A British director of a film that will premiere 25 years after the incident says that he will prove that O.J. Simpson did not murder his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman but instead was a victim of a conspiracy.
According to The Daily Mail, director Joshua Newton showed them scenes from his movie, claiming, “’Nicole & O.J.’ will reveal the untold circumstances leading up to the murders and why and how Nicole and Ron were killed and the cover up that followed.” He commented, “All these years later, the world is still fascinated by the O.J. case and it still divides America, particularly along racial lines. … The media was assisted by prosecutors drawing on unethical means to persuade the public of his guilt because they knew their evidence would fail to persuade the jury.”
Newton took an implicit shot at the American justice system, stating, “O.J. was fortunate that he could afford a brilliant defense team to challenge a prosecutorial system more concerned with winning than with justice. But what about countless defendants who are innocent and don’t have any money? Justice for them isn’t an acquittal, it’s a life sentence or even death.”
Newton admitted that his film was conceived as a satire, theorizing, “The stuff I came across is at times nothing short of farcical, how else could I treat this?” He added, “My interest in making the film is to present an unbiased perspective. I’m not American so I’ve looked at it through different eyes. I’m laying out all the facts and it’s up to the audience to reach its own conclusions.”
Newton claimed that when the prosecution claimed Simpson showed no emotion when informed of his wife’s death, they were inaccurate. He said, “The reality is that O.J. exploded into rage because of his grief repeatedly asking ‘what do you mean Nicole is dead?’ while the detective on the phone kept telling him he has no information. This is just one example of many where the prosecution attempted to deceive the jury, the press and the public. Thankfully the jury saw right through it and that’s why O.J. was acquitted.”
There are other perspectives on the verdict reached in Simpson’s trial for the murders; attorney Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted the Charles Manson trial and emerged from the Los Angeles district attorney’s office with an astonishing record of 105 convictions out of 106 felony jury trials and 21 murder convictions out of 21 trials, was furious with what he called the “D-minus” performance of the prosecutors. He said in his book “Outrage: The Five Reasons O.J Simpson Got Away with Murder,” “For several weeks after the verdict I was so angry I could have eaten nails — and I’m still angry … The biggest problem, of course, is that a brutal murderer was set free.” Bugliosi angrily cited Simpson claiming he was a “battered husband” despite the fact that Simpson had “administered several terrible beatings to Nicole.”
After the 1994 trial and Simpson’s acquittal, Ron Goldman’s family filed a civil lawsuit against Simpson. In February 1997, a civil jury unanimously found Simpson liable for the wrongful death of Goldman and battery against Nicole Brown. Simpson was ordered to pay $33,500,000 in damages.
CBS Sports reported in January 2018, “However, Simpson still owes Fred Goldman for the wrongful death settlement of Fred’s son, Ron. Now, Goldman is making a push in court to collect some of Simpson’s memorabilia profits to satisfy the $70 million judgment.”