Victim profile:
His ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson
and her friend Ronald Goldman
Method of murder:
Shooting
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Status:
Executed
by lethal injection in
Orenthal James "O. J." Simpson (born July 9,
1947), nicknamed "The Juice", is a retired American collegiate
and professional football player, football broadcaster, actor and
convicted felon.
Originally attaining a public profile in sports as
a running back at the collegiate and professional levels, Simpson was
the American Football League's Buffalo Bills' first overall pick in
the 1969 Common Draft, and the first professional football player to
rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season, a mark he set during the
1973 season. While five other players have passed the 2,000 rush yard
mark he stands alone as the only player to ever rush for more than
2,000 yards in a 14-game season (professional football changed to a
16-game season in 1978). He also holds the record for the single
season yards-per-game average which stands at 143.1 ypg. Simpson was
elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. He also had
successful careers in acting and sports commentary.
In 1995, Simpson was acquitted of the murder of
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman after a lengthy,
internationally publicized criminal trial – the People v. Simpson.
A 1997 judgment against Simpson for their wrongful deaths was awarded
in civil court, and to date he has paid little of the $33.5 million
judgment. His book, If I Did It (2006), which purports to be a
first-person fictional account of the murders had he actually
committed them, was withdrawn by the publisher just before its release.
The book was later released by the Goldman family.
In September 2007, Simpson was arrested in Las
Vegas, Nevada, and charged with numerous felonies, including armed
robbery and kidnapping. In 2008, he was found guilty and sentenced to
33 years imprisonment, with a minimum of 9 years without parole. He is
currently serving his sentence at the Lovelock Correctional Center in
Lovelock, Nevada.
Early life
Simpson was born in San Francisco, the son of
Eunice (née Durden; October 23, 1921 – San Francisco, California,
November 9, 2001), a hospital administrator, and Jimmy Lee Simpson
(Arkansas, January 29, 1920 – San Francisco, California, June 9,
1986), a chef and bank custodian. Simpson's maternal grandparents were
from Louisiana. His aunt gave him the name Orenthal, which supposedly
was the name of a French actor she liked. Simpson has one brother,
Melvin Leon "Truman" Simpson, and one living sister, Shirley Simpson-Baker,
and one deceased sister, Carmelita Simpson-Durio. As a child, Simpson
developed rickets and wore braces on his legs until the age of five.
His parents separated in 1952.
At Galileo High School in San Francisco, Simpson
played for the school football team, the Galileo Lions. From 1965 to
1966, Simpson was a student at City College of San Francisco, a member
of the California Community College system. He played both offense (running
back) and defense (defensive back) and was named to the Junior College
All-American team as a running back.
Football
University of Southern California
Simpson gained an athletic scholarship to the
University of Southern California where he played running back in 1967
and 1968. Simpson led the nation in rushing in 1967 when he ran for
1,451 yards and scored 11 touchdowns. He also led the nation in
rushing the next year with 355 carries for 1,709 yards.
In 1967, he starred in the 1967 USC vs. UCLA
football game and was a Heisman Trophy candidate as a junior, but he
did not win the award. His 64 yard touchdown run in the 4th quarter
tied the game, with the PAT the margin of victory. This was the
biggest play in what is regarded as one of the greatest football games
of the 20th century.
Another dramatic touchdown in the same game is the
subject of the Arnold Friberg oil painting, O.J. Simpson Breaks for
Daylight. Simpson also won the Walter Camp Award in 1967 and was a
two-time consensus All-American. He ran in the USC sprint relay
quartet that broke the world record at the NCAA track championships in
Provo, Utah in June 1967.
In 1968, he rushed for 1,709 yards and 22
touchdowns, earning the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, and the
Walter Camp Award that year. He still holds the record for the
Heisman's largest margin of victory, defeating the runner-up by 1,750
points. In the 1969 Rose Bowl where No.2 USC faced No.1 Ohio State,
Simpson ran for 171 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown run in a
16–27 loss.
Professional
football
Simpson was drafted by the AFL's Buffalo Bills, who
got first pick in the 1969 AFL-NFL Common Draft after finishing 1–12–1
in 1968. Early in his professional football career, Simpson struggled
on poor Buffalo teams, averaging only 622 yards per season for his
first three.
He first rushed for more than 1,000 yards in 1972,
gaining a total of 1,251. In 1973, Simpson rushed for a record 2,003
yards, becoming the first player ever to pass the 2,000-yard mark, and
scored 12 touchdowns. Simpson gained more than 1,000 rushing yards for
each of his next three seasons. From 1972 to 1976, Simpson averaged
1,540 rushing yards per (14 game) season, 5.1 yards per carry, and he
won the NFL rushing title four times. Simpson had the best game of his
career during the Thanksgiving game against the Detroit Lions on
November 25, 1976, when he rushed for a then record 273 yards on 29
attempts and scoring two touchdowns.
Simpson's 1977 season in Buffalo was cut short by
injury. Before the 1978 season, the Bills traded Simpson to the San
Francisco 49ers for a second round draft pick, where he played two
unremarkable seasons.
Simpson gained 11,236 rushing yards, placing him
2nd on the NFL's all-time rushing list; he now stands at 17th. He was
named NFL Player of the Year in 1973, and played in six Pro Bowls. He
was the only player in NFL history to rush for over 2,000 yards in a
14 game season and he's the only player to rush for over 200 yards in
six different games in his career. Simpson was inducted into the Pro
Football Hall of Fame in 1985, his first year of eligibility.
