Abby Jackson from Business Insider shares a wonderful story about Prominent Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz when he served as an appellate adviser for O.J. Simpson during the trial that captivated the US in the mid-1990s.
Proving “the trial of the century” had far-reaching impact, Dershowitz shared a story about a surprising world leader who was also captivated by the trial.
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Dershowitz relayed the following exchange he had with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about Simpson’s trial back in the ’90s.
Benjamin Netanyahu had just been elected prime minister for the first time and I’m in Israel so he calls me into the office and he says, ‘I want to go to the secret office where no one can can overhear. I want to ask you something.’
I thought he was going to ask me about Iran’s nuclear program. He said, ‘So, did O.J. do it?’
I said, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, does Israel have nuclear weapons?’ And he said, ‘Alan you know I can’t tell you that.’ And I said, ‘Aha! You know I can’t tell you that.’
Dershowitz belonged to “The Dream Team” that succeeded in getting Simpson acquitted of the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ron Goldman, in 1995.
Dershowitz says even he was surprised when the jury came back with a not guilty verdict. “I never thought we were going to win. I was always prepared to do the appeal, ” he said.
This story was first published at Business Insider, by Abby Jackson