Did Marcia Clark’s incompetence result in the loss of the O.J. Simpson trial?

https://www.quora.com/Did-Marcia-Clark%E2%80%99s-incompetence-result-in-the-loss-of-the-O-J-Simpson-trial/answer/Dan-Duarte-1

Over the past 2 months I’ve read 14 books and a wide variety of articles on the OJ Simpson case. The value of reading about the case from so many different angles is that everyone seems to know something that the others have missed. And since there is no one at the center of it all to combine all this knowledge to triangulate the truth out of it, I might as well do it.

That said, the single biggest contributor to OJ’s acquittal was, in fact, Marcia Clark.

She was completely unqualified to be the lead attorney on this trial, Christopher Dardin is a close second, doing a horrible job himself.

As lead attorney, it was her job to get out in front of the case, to take the lead in the investigations, and be actively involved with the LAPD. In her book she claimed that they froze her out, but the truth was, she froze them out, and forced them to make appointments just to talk to her.

She was constantly surprised with the information the news media came up with, because they actually put some work into the case. And then during the trail she was constantly surprised by the defense teams tactics, when all she had to do was read Jeffery Toobin’s article in the New Yorker to find out what they were going to do. I guess doing a little reading might have been too hard for her?

Ultimately, as the trail progressed, she seemed more concerned with her hairstyles and spending a sexy weekend with Dardin up in Oakland than actually working on the case.

She came up with sloppy and inaccurate theories about what happened on the night of the murders, and if any evidence surfaced that didn’t go along with her random and inaccurate theories, she’d ignore it.

When witness, Jill Shively, refused to take orders from Marcia to change her testimony to say she almost ran into OJ a half hour earlier than she really did, Marcia made up a story of not being able to use her story because she sold it to a TV station. Yet the store who sold OJ a stiletto (knife) 2 weeks before the murder was used by her, even though they sold their story to a tabloid as well.

Why the inconsistency? Because Marcia was flat-out lying.

Throughout the case, Fuhrman, tried to give Marcia and Dardin heads-up’s as to what was coming their way regarding his testimony, but they wouldn’t listen to him. Instead, they froze him out.

Fuhrman tried calling her office for two weeks before he took the 5th on the witness stand, but neither Marcia nor Dardin would return his calls, or speak to him at all. What kind of way is that to run a case? They could have advised him not to plead the 5th. They could have explained/argued that the tapes played were of Fuhrman writing “fiction” for a screenplay and had nothing to do with reality. Fuhrman claimed in his book that he never called anyone the “N-word,” and that his use in the screenplay tapes did not constitute him calling someone the “N-word.”

Marcia could have argued this, but it was easier for her just to paint Fuhrman as an evil human being that she wished had never existed than doing the actual work of showing things as they truly were.

By the way, Fuhrman had a partner, Brad, who could have testified to everything that Fuhrman saw, but she made the choice not to call him as a witness at all.

The two lead detectives told her that the murders had occurred closer to 10:35 PM, rather than the 10:10 PM time that she insisted on, but she wouldn’t listen to them.

When the defense team went out and redecorated OJ’s house before the jury’s visit to Rockingham and Bundy, Marcia was blindsided once again. Why? It was Marcia’s job, as the lead attorney to be out in front of t things like that. But once again, rather than doing her job, she complained loudly that others were not out there doing her job for her.

Marcia wanted to take all the credit for being the glamorous lead attorney on this high profile case, without the willingness to do the work that this position necessitated.

Marcia found out ahead of time that Judge Ito’s wife had lied about claiming that she did not know Mark Fuhrman, but she helped cover up that fact. Another lie by Marcia and the prosecution, and the Judge.

The LAPD also did an incompetent job of investigating the crime, and also built their case on a mountain of lies and coverups.

Over the years they’d developed a set of protocols that were supposed to be followed regarding how crime scenes were supposed to be handled, and evidence collected, but apparently nobody had ever called them on their sloppy and hypocritical bullshit.

Bullshit because they, like Marcia, wanted to claim credit for being thorough and meticulous without actually doing the work of being thorough and meticulous. They were a joke, of incompetence and sloppy evidence handling.