Simpson acquired the nickname "Juice" as a play on
"O. J.", an informal abbreviation for "Orange Juice". "Juice" is also
a colloquial synonym for electricity or electrical power, and hence a
metaphor for any powerful entity; the Bills' offensive line at
Simpson's peak was nicknamed "The Electric Company".
Acting
Even before his retirement from football and in the
NFL, Simpson embarked on a successful film career with parts in films
such as the television mini-series Roots, and the dramatic
motion pictures The Cassandra Crossing, Capricorn One,
The Klansman, The Towering Inferno, and the comedic
Back to the Beach and The Naked Gun trilogy. In 1979, he
started his own film production company, Orenthal Productions, which
dealt mostly in made-for-TV fare such as the family-oriented Goldie
and the Boxer films with Melissa Michaelsen and Cocaine and
Blue Eyes, the pilot for a proposed detective series on NBC. NBC
was considering whether to air Frogmen, another series starring
Simpson, when his arrest canceled the project.
Simpson's amiable persona and natural charisma
landed him numerous endorsement deals. He was a spokesman for the
Hertz rental car company. He would be depicted running through
airports, as if to suggest he was back on the football field. Simpson
was also a longtime spokesman for Pioneer Chicken and owned two
franchises, one of which was destroyed during the 1992 Los Angeles
riots; as well as HoneyBaked Ham, the pX Corporation, and Calistoga
Water Company's line of Napa Naturals soft drinks. He also appeared in
comic book ads for Dingo cowboy boots.
Besides his acting career, Simpson worked as a
commentator for Monday Night Football and The NFL on NBC.
He also appeared in the audience of Saturday Night Live during
its second season and hosted an episode during its third season.
Family life
On June 24, 1967, Simpson married Marguerite L.
Whitley. Together they had three children: Arnelle L. Simpson (born
December 4, 1968), Jason L. Simpson (born April 21, 1970) and Aaren
Lashone Simpson (born September 24, 1977). In August 1979, Aaren
drowned in the family's swimming pool a month before her second
birthday Simpson and Whitley were also divorced that same year.
On February 2, 1985, Simpson married Nicole Brown.
They had two children, Sydney Brooke Simpson (born October 17, 1985)
and Justin Ryan Simpson (born August 6, 1988), and were divorced in
1992.
Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman were
murdered on June 12, 1994. Simpson was charged with their deaths and
subsequently acquitted of all criminal charges in a controversial
criminal trial. In the unanimous jury findings of a civil court case
in February 1997, Simpson was found liable for the wrongful death of
Ronald Goldman and battery of Nicole Brown.
Criminal
trial for murder
In 1989, Simpson pleaded no contest to a domestic
violence charge and was separated from Nicole Brown, to whom he was
paying child support. On June 12, 1994 Brown and her friend Ronald
Goldman were found dead outside Brown's condominium. Simpson was
charged with their murders. On June 17, after failing to turn himself
in, he became the object of a low-speed pursuit in a white Ford Bronco
SUV that interrupted coverage of the 1994 NBA Finals. The pursuit,
arrest, and trial were among the most widely publicized events in
American history. The trial, often characterized as "the trial of the
century," culminated on October 3, 1995 in a jury verdict of not
guilty for the two murders. The verdict was seen live on TV by more
than half of the U.S. population, making it one of the most watched
events in American TV history. Immediate reaction to the verdict was
notable for its division along racial lines: polls showed that most
African-Americans felt that justice had been served by the "not guilty"
verdict, while most white Americans did not. O. J. Simpson's defense
counsel included Johnnie Cochran, Robert Kardashian, and F. Lee Bailey.
Wrongful
death civil trial
On February 5, 1997 a civil jury in Santa Monica,
California unanimously found Simpson liable for the wrongful death of
and battery against Goldman, and battery against Brown. Daniel
Petrocelli represented plaintiff Fred Goldman, Ronald Goldman's father.
Simpson was ordered to pay $33,500,000 in damages. However, California
law protects pensions from being used to satisfy judgments, so Simpson
was able to continue much of his lifestyle based on his NFL pension.
In February 1999, an auction of Simpson's Heisman Trophy and other
belongings netted almost $500,000. The money went to the Goldman
family.
A 2000 Rolling Stone article reported that
Simpson still made a significant income by signing autographs. He
subsequently moved from California to Miami. In Florida, a person's
residence cannot be seized to collect a debt under most circumstances.
The Goldman family also tried to collect Simpson's NFL pension of
$28,000 a year but failed to collect any money.
On September 5, 2006, Goldman's father took Simpson
back to court to obtain control over his "right to publicity" for
purposes of satisfying the judgment in the civil court case. On
January 4, 2007, a Federal judge issued a restraining order
prohibiting Simpson from spending any advance he may have received on
a canceled TV and book deal. The matter was dismissed before trial for
lack of jurisdiction. On January 19, 2007, a California state judge
issued an additional restraining order, ordering Simpson to restrict
his spending to "ordinary and necessary living expenses".
On March 13, 2007, a judge prevented Simpson from
receiving any further compensation from a canceled book deal and TV
interview. He ordered the bundled book rights to be auctioned. In
August 2007, a Florida bankruptcy court awarded the rights to the book
to the Goldman family to partially satisfy an unpaid civil judgment.
