The way this ordeal played out in the courtroom, I can see why the jury voted the way it did. Perhaps, location, race, among several other factors did help influence the outcome, but to wholly attribute the jury's deliberation and subsequent vote to it being comprised of mostly black people, with a vendetta and lacking the intelligence to adequately review the material and produce a reasonably-informed verdict, is quite telling.
You'd be hard-pressed to ever find someone that would describe me as an idiot. Yet, given the way this case was presented, I seriously doubt I'd have voted to convict. The LAPD and DAs office made blunder after blunder. And, while Marcia and Chris did their best with the hand that they were dealt, the defense poked holes in most, if not all, of their arguments, providing a ton of reasonable doubt. The prosecutors framing of the argument, their conclusion of the events, and overall narrative was a non-linear, haphazard, mess that relied heavily on the physical evidence. Physical evidence (including DNA) that would appear, under most circumstances, to be a slam dunk, but wound up being highly questionable in a case where chain of custody procedures were routinely broken and detectives perjured themselves under oath and/or were deliberately deceptive, playing fast and loose with their testimonies. Not to mention many of us now have the luxury of hindsight but also had the ability to see things play out in real time in the media back then, providing us with lots of info the jury wasn't privy to at the time.
I've never watched a Ryan Murphy show, but ACS has been great. The show continues to get better with each episode, and I'm looking at the rest of the season kind of dreading that it will be ending fairly soon. Throughout the series so far, I've lurked the forums because I enjoy reading the commentary and differing perspectives -- people who lived through it and are now revisiting the case, people who lived through it but were either too young or disinterested to care, and those who weren't around at all and are coming to it for the first time through the show.
After these last 2 episodes, I've noticed that the commentary around here has grown increasingly more intense, teetering eerily close to inappropriate with lots of generalizations being stated as fact. It's clear that this case still resonates with people for many reasons, and the responses are understandably passionate and emotional, but some of what I'm reading is becoming personal and flat out offensive, at best. The coded language being thrown about along with the contemptuously terse words for Cochran and the jury is pretty interesting. And, by interesting, I mean transparent and extremely problematic.
That said, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" was a fantastic episode. I have always been indifferent to Clark. Never hated her or thought she was a bitch, but never really cared for her either. She was just kind of 'meh' for me. But, this episode? Man. My heart goes out to her. Clearly, she's bounced back, doing well for herself now, and looks good too. But, that pressure and the stress she was under, no way just cigarettes and tequila would have done it for me. I can't say that I wouldn't have flipped out on everyone in that courtroom. Unpolished too? Regarding media scrutiny? Oh yeah, they would have felt my wrath. Ito. Cochran. Bailey. OJ. Garcetti. The court reporter. The bailiff. Fred's mustache. Everything! Everyone!
Marcia is better than me. I'd have been held in contempt and disbarred. We all have a breaking point, and after Gordon, the leaked pics, and my perm/curl absolutely refusing to get in Formation (thanks, ridethemaverick!), I'd have swiftly tossed all professional etiquette and courtroom procedure to the wind. You all would later see me in a special "Where Are They Now?" episode of 20/20: Better NOT Call Marcia, where they chronicle my courtroom meltdown and adjustment to life behind bars while awaiting appeals. And, the best I could hope for is a Lifetime made-for-tv movie, so I could use that money to send my kids to college while I remained imprisoned. Because allegedly, I may or may not have flipped my shit and had my own attempt at murder live on television.
So, yeah. Another great episode. Again, watching (and visibly/audibly reacting) as though I have NO idea how things turn out. Can't wait for next week. Back to lurking.