OJ Verdict...Where were You?

Today is one of the most infamous days in history of the United States Justice System. The day in 1995 when a jury in Los Angeles found O.J. Simpson "Not Guilty" in the double murder trial involving his ex-wife Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman. The circus leading up to the final verdict made it ever so more surreal. From the Bronco Chase, to OJ's "Dream Team" Defense, to the "Dancing Itos" on The Tonight Show it was just one big and strange ordeal. One of my first ventures into radio was to sit in the studio and make sure the OJ Simpson Trial on the air. YES, at the time our companies FM Station, now K107.1-FM was Facts 107 and aired news 24 hours of the day. We played the OJ Trial from gavel to gavel, inserting commercials when time permitted.....yes there were sponsors!!!! Regardless of what you thought of OJ, people were interested in what was going on..."If It doesn't fit....you must acquit!"....Johnny Cochran, F. Lee Baily, Marcia Clark, Robert Shapiro, Kato and of course Judge Lance Ito all became fixtures of pop culture from their role in the trial!

It was 12 years ago when the endless trial reached it's climax...no more DNA experts, or blood experts, or some guy talking about fibers found in a Chicago hotel room as the jury had a verdict. I think the world stopped at that moment....and most people I've talked to can remember where they were when OJ got off! Where was I you ask? I was huddled around a small TV in the Master Control Room of the TV studio on the campus of UW-Oshkosh. I remember to this day about 50 people all watching this 12 inch TV as the verdict was read....first it was the woman reading the verdict, screwing up OJ's first name...talk about a buzz kill for her...the verdict will be read for the rest of time, and she screwed up her moment...like botching a record setting home run call...she can never get it back.......Then once the not guilty was announced, you see OJ hugging his defense team and the Brown and Goldman Families sitting there in disbelief....I also remember a fellow classmate yelling "The Juice Is Loose!"

That trial changed the way American's looked at our legal system....and showed how a famous, and wealthy person can basically buy himself out of trouble, or at least tip the scales of justice in their favor to gain the desired verdict......Where were you on this day, 12 years go?

With Simpson's current legal troubles involving a robbery in Las Vegas...You have to wonder if OJ will be able to pull it off again and if a potential trial will be as much of a media circus.

Where's that "Judge Ito" costume I had in college anyways? I might need it next summer.