The book was renamed If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer,
with the word "If" reduced in size to make it appear that the title
was "I Did It: Confessions of the Killer", and comments were added to
the original manuscript by the Goldman family, author Pablo Fenjves,
and prominent investigative journalist Dominick Dunne. The author was
listed as the Goldman family.
Alleged confession
Mike Gilbert, a memorabilia dealer and former agent
and friend of Simpson, wrote a book titled How I Helped O.J. Get
Away with Murder: The Shocking Inside Story of Violence, Loyalty,
Regret and Remorse. He states that Simpson had smoked marijuana,
took a sleeping pill and was drinking beer when he allegedly confided
at his Brentwood home weeks after his trial what happened the night of
June 12, 1994. According to Gilbert, Simpson said, "If she hadn't
opened that door with a knife in her hand...she'd still be alive."
Gilbert claimed Simpson had confessed. However, Simpson's current
lawyer, Yale Galanter, said none of Gilbert's claims are true and that
Gilbert is "a delusional drug addict who needs money. He has fallen on
very hard times. He is in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service".
Miscellaneous legal troubles
The State of California claims Simpson owes $1.44 million
in past due taxes. A tax lien was filed in his case on September 1,
1999.
In February 2001, Simpson was arrested in Miami-Dade
County, Florida for simple battery and burglary of an occupied
conveyance for allegedly yanking the glasses off another motorist
during a traffic dispute 3 months earlier. If convicted, Simpson faced
up to 16 years in prison. He was put on trial and quickly acquitted on
both charges in October 2001.
Simpson's Miami home was searched by the FBI on
December 4, 2001 on suspicion of ecstasy possession and money
laundering. The FBI had received a tip that O.J. Simpson was involved
in a major drug trafficking ring after 10 other suspects were arrested
in the case. Mr. Simpson's home was thoroughly searched for two hours,
yet no illegal drugs were ever discovered. No arrest or formal charges
ever stemmed from this incident. However, investigators uncovered
equipment capable of broadcasting pirated satellite television signals
which eventually led to Simpson being sued in federal court.
On July 4, 2002, O.J. Simpson was arrested in
Miami-Dade County, Florida for speeding through a Manatee Zone and
failing to comply with proper boating regulations. His attorney, Yale
Galanter, was able to get the misdemeanor boating regulation charge
dropped and Simpson only had to pay a fine for the speeding infraction.
In March 2004, satellite television network DirecTV,
Inc. accused Simpson in a Miami federal court of using illegal
electronic devices to pirate its broadcast signals. The company later
won a $25,000 judgment, and Simpson was ordered to pay $33,678 in
attorney's fees and costs.
Las Vegas robbery
In September 2007, a group of men led by Simpson
entered a room at the Palace Station hotel-casino and took sports
memorabilia at gunpoint, which resulted in Simpson being questioned by
police. Simpson admitted to taking the items, which he said had been
stolen from him, but denied breaking into the hotel room; he also
denied that he or anyone else carried a gun. He was released after
questioning.
Two days later, however, Simpson was arrested and
initially held without bail. Along with three other men, Simpson was
charged with multiple felony counts, including criminal conspiracy,
kidnapping, assault, robbery, and using a deadly weapon. Bail was set
at $125,000, with stipulations that Simpson have no contact with the
co-defendants and that he surrender his passport. Simpson did not
enter a plea.
By the end of October 2007, all three of Simpson's
co-defendants had plea bargained with the prosecution in the Clark
County, Nevada court case. Walter Alexander and Charles H. Cashmore
accepted plea agreements in exchange for reduced charges and his
testimony against Simpson and three other co-defendants, including
testifying that guns were used in the robbery. Co-defendant Michael
McClinton told a Las Vegas judge that he too would plead guilty to
reduced charges and testify against Simpson that guns were used in the
robbery. After the hearings, the judge ordered that Simpson be tried
for the heist.
Simpson's preliminary hearing, to decide whether he
would be tried for the charges, occurred on November 8, 2007. He was
held over for trial on all 12 counts. Simpson pleaded not guilty on
November 29. Court officers and attorneys announced on May 22, 2008,
that long questionnaires with at least 115 queries would be given to a
jury pool of 400 or more. Trial was reset from April to September 8,
2008.
In January 2008, Simpson was taken into custody in
Florida and flown to Las Vegas where he was incarcerated at the county
jail for allegedly violating the terms of his bail by attempting to
contact Clarence "C.J." Stewart, a co-defendant in the trial. District
Attorney David Roger of Clark County, provided District Court Judge
Jackie Glass with data that Simpson had violated terms of bail. The
hearing on this bail issue was on January 16, 2008. Clark County
District Court Judge Jackie Glass raised Simpson's bail to US$250,000
and ordered that he remain in county jail until 15 percent of the bail,
in cash, was paid. Simpson posted bond that evening and returned to
Miami the next day.
Simpson and his co-defendant were found guilty of
all charges on October 3, 2008. On October 10, 2008, O. J. Simpson's
counsels moved for new trial (trial de novo) on grounds of judicial
errors (two African-American jurors were dismissed) and insufficient
evidence. Galanter announced he would appeal to the Nevada Supreme
Court if Judge Glass denied the motion. The attorney for Simpson's co-defendant,
C.J. Stewart, petitioned for a new trial, alleging Stewart should have
been tried separately, and cited perceived misconduct by the jury
foreman, Paul Connelly.
