‘In Contempt’: Darden’s Anecdotal View Of The O.J. Trial

'In Contempt'

by Christopher A. Darden with Jess Walter ReganBooks/HarperCollins, $26

O.J. Simpson is a name that once evoked memories of heroic acts on the football field, but now conjures distinctly different images.

For many lawyers, his very name brings into focus an embarrassment of a trial, so out of control that it smeared an entire system of justice.

For many in the African-American community, the name evokes memories of a bungled investigation and a racist cop from a notoriously bigoted police department.

But for others, O.J. Simpson is nothing more than a fallen hero, almost certainly guilty of a brutal double murder, but set free by a terribly misguided jury drawn from one of the most racially divided cities in America.

One of the more interesting characters to emerge from the O.J. trial - and virtually the only one to survive it with his integrity intact - is Christopher Darden, the 39-year-old African-American lawyer who served as the co-prosecutor in the O.J. trial.

Darden arguably had the most difficult role of anyone in the nearly year-long trial. In his just-released autobiography, "In Contempt," Darden details his role as a black man, prosecuting a black hero, in a trial not only racially charged but grotesquely sensationalized.

Darden notes in his acknowledgments that his goal had been to write a "book that would remain on bookshelves and in libraries for the next hundred years." Measured against that somewhat pretentious standard, Darden falls short.

The book is largely an episodic account of the O.J. trial, without any serious focus on larger issues, as if Darden were unsure of exactly what he wanted to say. By any other measure, however, the book is a successful and interesting anecdotal account of the trial from someone with a spectacular vantage point.

Written with Jess Walter, a journalist and author from Spokane, "In Contempt" is styled as an autobiography. The first third of the book peels back the layers of Darden's life, his large family, and his childhood in California. He takes particular care to highlight his troubled older brother, Michael Darden, always two steps ahead of Chris - experimenting with drugs and the fast life while insisting his little brother stay behind. Michael later contracted AIDS, and Darden weaves his relationship with his dying brother throughout the book.

But this is primarily an O.J. memoir. While the book touches on most of the notable events of the trial itself, it does not even attempt to chronicle the trial's details, dissect the errors by the parties or the court, or make any larger points about law or justice in America. Instead, Darden veers from anecdote to anecdote and unleashes his anger at the bungled investigation, the racial strategy employed by the defense lawyers, and the misguided conduct of the trial itself.

Found evidence

Darden reveals that - long after O.J.'s Bronco had been seized and searched - he stumbled upon a blood-stained towel in the back of the vehicle that the police had overlooked.

He also noted other key pieces of evidence that were lost: a three-page set of notes on domestic abuse apparently written by O.J. himself that was shredded by an O.J. associate before they could stop her and an eyewitness who saw O.J.'s infamous white Bronco run a red light near Nicole Brown's house just after the crime, but who destroyed her own credibility by selling her testimony to a tabloid before the trial started.

Darden reserves his harshest words for Judge Lance Ito. Darden recounts Ito's sexist treatment of lead prosecutor Marcia Clark, including Ito's offensive "joke" in one side conference with Cochran and Darden over a pair of panties in the background of a photograph. Judge Ito commented that "you couldn't ask Marcia because she doesn't wear any."

Darden notes the irony of Ito's frequent but toothless threats to remove the cameras from the courtroom, while at the same time posing for pictures with boxes of mail he was receiving from admirers.

Startling behavior

Perhaps the most stunning revelation is a meeting in Ito's chambers in which a juror complains that he had wanted to attend a UCLA football game. Ito, apparently oblivious to the blatant impropriety, asked defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran if he could help. While Darden watched in amazement, Cochran leaped at the chance to provide a gift to a sitting juror.

For tabloid fans, Darden describes his friendship with Clark, forged under nearly impossible conditions. But he refuses to directly address the question of whether the relationship was deeper than platonic friendship. His disingenuous coyness is enough to raise an eyebrow, but this book provides no direct answers to those interested.

Throughout, Darden returns to his brother's unsuccessful fight against AIDS, his declining health, blindness and death. It is a provoking metaphor for the O.J. trial or the criminal justice system more generally, but one that Darden indifferently offers and then ignores.

Since the trial's conclusion, Darden has retired from the practice of law and now teaches part time at a law school. His retirement may well provide a more telling comment about his faith in American justice than anything in this book.

Comments are closed.