[martyup]

Interestingly, he recalls hearing the verdict while living in Ujamaa House.

http://m.stltoday.com/entertainment/tele...touch=true

I was a freshman at Stanford University in the Ujamaa House," he recalled, "which is 50 percent African American and 50 percent other. And as that verdict came down, we black folks, we acted a fool, because we were ridiculously happy and the white folks stared at us like we were acting a fool. ‘How could you be so happy?!' When you've been pulled over numerous times for doing nothing, when you've been followed or profiled, which is the experience of many, many young black men, it's nice to see that, you know what, I belong in this system. It was a sort of vindicating experience that I'm not always going to be the victim. Sometimes, I get held up. And that's what that verdict was to me."
Now, after spending close to a year working on the FX miniseries and digging deep into the facts of the trial, Brown says he sees it all differently.  "It was a 180 for me in that I recognize what I didn't see at that time because I was so mad about the Los Angeles Police Department and Rodney King, what I didn't see was that two innocent people had their lives brutally taken away from them. And I feel like that becomes an afterthought rather than the forethought of what this case should have been.

[martyup]

Interestingly, he recalls hearing the verdict while living in Ujamaa House.

http://m.stltoday.com/entertainment/tele...touch=true

I was a freshman at Stanford University in the Ujamaa House," he recalled, "which is 50 percent African American and 50 percent other. And as that verdict came down, we black folks, we acted a fool, because we were ridiculously happy and the white folks stared at us like we were acting a fool. ‘How could you be so happy?!' When you've been pulled over numerous times for doing nothing, when you've been followed or profiled, which is the experience of many, many young black men, it's nice to see that, you know what, I belong in this system. It was a sort of vindicating experience that I'm not always going to be the victim. Sometimes, I get held up. And that's what that verdict was to me."
Now, after spending close to a year working on the FX miniseries and digging deep into the facts of the trial, Brown says he sees it all differently.  "It was a 180 for me in that I recognize what I didn't see at that time because I was so mad about the Los Angeles Police Department and Rodney King, what I didn't see was that two innocent people had their lives brutally taken away from them. And I feel like that becomes an afterthought rather than the forethought of what this case should have been.

[BobK]

Thanks. Very interesting

[BobK]

Thanks. Very interesting

[yvonne]

I had an interesting Darden (sort of) encounter last summer. I attended the Women in Technology (WiTi) Summit in with an assignment to do a piece on startups for a small college's blog. One of the attendees and conference presenters was Anita Gardyne, CEO of Oneva, a company that did full background screening, including FBI check of home caregivers. We exchanged business cards and I noticed the middle name she used was Darden. It rang a bell, but I couldn't place it. It turns out she's Chris Darden's sister.

[yvonne]

I had an interesting Darden (sort of) encounter last summer. I attended the Women in Technology (WiTi) Summit in with an assignment to do a piece on startups for a small college's blog. One of the attendees and conference presenters was Anita Gardyne, CEO of Oneva, a company that did full background screening, including FBI check of home caregivers. We exchanged business cards and I noticed the middle name she used was Darden. It rang a bell, but I couldn't place it. It turns out she's Chris Darden's sister.

[fishman]

As a trial lawyer who also watched much of the trial, I can say Chris Darden was a mediocre, if not terrible, trial lawyer.  An absolute key to success in trial is thorough and meticulous preparation.  Charisma and histrionics can certainly help, but without mastery of the background, evidence and record in a trial, presence, demeanor and presentation are not enough.  Darden's part of the highly important closing argument was a rambling, incoherent and thoroughly amateurish imitation of what he apparently thought a closing argument was supposed to be.  His questioning of witnesses to me reflected a lack of planning and forethought as to how they might answer and how he should respond.   

The prosecution definitely needed a black attorney on the team, but he was definitely a weak link in an already overmatched team. It will be interesting to see how he's portrayed in the TV series.