Simpson faced a possible life sentence with parole
on the kidnapping charge, and mandatory prison time for armed robbery.
On December 5, 2008, Simpson was sentenced to a total of 33 years in
prison with the possibility of parole in about 9 years. On September
4, 2009, the Nevada Supreme Court denied a request for bail during
Simpson's appeal. In October 2010, the Nevada Supreme Court affirmed
his convictions. He is now serving his sentence as Nevada Department
of Corrections inmate #1027820 at the Lovelock Correctional Center.
The O. J. Simpson murder case
The O. J. Simpson murder case (officially called
the People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson)
was a criminal trial held in Los Angeles County, California Superior
Court from January 29 to October 3, 1995. Former American football
star and actor O. J. Simpson was tried on two counts of murder
following the June, 1994 deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson
and her friend Ronald Goldman. The case has been described as the most
publicized criminal trial in American history. Ultimately, Simpson was
acquitted after a lengthy trial that lasted over nine months which was
presided over by Judge Lance Ito.
Simpson hired a high-profile defense team initially
led by Robert Shapiro and subsequently led by Johnnie Cochran. Los
Angeles County believed it had a solid prosecution case, but Cochran
was able to persuade the jurors that there was reasonable doubt about
the DNA evidence (then a relatively new type of evidence in trials) –
including that the blood-sample evidence had allegedly been mishandled
by lab scientists and technicians – and about the circumstances
surrounding other exhibits. Cochran and the defense team also alleged
other misconduct by the Los Angeles Police Department. Simpson's
celebrity and the lengthy televised trial riveted national attention
on the so-called "Trial of the Century". By the end of the criminal
trial, national surveys showed dramatic differences between most
blacks and most whites in terms of their assessment of Simpson's guilt.
Later, both the Brown and Goldman families sued
Simpson for damages in a civil trial. On February 6, 1997, a jury
unanimously found there was a preponderance of evidence to hold
Simpson liable for damages in the wrongful death of Goldman and
battery of Brown. On February 21, 2008, a Los Angeles court upheld a
renewal of the civil judgment against him.
The murders
At 12:00 am on June 13, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson
and Ron Goldman were found murdered outside Brown's Bundy Drive condo
in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Her two children, Sydney (age 8)
and Justin (age 5), were asleep inside in an upstairs bedroom. O. J.
Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson had divorced two years earlier.
Evidence found and collected at the scene led police to suspect that
O. J. Simpson was the murderer. Nicole had been stabbed multiple times
in the head and neck with defense wounds on her hands. The wound
through her neck was gaping, through which the larynx could be seen
and vertebrae C3 was also incised.
Ford Bronco chase
Lawyers convinced the LAPD to allow Simpson to turn
himself in at 11 am on June 17, 1994 even though the double murder
charge meant no bail and a possible death penalty verdict if convicted.
Over 1,000 reporters waited for Simpson at the police station, but he
failed to appear. At 2 pm, the Los Angeles Police Department issued an
all-points bulletin. At 5 pm Robert Kardashian, a Simpson friend and
one of his defense lawyers, read a rambling letter by Simpson to the
media. In the letter Simpson sent greetings to 24 friends and wrote, "First
everyone understand I have nothing to do with Nicole's murder ...
Don't feel sorry for me. I've had a great life." To many, this sounded
like a suicide note, and the reporters joined the search for Simpson.
According to Simpson lawyer Robert Shapiro, also present at
Kardashian's press conference, Simpson's psychiatrists agreed with the
suicide note interpretation; on television the attorney appealed to
Simpson to surrender.
Around 6:20 a motorist in Orange County saw Simpson
riding in the white Bronco of his friend, A. C. Cowlings, and notified
police. The police then tracked calls placed from Simpson on his
cellular telephone. At 6:45 pm, a police officer saw Cowlings' Ford
Bronco, going north on Interstate 405. When the officer approached the
Bronco, Cowlings yelled that Simpson was in the vehicle and had a gun
to his own head. The officer backed off but followed the vehicle at 35
miles per hour (56 km/h), with up to 20 police cars participating in
the chase.
For some time a Los Angeles News Service helicopter
piloted by Bob Tur, and contracted by KCBS had exclusive coverage, but
over 20 helicopters joined the chase; the high degree of media
participation caused camera signals to appear on incorrect television
channels. Radio station KNX also provided live coverage of the slow-speed
pursuit. USC sports announcer Pete Arbogast and station producer Oran
Sampson contacted former USC coach John McKay to go on the air and
encourage Simpson to end the pursuit. McKay agreed and asked Simpson
to pull over and turn himself in instead of committing suicide. He
responded to the pleas from McKay and other friends by stating that he
was "just gonna go with Nicole". Simpson's friend Al Michaels
interpreted his actions as an admission of guilt.
All Big Three television networks and CNN as well
as local news outlets interrupted regular programming, with 95 million
viewers nationwide. While NBC continued coverage of Game 5 of the NBA
Finals between the New York Knicks and the Houston Rockets, the game
appeared in a small box in the corner while Tom Brokaw as anchorman
covered the chase. The chase was covered live by ABC News anchors
Peter Jennings and Barbara Walters on behalf of ABC's five news
magazines, which achieved some of their highest-ever ratings that week.
Thousands of spectators and on-lookers packed
overpasses along the procession's journey waiting for the white
Bronco. In a festival-like atmosphere, some had signs urging Simpson
to flee. They and the millions watching the chase on television felt
part of a "common emotional experience", as they wondered if O. J.
