman] was kicking to death, you would think that the killer would have gotten some bruises on his body. They showed us photos of O.J. with just his underwear just two days after, and he had no bruises or anything on his body.
From what you’ve seen [in the show], what has stood out as very accurate and what wasn’t?
The way they portrayed that young girl going crazy, jumpin’ over the table [was inaccurate] … And us coming in the hotel through the lobby. We
never came in the hotel through the lobby, we didn’t have access to the public areas at all. They would let us use the gym facilities and the sauna, but only after it was closed at night to the hotel guests.
The part that really strikes me was the scene where they had the jurors visiting O.J.’s house. What really happened there? The show portrayed Johnnie Cochran going in and replacing all the original art with African art.
I don't know what was there prior. The house was already staged when we got there, so, you know, if Johnnie went in there and put up pictures of African-Americans in there, I didn’t know.
Did that have any sway on your final decision?
Oh no, that didn’t at all. You know, some of [the jurors] … they weren’t used to anything. That’s the only way I could put it.
Anything fancy? Like a Brentwood mansion.
And, you know, they’ve probably never been in a hotel before so it was probably like a holiday or something for some of them for some of them. There were probably better conditions [at the hotel] than they had at home.
You know, [my sister] taped TMZ over the weekend. Michael Knox was on — he was one of the prospective jurors who got released kind of early, after we visited O.J.’s house because he went to the field trip wearing a sweatshirt of a team that O.J. played on. Just ignorant
. Why would you do something like that? On [TMZ] he
made comments saying that the female jurors were upset because of the innuendos of Marcia and Chris maybe having something going on. I took offense to that, because I couldn’t care less what Marcia Clark and Chris Darden were doing.
Oh, you mean because of a black man, white woman kind of thing?
Yeah, black man and a white woman. He made a comment that “the black women were really upset about that.” What’s so bad is that he’s on TV and you’re going to have a lot of people believing that. That
neverhappened. Stuff like that irritates me, when they have certain jurors who speak out and then say stupid stuff. They’re just trying to get their 15 minutes of fame. He didn’t even stay there that long! And he was the one that
really wanted to be there.
Going back to the show, what’s your overall take of the portrayal of the jurors? Also, were you looking for yourself? Because I had a hard time finding you.
[The actress] who I guess is supposed to be portraying me has no resemblance whatsoever. It’s this lady that looked like she had long hair. I had braids when I first went in because I thought that I would be there for maybe two or three months. But I don’t know how they went about casting people. I think for the most part they did a very good job casting the attorneys.
After seeing the [attorney] strife, issues, evidence that wasn’t presented in front of you in court, did anything in the show has changed your perspective on what happened? Your decisions?
No, I would still render the same decisions based on the evidence that was presented to me and the jury instructions.
Did you even watch cable news after that? It must have been weird to see all the chatter about the trial for ages after the trial was over.
Oh, I became very angry for a period because I felt that people were just too critical, putting us all in one category. There were comments that we were uneducated, that nobody had any type of education. There were two of us who had college degrees ...
And you were one of them.
Yeah. Even Darden made a comment saying our IQs were “room temperature” and that we couldn’t distinguish DNA from the PTA. All of those comments angered me for a period. I didn’t ask to do this, I did what I felt was my civic duty. And to be criticized like that, saying I didn’t even take the time to think about the evidence when that was all I could do [for nine months].
There was one incident at work that really bothered me. One day, me and some of my other friends were going to go to lunch. I drove my car around to pick them up, and this white lady was going to come, too. She gets in the car, and then all of a sudden she says that she won’t be able to go. Later, my friends tell me that she said she couldn’t go with me because she felt I set O.J. free. I was like, oh my gosh … there’s people here — and probably more people — who felt that way, and I didn’t know it. It bothered me because somebody doesn’t want to be around me because they felt I sent a killer home? I prayed before we rendered the verdict, because it was something I had to live with for now on, something that I had to feel comfortable with.
And you still feel comfortable with it?
Yes.
What do you think of the show?
It’s interesting. I really don’t understand why the interest 21 years later, but now it’s a whole new generation of people — like yourself — watching this. And it was the so-called trial of the century. So it’s always going to be of interest as long as the key players are still around … maybe once O.J. dies in prison, they’ll finally let it go.
You know, I have my personal opinion about what I think might have happened. In my gut, I can definitely see a scenario in which O.J. did commit these murders. However, what I’m concerned about was the show’s portrayal as the jurors as somewhat … bumbling. You did say there were jurors who weren’t very sophisticated, but the show sort of portrays the jurors as not taking anything seriously.
I agree with that. It was a poor portrayal of the jurors. Some of them
were bumbling idiots, but all of us worked and
did take it seriously. Unfortunately, a lot of those [jurors] who
have come out to speak just substantiate that portrayal that was shown [in the finale].
There’s going to be another O.J. documentary coming out next month on ESPN, and I did speak with the director for that. He really was trying to get me to participate in the project and was trying to assure me that it wasn’t going to be like anything else. I told him I appreciated it, but I just am kind of fed up with the whole thing. I don’t regret doing it, because I felt that I was chosen in some way to do this. But I don’t want to keep putting myself out there for criticism and ridicule. People have such deep-rooted feelings about this case. I don’t think that a lot of people would ever change their minds, even if someone just came out of the woodwork and said they were the actual killer. [People would] still say, “No no, O.J. did it.”
You’re ready to move on.
Oh, yeah. I don't see the purpose of reliving everything again. I guess it’s for TV and ratings, and like I said, there’s a whole new generation of people who weren’t old enough to view [the O.J. case] and know about it. It makes for good TV.
think I'm lying just watch When The Leaves Broke.
) so it won't go as noticed but dude who played Darden killed it
talking bout Travolta.
