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Marcia Clark told Slate she didn't know what to expect when she learned that the OJ Simpson case — in which she was on the prosecution — would be presented as a true-crime mini-series on FX.
But she added that, for her, "It's not entertainment."
"For me, it's very tough," she said. "It was very painful. It was a nightmare that wouldn't end for 15 months."
She also said FX's "American Crime Story" misrepresents her office's understanding of how race would play as a factor in the case.
"We were downtown all of us working in the criminal courts building during the Rodney King riots — we saw it firsthand," she said. "So when a famous African-American man is now charged with a double-homicide, yeah, we knew it was going to be a serious trouble."
She added "The racial divide was absolutely crystal clear, couldn't be more clear."
In addition to "American Crime Story," ESPN will be airing a five-part"30 for 30" miniseries on the case in June.
Simpson, who was found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in the famed mid-1990s case, is currently serving a 33-year prison sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping stemming from a 2007 incident at a Las Vegas casino hotel room. He is eligible to be paroled in 2017.
Clark said many in her office felt the verdict in his murder trial was "payback" for the Rodney King verdict. King was beaten by Los Angeles police officers after a high-speed car chase in 1991, and the officers were later acquitted of any wrongdoing. That led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
But she added that she doesn't think jurors in the case were all looking for redemption. She said the intense coverage of the trial made it hard to trust evidence.
"The trial was so out of control...that I think it became impossible to believe anything beyond a reasonable doubt," she said.
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