Simpson would commit suicide, be arrested, or engage in some kind of
violent confrontation. Whatever might ensue, the shared adventure gave
millions of viewers a vested interest, a sense of participation, a
feeling of being on the inside of a national drama in the making.
Simpson reportedly demanded that he be allowed to
speak to his mother before he would surrender. The chase ended at
8:00 pm at his Brentwood home, 50 miles (80 km) later, where his son
Jason ran out of the house to greet him. After remaining in the Bronco
for about 45 minutes, Simpson was allowed to go inside for about an
hour; a police spokesman stated that he spoke to his mother and drank
a glass of orange juice, resulting in laughter from the reporters.
Shapiro arrived and a few minutes later, Simpson surrendered to
authorities. In the Bronco the police found "$8,000 in cash, a change
of clothing, a loaded .357 Magnum, a passport, family pictures, and a
fake goatee and mustache".
Arrest and trial
On June 20, Simpson was arraigned and pleaded not
guilty to both murders. The following day, a grand jury was called to
determine whether to indict him for the two murders. Two days later,
on June 23, the grand jury was dismissed as a result of excessive
media coverage, which might influence the grand jury's neutrality.
Jill Shively, a Brentwood resident who testified that she saw Simpson
speeding away from the area of Nicole's house on the night of the
murders, testified to the grand jury that the Bronco almost collided
with a Nissan at the intersection of Bundy and San Vicente Boulevard.
Another grand jury witness, Jose Camacho, was a knife salesman at Ross
Cutlery who claimed to have sold Simpson a 15-inch (380 mm) German-made
knife similar to the murder weapon three weeks before the murders.
Shively and Camacho were not presented by the prosecution at the
criminal trial after they sold their stories to the tabloid press.
Shively had talked to television show Hard Copy for $5,000, and
Camacho sold his story to the National Enquirer for $12,500.
After a week-long court hearing, California
Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell ruled on July 7 that
there was sufficient evidence to bring Simpson to trial for the
murders. At his second court arraignment on July 29, when asked how he
pled to the murders, Simpson, breaking a courtroom practice that says
the accused may plead only simple words of "guilty" or "not guilty,"
firmly stated: "Absolutely, one hundred percent, not guilty."
Following the preliminary hearing, the case was
moved from Santa Monica to the Criminal Courts Building in Downtown
Los Angeles. The decision, commonly attributed to the District
Attorney, was actually the decision of the Los Angeles Superior Court,
which cited damage to the Santa Monica Courthouse from the 1994
Northridge earthquake and security concerns for moving the trial
downtown. The decision would prove critical because a jury pool
selected Downtown would have more Latinos, African-Americans, Asian-Americans,
and blue-collar workers than a jury pool from Santa Monica.
Leading the murder investigation was veteran LAPD
detective Tom Lange. In 1995, the criminal trial of O.J. Simpson took
place through 134 days of televised testimony. The prosecution elected
not to ask for the death penalty, and instead it sought a life in
prison sentence. The TV exposure made celebrities of many of the
figures in the trial, including Judge Lance Ito.
Prosecutor Marcia Clark, a 40-year-old Deputy
District Attorney, was designated as the lead prosecutor, which was to
be her twenty-first murder trial during her 13 years with the D.A.'s
office. Deputy District Attorney Christopher A. Darden, an African-American
prosecutor widely experienced in murder trials, became Clark's co-counsel.
Since Simpson wanted a speedy trial, the defense
and prosecuting attorneys worked around the clock for several months
to prepare their case. In October 1994, Judge Ito started interviewing
304 prospective jurors, each of whom had to fill out a 75-page
questionnaire. On November 3, 12 jurors were seated with 12 alternates.
Covered and televised by Court TV, and in part by
other cable and network news outlets, the trial began on January 25,
1995. Los Angeles County prosecutor Christopher Darden argued that
Simpson killed his ex-wife in a jealous rage. The prosecution opened
its case by playing a 9-1-1 call that Nicole Brown Simpson had made on
January 1, 1989. She expressed fear that Simpson would physically harm
her, and he could be heard yelling at her in the background. The
prosecution also presented dozens of expert witnesses, on subjects
ranging from DNA fingerprinting to blood and shoeprint analysis, to
place Simpson at the scene of the crime.
The prosecution spent the opening weeks of the
trial presenting evidence that Simpson had a history of physically
abusing Nicole. Simpson's lawyer Alan Dershowitz argued that only a
tiny fraction of women who are abused by their mates are murdered.
Within days after the start of the trial, lawyers
and persons viewing the trial from a single closed-circuited TV camera
in the courtroom saw an emerging pattern: Continual and countless
interruptions with objections from both sides of the courtroom, as
well as one "sidebar" conference after another with the judge beyond
earshot of the unseen jury located just below and out of the camera's
frame.
Defense attorneys
Simpson had hired a team of high-profile lawyers,
including F. Lee Bailey, Robert Shapiro, Alan Dershowitz, Robert
Kardashian, Gerald Uelmen (the dean of law at Santa Clara University),
Carl E. Douglas and Johnnie Cochran. Attorneys specializing in DNA
evidence, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, were hired to attempt to
discredit the prosecution's DNA evidence, and they argued that Simpson
was the victim of police fraud and what they termed as sloppy internal
procedures that contaminated the DNA evidence.
