100% Not Guilty

"100% Not Guilty" is the fourth episode of American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson. It was written by Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. It aired on February 23, 2016.

Simpson's "dream team" bears down on the trial, with Shapiro adopting a strategy of barricading and objecting to every motion the prosecution attempts. However, the defense suffers from dissent in the ranks, as Shapiro begins making desperate efforts to remain the lead defense attorney, despite Cochran's being clearly more qualified for the position as the defense increasingly begins to lean more on racial tension. Eventually, Bailey, Cochran, and Kardashian stage a minor coup while Shapiro is on vacation, and convince Simpson to endorse Cochran as the lead attorney. Lance Ito is called to preside over the trial, and the process of jury selection begins, with both sides seeking a racial composition favorable to their own agenda. While both Clark and Cochran are correct that whites are biased against Simpson and black men are biased in his favor, they each have their own respective theories about why black women would be unsympathetic to him: Cochran believes they would resent Simpson for marrying a white woman, while Clark believes they would be sympathetic to Nicole as a battered woman. However, this theorizing proves inaccurate when all potential black female jurors align with Simpson as much as their male counterparts. Clark is also forced to confront the fact that she herself is singularly uncharismatic to jurors of all demographics. Adding to the media circus surrounding the case is a book published by Faye Resnick, detailing Brown Simpson's lifestyle and relationship to Simpson, and detracting[clarification needed] more potential evidence from the trial itself. With Clark and her team realizing the case is not the easy win they initially thought it was, she and Garcetti decide that the only possible buffer against the charismatic and beloved Cochran is to add a black lawyer to the prosecution. She calls on Christopher Darden, and he joins the prosecution team, surprising the defense.