Widely recognized as America's leading appeal lawyer, Alan Dershowitz was the man chosen to prepare the appeal should O.J. Simpson have been convicted. In this book he uses this case to examine the larger issues and to identify the social forces - media, money, gender and race - that shape the criminal justice system in America today. How could one of the longest trials in the history of America's judicial system produce a verdict after only hours of jury deliberation? Was this really a case of circumstantial evidence? And finally, is it possible that some jurors, who believed that O.J. Simpson did indeed murder Nicole Brown and Ronald Goodman, could properly have found him not guilty as a matter of law - and of justice? The crucial questions raised by the O.J. Simpson case, and Professor Dershowitz's surprising answers, reassess the case and the strengths and weaknesses of the legal system in America.