Simpson's defense was said to cost between US$3 million
and $6 million. Simpson's defense team, dubbed the "Dream Team" by
reporters, argued that LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman had planted
evidence at the crime scene. LAPD Criminalist Dennis Fung also faced
heavy scrutiny. In all, 150 witnesses gave testimony during the trial.
Prosecution case
Even with no witnesses to the murders, the
prosecution presented a very strong case. Supported by DNA evidence,
they fully expected a conviction. From the physical evidence collected,
the prosecution speculated that Simpson drove over to Nicole Brown's
house on the evening of June 12 with the intention of killing her.
They speculated that Nicole, after putting her two children to bed and
while getting ready to go to bed herself, opened the front door of her
house after either responding to a knock on the front door or after
hearing a noise outside, where Simpson grabbed her before she could
scream and attacked her with a knife. Forensic evidence from the Los
Angeles County coroner suggested that Ron Goldman arrived at the front
gate to the townhouse sometime during the assault where the assailant
apparently attacked him and stabbed him repeatedly in the neck and
chest with one hand while restraining him with an arm choke-hold.
According to the prosecution's account, as Nicole Brown was found
lying face down, the assailant, after finished with Goldman, pulled
her head back using her hair, put his foot on her back, and slit her
throat with the knife, severing her carotid artery. They then argued
that Simpson left a "trail of blood" from the condo to the alley
behind it; there was also testimony that three drops of Simpson's
blood were found on the driveway near the gate to his house on
Rockingham Drive.
According to the prosecution, Simpson was last seen
in public at 9:36 pm that evening when he returned to the front gate
of his house with Brian 'Kato' Kaelin, a bit-part actor and family
friend who lived with Nicole until he was given the use of a guest
house on Simpson's estate. Simpson was not seen again until 10:54 pm,
an hour and 18 minutes later, when he came out of the front door of
his house to a waiting limousine hired to take him to Los Angeles
International Airport (LAX) to fly to a Hertz convention in Chicago.
Both the defense and prosecution agreed that the murders took place
between 10:15 and 10:40 pm, with the prosecution saying that Simpson
drove his white Bronco the five minutes to and from the murder scene.
They presented a witness in the area of Bundy Drive who saw a car
similar to Simpson's Bronco speeding away from the area at 10:35 pm.
According to his testimony, limousine driver Allan
Park arrived at Simpson's estate at 10:25 pm Driving past the
Rockingham gate, he did not see Simpson's white Bronco parked at the
curb. Park testified that he had been looking for and had seen the
house number, and the prosecution presented exhibits to show that the
position in which the Bronco was found the next morning was right next
to the house number (implying that Park would surely have noticed the
Bronco if it had been there at that time).
According to Simpson's version of events, the
Bronco had been parked in that position for several hours. Meanwhile,
Kato Kaelin was on the phone to his friend, Rachel Ferrara. Park
parked opposite the Ashford gate, then drove back to the Rockingham
gate to check which driveway would have the best access for the limo.
Deciding that the Rockingham entrance was too tight, he returned to
the Ashford gate and began to buzz the intercom at 10:40, getting no
response. After looking though the gate and seeing the house dark with
no lights on, save for a dim light coming from one of the second floor
windows, which was Simpson's bedroom, Park then made a series of phone
calls from his cellular to his boss's (Dale St. John) pager and then
to his home, trying to get St. John's home number from his mother to
try to get the phone number for Simpson's house. At approximately
10:50, Kato Kaelin (who was still on the phone to Rachel Ferrara)
heard three thumps against the outside wall of his guest house. Kaelin
hung up the phone and ventured outside to investigate but decided not
to venture directly down the dark south pathway where the thumps came
from. Instead, he walked to the front of the property where he saw
Allan Park's limousine outside the Ashford gate.
At the same time Park saw Kaelin come from the back
of the property to the front, Park testified that he saw "a tall black
man" of Simpson's height and build enter the front door of the house
from the driveway area, after which lights went on and Simpson finally
answered Park's call, explaining that he had overslept and would be at
the front gate soon. Kaelin opened the front gate to let Park onto the
estate grounds, and Simpson came out of his house through the front
door a few minutes later. Both Kaelin and Park helped Simpson put his
belongings (which were already outside the front door when Park drove
up to the front of Simpson's house) in the trunk of the limo for the
ride to the airport. Both Kaelin and Park remarked in their testimony
that Simpson looked agitated. But other witnesses, such as the ticket
clerk at Los Angeles International Airport who checked Simpson onto
the plane and a few others, including a flight attendant who was also
called to testify, said that Simpson looked and acted perfectly
normal. Conflicting testimony such as this was to be a recurring theme
throughout the trial.
Simpson's initial claim that he was asleep at the
time of the murders was replaced by a series of different stories.
According to the defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran, Simpson had never
left his house that night and that he was alone in his house packing
to travel to Chicago. Cochran claims that Simpson went outside through
the back door to hit a few golf balls into the children's sandbox in
the front garden, one or more of which made the three loud thumps on
the wall of Kaelin's bungalow. Cochran produced a potential alibi
witness, Rosa Lopez, a neighbor's Spanish-speaking housekeeper who
testified that she had seen Simpson's car parked outside his house at
the time of the murders. But Lopez's testimony, which was not
presented to the jury, was pulled apart under intense cross-examination
by Marcia Clark, when Ms. Lopez was forced to admit that she could not
be sure of the precise time she saw Simpson's white Bronco outside his
house. Ms. Lopez was interviewed in English, without an interpreter
present.
