Book Review: The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson

The Run Of His Life gives a detailed view of the O.J. Simpson murder trial from a quasi-insider's view. The book was written by Jeffrey Toobin. It was first published in 1996 and reissued in 2015. Toobin was a reporter, not a member of the prosecution or defense, nor did he personally know any of the people involved. But what he had was a ton of access to both sides. On the defense side, largely because of the article he wrote in the New Yorker detailing what at that point was merely a troubling past and a lot of red flags about detective Mark Fuhrman surrounding a possible racist past, and in the prosecution, because he was around the courthouse constantly and knew whom to talk to. As a result, he was able to provide a lot of narrative in the book about what was going on in both camps, and because he is a Harvard-trained lawyer, was able to provide a lot of insight into the (mainly poor) job that both sides did. So you find out things like what O.J. was really like behind the scenes (according to Toobin he was not involved in his defense strategy at all), Toobin also claims that Simpson's lawyers all knew he was guilty and did not care, not necessarily because they through every defendant deserved a zealous defense, but because they wanted to stick it to the cops, make money, or both, and that many of the defense attorneys could not stand working with each other. He presents the prosecution as being almost an equal mix of incompetence and arrogance, which, along with a jury that was mostly pre-disposed to acquit Simpson no matter what, made the outcome almost a foregone conclusion. He also presented a lot of inside knowledge on what was going on with the jury while they were sequestered as well as detailing a lot of behind-the-scenes details of what he saw as Judge Ito's utter incompetence and worrying as much about his reputation in the media as making correct legal rulings.

Overall, the book is very well written and sourced. While Toobin makes it clear that the evidence is overwhelming that Simpson committed the crimes, he is not biassed toward either side remaining neutral in his criticism and praise. He praised the few things that anyone on either side did well and excoriated the things they messed up. Unlike many who wrote books after the conclusion of the trial, he did not have a vested interest in presenting a 'side" or defending any action or decision. It has a lot of good information that even people who watched the trial from beginning to end and read some of the other books may not be aware of (or have forgotten over the course of time). It is definitely worth the read for those of us who lived through the trial, or people who are just fans of true crime books.