KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — "We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder."
Those words echoed through the television sets of millions of Americans that October day: Not guilty. Those in East Tennessee reacted in many different ways.
"I felt that it was correct, 100%, and I am happy with the outcome of the case," said one woman.
"He had the money, he had the firepower and he walked. It's exposed a flaw in our whole judicial system," said another man.
The 1994 murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, and the ensuing trial against OJ Simpson in 1995, was a lesson for the entire country.
This brings us to the University of Tennessee's college of law nearly 25 years ago. Students used the case as a way to prepare for their future in the legal system.
"The fundamental principle of our judicial system is that we would rather let a guilty man go free than an innocent man be put in jail," said one student.
It was an opportunity to learn something you couldn't pick up in a textbook.
"How do you prepare for that? How do you prepare for the Super Bowl? That's very difficult to do and that's what it turned into," said Knoxville attorney Dennis Francis.
Francis remembers the day of the verdict well.
"I was sitting in a bar in the Old City, doing commentary for I believe this television station!"
The major lesson, the key - emotion and reasonable doubt.
"Trials are like anything else, they're very similar to a roller coaster. Some days everything just goes your way, every witness testifies as if you wrote it down for them. Then the next day you come back and you're just thrown in the ditch by something," said Francis.
Even back in 1995, the professor at the front of the classroom preached the importance of reasonable doubt.
"If it takes 99% certainty, if you're anywhere under that, from 98 to zero, you'd (the juror) vote not guilty."
The late Johnnie Cochran and Simpson's group of attorneys knew exactly what they were doing.
"We said if we could shatter this prosecution's timeline so that OJ Simpson couldn't have committed this crime, that there would be a reasonable doubt," he said.
"He doesn't have to be found innocent," Francis said. "he just has to be found not guilty and that's what happened.
Something those students in the classroom or even Francis himself sitting in that bar couldn't understand at the time - the ramifications of this case on the judicial system.
"I think people now are more skeptical of the government, particularly more skeptical of law enforcement, I think it did more damage to the legal profession than we realized."