Later, the defense tried to claim that Simpson
could not be physically capable of carrying out the murders, for
Ronald Goldman was a fit young man who put up a fierce struggle
against his assailant. O.J. Simpson was a 46-year-old former football
player with chronic arthritis, which had left him with scars on his
knees from old football injuries. But Marcia Clark produced into
evidence an exercise video that Simpson made two years earlier which
showed that, despite some physical conditions, Simpson was anything
but frail.
The prosecution also called Nicole's sister, Denise,
to the witness stand where she tearfully testified that on many
occasions in the 1980s, she witnessed Simpson pick up his wife and
hurl her against a wall, then physically throw her out of their house
after an argument. Her testimony was punctuated by a barrage of
defense objections and sidebar conferences with the judge.
Then the prosecution turned to the events of the
evening of June 12, 1994, where Karen Lee Crawford, who was the
manager of the Mezzaluna restaurant where Nicole ate that Sunday
night, was called to testify where she recounted that Mrs. Simpson's
mother phoned the restaurant at 9:37 pm about her daughter's lost
eyeglasses, and how Ms. Crawford found them, put them in a white
envelope, and how waiter Ron Goldman departed from the restaurant
after his shift was over to drop them off at Nicole's house at 9:50 pm.
Nicole's neighbor, Pablo Fenives, testified about hearing a "very
distinctive barking" and "plaintive wail" of a dog at around 10 to 15
minutes after 10 pm while he was at home watching the 10 o'clock news
on his TV set. Eva Stein, another neighbor, testified about a very
loud and persistent barking sound also at around 10:15 pm that kept
her from going back to sleep. Neighbor Steven Schwab testified that
while he was walking his dog in the area near Nicole's house at around
10:30 pm, he noticed a wandering and agitated Akita dog trailing its
leash with bloody paws, which after examining, found the dog uninjured.
Schwab told about taking the dog to another neighbor friend of his,
Sukru Boztepe, who testified that he took the Akita dog into his home
where the dog became more agitated. Boztepe took the dog for a walk at
approximately 11:00 pm and testified that the dog tugged on its leash
and led him to Nicole's house. There he discovered Nicole Simpson's
dead body. Minutes later, Boztepe flagged down a passing patrol car.
The police officer, Robert Riske, was the first
officer at the crime scene. He testified that he found a woman in a
black dress, barefoot, and lying face down in a puddle of blood on the
walkway that led to the front door of her house. Then he saw Goldman's
body lying on its side beside a tree a short distance away off the
walkway. Riske also described seeing a white envelope, which was later
proven to contain Nicole's glasses that had been left at the
restaurant. He also saw Goldman's beeper, a black leather glove, and a
dark blue knit ski cap on the ground near the bodies.
On Sunday, February 12, 1995, a long motorcade
traveled into Brentwood where the judge, jurors, prosecutors, and
defense lawyers made a two-hour inspection of the crime scene, and
then a three-hour tour of O.J. Simpson's Rockingham estate. Simpson,
under guard by several officers but not wearing handcuffs, waited
outside the crime scene in an unmarked police car, but was permitted
to enter his Rockingham house.
Detective Ron Phillips testified that when he
called Simpson in Chicago to tell him of his ex-wife's murder that
Simpson sounded shocked and upset, but was oddly unconcerned about how
she died. Detective Tom Lange testified that Nicole was probably
killed first because the bottoms of her bare feet were clean, implying
that she was struck before any blood flowed. This was a key point that
Simpson might have set out to kill Nicole; whereas Goldman
inadvertently stumbled upon the scene and prompted Simpson to kill him
too. In cross-examining Detective Lange, Cochran proposed two
hypotheses for what happened at the murder scene. First, he suggested
that one, or more, drug dealers encountered Nicole Simpson while
looking for her friend and house guest, Faye Resnick, an admitted
cocaine abuser. In the second hypothesis, Cochran suggested that "an
assassin, or assassins," followed Goldman to the South Bundy house to
kill him.
DNA evidence
Samples from bloody footprints leading away from
the bodies and from the back gate of the condominium were tested for
DNA matches. Initial polymerase chain reaction testing did not rule
out Simpson as a suspect. In more precise restriction fragment length
polymorphism tests matches were found between Simpson's blood and
blood samples taken from the crime scene (both the footprints and the
gate samples).
Police criminalist Dennis Fung testified that this
DNA evidence put Simpson at Nicole Brown's townhouse at the time of
the murders. But in cross-examination by Barry Scheck, which lasted
eight full days, most of the DNA evidence was questioned. Dr. Robin
Cotton, of Cellmark Diagnostics, testified for six days. Blood
evidence had been tested at two separate laboratories, each conducting
different tests.
Despite that safeguard, it emerged during the
cross-examination of Fung and the other laboratory scientists that the
police scientist Andrea Mazzola (who collected blood samples from
Simpson to compare with evidence from the crime scene) was a trainee
who carried the vial of Simpson's blood around in her lab coat pocket
for nearly a day before handing it over as an exhibit. While two
errors had been found in the history of DNA testing at Cellmark, one
of the testing laboratories, in 1988 and 1989, the errors were found
during quality control tests and had not occurred since.
