The Trial of the Century, as the OJ Simpson case came to be known, brought the world to a standstill. The publicity before, during and after the court proceedings was astonishing. Preliminary publicity led to issues requiring the application of relevant cases and changes to the constitution. With such a famous person as the main suspect in a murder trial, the media wanted to provide the public with as much information as possible. The United States' 1st Amendment gives the media the right to gather and report information to the public. (Sager, 1994-1995) The 6th Amendment allows all people to have due process; this is a cause for concern for defendants if the media provides the public with information that could later be used during the trial. For example, the media wanted access to the 911 audio recording of Nicole Brown Simpson's 1989 call to police. (Burleigh, 1994) In this tape, OJ Simpson can be heard in the background angry and yelling obscenities at Nicole. You can also hear Nicole trying to calm him down. These audio recordings were expected to form an important part of the trial, but it had not yet been determined whether they would be eligible or excluded. If the public obtained these tapes, they would be played all over TV and transcribed in newspapers and tabloids. Releasing this information could potentially taint the jury pool and cause unfair bias against the defense. Eventually, with the California Public Records Act, the audio tapes were released to the public before being approved for trial. (Burleigh, 1994) To further complicate matters, all the pretrial publicity and the need to obtain information for the public have raised concerns about access to the pretrial... middle of paper... jury. DNA is a very complicated topic and using statistics and numbers can create confusion and mislead the jury. By accepting the defense's suggestion to use the NRC report, the judge gave the defense a nudge in its direction. Works Cited Burleigh, N. (1994). Preliminary sentences. ABA Journal, 55-61.Linsky, L. (1995-1996). Using historical evidence on domestic violence in criminal proceedings: A common-sense approach. Peace Law Review, 73-95.Park, R. (1996). Character Test Issues in the OJ Simpson Case - Or, Reasons for Prohibiting Character Tests, with Illustrations from the Simpson Case. University of Colorado Law Review, 747-776.Sager, K. L. (1994-1995). First Amendment issues in the OJ Simpson trial. Communications Lawyer, 3-7.Thompson, W.C. (1996). DNA evidence in the OJ Simpson trial. University of Colorado Law Review, 827-857.