Marcia Clark belonged to a special breed of lawyers, those who love trials. Clark joined the District Attorney's office in 1981 and quickly excelled in her various positions. Prior to the Simpson trial, Clark had spent four years in the Special Trials Unit, which handled the most complex and sensitive investigations.
A lifer, the term used by prosecutors to describe one who could not switch to criminal defense, Clark viewed her cases as a struggle between the good and the evil. Clark saw Simpson as an evil man: "He beat his wife--he's evil." With a personal vendetta against Simpson, Clark personalized the prosecution of Simpson.
Clark thought that she related to African-American women, who made up the majority of Simpson's jury, but focus groups showed that they viewed her with contempt. Clark came across as a hard, brash woman, even a "bitch" to some. As a prosecutor, Clark was cold and calculating, relentless in her desire to convict Simpson of the murder of Brown-Simpson and Goldman.
During the trial, Judge Ito requested that the trial be extended into the evening to allow Roza Lopez, Simpson's maid, to testify before leaving the country for El Salvador. As a divorced single working mother, Clark exclaimed that she had informed the court that she could not be present in court that evening as she had no one to watch her two sons. Nearly crying, Clark added, "I can't be here, Your Honor." Almost overnight Clark turned into a heroine among working mothers everywhere.
After the Simpson trial, Clark took a leave of absence from the District attorney's office and is not expected to return. For an advance of four million dollars, the third largest advance in the history of non-fiction publishing, Clark wrote a successful book about her experience in the Simpson trial entitled Without A Doubt.