[fishman]

As a trial lawyer who also watched much of the trial, I can say Chris Darden was a mediocre, if not terrible, trial lawyer.  An absolute key to success in trial is thorough and meticulous preparation.  Charisma and histrionics can certainly help, but without mastery of the background, evidence and record in a trial, presence, demeanor and presentation are not enough.  Darden's part of the highly important closing argument was a rambling, incoherent and thoroughly amateurish imitation of what he apparently thought a closing argument was supposed to be.  His questioning of witnesses to me reflected a lack of planning and forethought as to how they might answer and how he should respond.   

The prosecution definitely needed a black attorney on the team, but he was definitely a weak link in an already overmatched team. It will be interesting to see how he's portrayed in the TV series.

[Mick]

As a trial lawyer who also watched much of the trial, I can say Chris Darden was a mediocre, if not terrible, trial lawyer.  An absolute key to success in trial is thorough and meticulous preparation.  Charisma and histrionics can certainly help, but without mastery of the background, evidence and record in a trial, presence, demeanor and presentation are not enough.  Darden's part of the highly important closing argument was a rambling, incoherent and thoroughly amateurish imitation of what he apparently thought a closing argument was supposed to be.  His questioning of witnesses to me reflected a lack of planning and forethought as to how they might answer and how he should respond.   

The prosecution definitely needed a black attorney on the team, but he was definitely a weak link in an already overmatched team. It will be interesting to see how he's portrayed in the TV series.

Did you feel the same way about Marcia Clark?

[Mick]

As a trial lawyer who also watched much of the trial, I can say Chris Darden was a mediocre, if not terrible, trial lawyer.  An absolute key to success in trial is thorough and meticulous preparation.  Charisma and histrionics can certainly help, but without mastery of the background, evidence and record in a trial, presence, demeanor and presentation are not enough.  Darden's part of the highly important closing argument was a rambling, incoherent and thoroughly amateurish imitation of what he apparently thought a closing argument was supposed to be.  His questioning of witnesses to me reflected a lack of planning and forethought as to how they might answer and how he should respond.   

The prosecution definitely needed a black attorney on the team, but he was definitely a weak link in an already overmatched team. It will be interesting to see how he's portrayed in the TV series.

Did you feel the same way about Marcia Clark?

[fishman]

Though she was clearly more experienced and skilled than the neophyte, Darden, she, in my opinion, clearly and often overplayed her hand in arguing lost causes with the judge, no doubt pissing him off, but far worse, alienating the jury.  She was trying to win small skirmishes at the expense of risking victory in the overall war - conviction of OJ.  Good courtroom judgment and wisdom includes knowing when to shut up and sit down - something she should have done more often.  Also her supervision of Darden was clearly deficient if she allowed him to make the monumental blunder of having OJ try on gloves that didn't fit.  You have to know the outcome with absolute certainty if you're going to try a stunt like that.  Way too much downside and not that great an upside even if the gloves do fit.  Allowing him to do his off-the-wall closing argument was also a seriously bad judgment call - did she even know what he was going to do and, if so, why did she allow it??!!

So yes, both of them severely overmatched - like putting a mediocre college team up against a top NFL team. 

[fishman]

Though she was clearly more experienced and skilled than the neophyte, Darden, she, in my opinion, clearly and often overplayed her hand in arguing lost causes with the judge, no doubt pissing him off, but far worse, alienating the jury.  She was trying to win small skirmishes at the expense of risking victory in the overall war - conviction of OJ.  Good courtroom judgment and wisdom includes knowing when to shut up and sit down - something she should have done more often.  Also her supervision of Darden was clearly deficient if she allowed him to make the monumental blunder of having OJ try on gloves that didn't fit.  You have to know the outcome with absolute certainty if you're going to try a stunt like that.  Way too much downside and not that great an upside even if the gloves do fit.  Allowing him to do his off-the-wall closing argument was also a seriously bad judgment call - did she even know what he was going to do and, if so, why did she allow it??!!

So yes, both of them severely overmatched - like putting a mediocre college team up against a top NFL team.