Marcia Clark: How People v. OJ Changed Her Life, the CSI Effect & More

Marcia Clark can’t get on a jury. The famed O.J. Simpson prosecutor, who left the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office after the accused murderer was acquitted, has spent the last 20 years writing scripts and novels, plus developing TV shows. But she can’t escape her Simpson trial notoriety.

That may explain why she hasn’t been asked to serve on a jury. “And I actually could be fair!” she laments. “I spent as much time on the defense side of things as I have on the prosecution side. But no one’s ever going to put me on a jury. I do think I get weeded out pretty fast. And my friends are also ruined. When they’re asked if they know any lawyers, they say ‘yes’ and my name, and then it’s like, ‘bye, see ya, wouldn’t want to be ya!’ I’m Typhoid Mary. If you don’t want to be on a jury, just say you’re my buddy.”

Clark admits, however, that the world now sees her, and treats her, in a much different light thanks to “The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story.” The limited-run series depicted Clark in a much more nuanced and sympathetic light, thanks in large part to the actress who played her, Sarah Paulson.

“I was miserable about it,” Clark said of initially learning about the show. “Somehow Sarah Paulson, she really got it right… [but] it made it more painful to watch. Because it made me experience everything all over again. But I think as a result people adjusted their view of us in general, all of us in the case to see what we were up against.”

Sarah Paulson and Marcia Clark

Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Asked if she watched Fox’s recent special “O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession,” which was a repacking of an interview Simpson conducted in 2006, Clark gave an emphatic “no.” “I’m not giving him that,” she said. “It’s a stunt. It was very obviously placed opposite ‘American Idol’ on ABC to get ratings.”

Besides, Clark is busy with her own TV projects. Premiering on Thursday night is A&E’s new seven-part series “Marcia Clark Investigates The First 48,” which embarks on new investigations of controversial and well-publicized cases. (First up: The death of Casey Anthony’s daughter Caylee.) Clark also co-wrote the ABC crime thriller pilot “The Fix,” along with Liz Craft and Sarah Fain, currently in production.

Clark recently visited IndieWire to discuss the new A&E show, as well as the ABC pilot, how “The People v. OJ Simpson” transformed her public image, and more. We began by discussing the mechanics of reinvestigating crimes for “The First 48.” Listen below!

Other cases investigated in Season 1 include the murder of actor Robert Blake’s wife Bonny Lee Bakley; the disappearance of Drew Peterson’s wife Stacy; the death of Federal Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy; the fatal shooting of Run D.M.C member Jam Master Jay; the Billionaire Boys Club’s obsession with money and power that may have turned to homicide; and the suspicious death of Rebecca Zahau at the Spreckels Mansion.

“This is what I love, this is truly my passion,” Clark said of true crime stories. “For me, this is the glass slipper, the perfect fit… we found these cases did have quite a bit to look into, and we discovered new evidence in some of them, and at least a shocking twist or another layer of understanding about all of them.”

Clark said she’s a voracious consumer of crime TV shows and podcasts, and was a huge fan of “Serial” — one of the podcasts that really expanded pop culture’s obsession with unsolved crimes. “Oh my God, I was nuts,” she said of the show. “I listened to it twice. I thought it was beautifully done, a work of art.”

She doesn’t shy from criticizing media, however, when it sensationalizes crime stories to a point that it hurts a case. “The media can do a good thing or a bad thing and you’ve seen it do both,” she said. “They can skew public opinion and distort the view of a case. That did happen in the case of Casey Anthony. I was always concerned about pundits who really didn’t know what they were talking about or misinforming the public about the law, the case or the evidence because they weren’t equipped.”

Then there’s the so-called “‘CSI’ effect,” in which juries used to seeing whiz-bang technology helping solve cases on TV expect the same thing in real life.

“It raises the bar for lawyers, as jurors want to see the trick shit,” she said. “It’s fiction, especially in TV shows where they analyze in 10 seconds. It does skew the expectations. Not every case has DNA!”

Still, Clark believes TV can do a lot of good in helping solve mysteries — and yes, also exonerate the wrongfully accused. “When I talk about helping victims, I want to make it clear I think of wrongfully convicted as victims too,” she said. “TV is really an excellent place to fire people up and inspire the right people to do the right thing.”

“Marcia Clark Investigates the First 48” airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on A&E.

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