When the likes of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison sat down in 1787 to draft the Constitution of the United States, they could not have realised that two centuries later it would lead to an American tragedy.
How could they have foreseen radio, television, instant news wire services, the Internet - or the National Enquirer ? Marcia Clark was an unknown deputy district attorney in the Los Angeles public prosecutor's office when Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman were brutally murdered at Brown's Bundy Drive address on June 12, 1994. Alan Dershowitz was a well-known Harvard law professor and one of the most revered criminal defence appeal lawyers in America. O J Simpson was a legend, a former gridiron football star-turned actor, a celebrity, an icon. He was also black.
Their lives crossed when Simpson was charged with the murders of Brown, his former wife; and Goldman, her acquaintance. That Clark, the lead prosecutor in the case, and Dershowitz, on Simpson's defence team, should end up writing books on the same subject probably amuses them both. But, in their respective analyses, it is not at all amusing that they both gloss over one of the main reasons why the American justice system is in such disarray.
Despite Dershowitz's accolades, Clark was a damned fine lawyer too. She says so in her book. Many times. This is the lawyer who took on America's Trial of the Century, the People v Orenthal James Simpson, with seemingly insurmountable evidence against the defendant, and lost it in just four hours of jury deliberation.
Clark's Without a Doubt is an unapologetic attempt to show why Simpson was guilty, and why the blame for the not-guilty verdict rested first with the jury, then with the defence. Clark takes the reader through the case from A to Z: the murders; the search of the crime scene and Simpson's palatial residence, Rockingham; the police car chase in his Ford Bronco; his arrest; the investigation and courtroom drama.
Despite the complicated and lengthy trial, Clark presents it in a simple and thought-provoking way, reasoning through the criticisms of her own strategy and outlining the prosecution tactics. When it comes to the defence case, Clark lambasts defence lawyers Johnnie Cochran for playing the race card, Robert Shapiro for manipulating the media, and Barry Scheck for being Barry Scheck.