I loved my job... then the Simpson case happened.
— Marcia Clark
I have been addicted to crime since I was born. I was making up crime stories when I was a 4- or 5-year-old kid.
After the verdict was read in the Simpson case, as the jury was leaving, one of them, I was later told, said, 'We think he probably did it. We just didn't think they proved it beyond a reasonable doubt.'
To me, one of the big silver linings of the Simpson trial is the advances we've made in understanding domestic violence as a lethal problem. Before that trial, I think there was a widespread sense that it was a family affair, a normal part of a relationship, not really a crime. The reality is that it's very much a crime, and a very serious one.
I wound up getting pulled into being a consultant on the Lifetime drama 'For the People.' The executive producer said, 'I want you to write scripts.' We sold pilots to a bunch of different networks.
I have always thought of myself as someone for equal rights. I don't mind being called a feminist, and I get really upset when female celebrities resist the title as if it's a bad thing, because it's a very good thing.
It's one thing to evaluate a woman's work. it's another thing to say, 'Your hair was this; your makeup was that.'
The prosecution has to go with the evidence and the facts and tell the story as it happened. The defense has more creative freedom. All you have to do is look for a defense that works. But it doesn't have to be the truth. Sometimes you get lucky and it is, but sometimes you don't, and either way, it doesn't matter.
Jury instructions are so numerous and complex, it's a wonder jurors ever wade through them. And so it should come as no surprise that they can sometimes get stuck along the way. The instruction on circumstantial evidence is confusing even to lawyers. And reasonable doubt? That's the hardest, most elusive one of all.
I think cameras should be in the courtroom, but they need to be managed properly. You need a judge to hold the line.
I was famous in a way that was kind of terrifying. I had no protection. When reporters showed up at my house, there wasn't even a sidewalk. They were literally parked on my front lawn.
I'm just not a religious person, not at all. I consider myself a spiritual person. I was always very drawn to Buddhism, Hinduism. I still meditate.
I kind of like to write fast. It keeps the pacing up. And it keeps me off the streets.
When I went to the prosecutor's office, I wanted to be one of the good guys that the defense could trust. I'd try fair, clean cases, pull no punches, no below-the-belt stuff. Honorable. Because that's the kind of prosecutor I wanted to deal with.
As I listened to the verdicts in the Casey Anthony case, acquitting her of the homicide of her baby girl, I relived what I felt back when court clerk Deirdre Robertson read the verdicts in the Simpson case. But this case is different. The verdict is far more shocking. Why? Because Casey Anthony was no celebrity.
I'd always wanted to write crime fiction. I loved Nancy Drew.
I am a feminist. And I don't think of that as being anti-men, I think about it as equal rights for women.