In the 1988 test, one of the companies hired for
DNA consulting by Simpson's defense also made the same error. What
should have been the prosecution's strong point became their weak link
amid accusations that bungling police technicians handled the blood
samples with such a degree of incompetence as to render the delivery
of accurate and reliable DNA results almost impossible. The
prosecution argued that they had made the DNA evidence available to
the defense for its own testing, and if the defense attorneys
disagreed with the prosecution's tests they could have conducted their
own testing on the same samples. The defense had chosen not to accept
the prosecution's offer.
On May 16, Gary Sims, a California Department of
Justice criminalist who helped establish the Department of Justice's
DNA laboratory, testified that a glove found at Simpson's house tested
positive for a match of Goldman's blood.
Mark Furhman
In 1983, LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman was
interviewed by Dr. Ira Brent in relation to a disability claim for
work-related stress. Mark Fuhrman confided to Brent that he beat up
suspects, and that he blacked out and became a wild man. In 1984,
Fuhrman stopped a young black man named Jarvis Bowers for jaywalking,
put him in a choke hold and threatened his life. This happened in
front of a movie theater in a predominately white area with several
witnesses. This incident cost Fuhrman a day's pay.
In March 1995, Fuhrman testified to driving over to
Simpson's house to question him on the night of the two murders and,
after getting no response after buzzing the intercom of the house
which was empty, scaled one of the walls and found blood marks on the
driveway of Simpson's home, as well as a black leather glove on the
premises near the location of Kailen's bungalow, which had blood of
both murder victims on it as well as Simpson's. Despite an aggressive
cross-examination by F. Lee Bailey, Fuhrman denied on the stand that
he was racist or had used the word "nigger" to describe black people
in the 10 years prior to his testimony. But a few months later, the
defense played audio tapes of Fuhrman repeatedly using the word – 41
times, in total. The tape had been made in 1986 by a young North
Carolina screenwriter named Laura McKinny. She had interviewed Fuhrman
for a screenplay she was developing on police officers. The Fuhrman
tapes became one of the cornerstones of the defense's case that
Fuhrman's testimony lacked credibility.
In September, Fuhrman was called back to the
witness stand by the defense to answer more questions about the
discovery of the blood marks and leather glove that he supposedly
found on Simpson's property hours after the murders took place. When
questioned by Simpson attorney Gerald Uelmen, Fuhrman, with his lawyer
standing by his side, pleaded the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination
to avoid further questioning after his integrity was challenged at
this point.
The prosecution told the jury in closing arguments
that Fuhrman was indeed a racist, but that this should not detract
from the evidence showing Simpson's guilt. Fuhrman's testimony
resulted in his indictment on one count of perjury, to which he later
pled no contest.
Glove
One dark leather glove was found at the crime scene,
its match found near Kato Kaelin's guest house behind Simpson's
Rockingham Drive estate. Kaelin testified that he had heard "thumps in
the night" in the same area around the guest house the night of the
murder. Brown had bought Simpson two pairs of this type of glove in
1990. Both gloves, according to the prosecution, contained DNA
evidence from Simpson, Brown and Goldman, with the glove at Simpson's
house also containing a long strand of blonde hair similar to Brown's.
On June 15, 1995, defense attorney Johnnie Cochran
goaded assistant prosecutor Christopher Darden into asking Simpson to
put on the leather glove that was found at the scene of the crime. The
prosecution had earlier decided against asking Simpson to try on the
gloves because the glove had been soaked in blood (according to
prosecutors) from Simpson, Brown and Goldman, and frozen and unfrozen
several times. Darden was advised by Clark and other prosecutors not
to ask Simpson to try on the glove, but to argue through experts that
in better condition, the glove would fit. Instead, Darden decided to
have Simpson try on the glove.
The leather glove seemed too tight for Simpson to
put on easily, especially over the latex gloves he wore underneath.
Uelmen came up with and Cochran repeated a quip he had used several
times in relation to other points in his closing arguments, "If it
doesn't fit, you must acquit." On June 22, 1995, assistant prosecutor
Christopher Darden told Judge Lance Ito of his concerns that Simpson
"has arthritis and we looked at the medication he takes and some of it
is anti-inflammatory and we are told he has not taken the stuff for a
day and it caused swelling in the joints and inflammation in his hands."
The prosecution also stated their belief that the glove shrank from
having been soaked in blood and later testing. A photo was presented
during the trial showing Simpson wearing the same type of glove that
was found at the crime scene.
Prosecutors contended that the presence of O. J.
Simpson's blood at the crime scene was the result of blood dripping
from cuts on the middle finger of his left hand. Police noted his
wounds on June 13, 1994, and asserted that these were suffered during
the fatal attack on Ronald Goldman. However, the defense noted that
none of the gloves found had any cuts. Plus, both prosecution and
defense witnesses testified to not seeing any cuts or wounds of any
kind on Simpson's hands in the hours after the murders took place. The
defense also alleged that Fuhrman may have planted the glove at
Simpson's house after taking it from the crime scene, and that the
analysis finding that the hair could be Brown's could not be reliable.
The prosecution contended that this was not the
case, pointing out that by the time Fuhrman had arrived at the Simpson
home after leaving the Nicole Brown's home, the crime scene had
already been combed over by several officers for almost two hours, and
none had noticed a second glove at the scene. In his first round of
testimony, Fuhrman answered "no" when asked by F. Lee Bailey if he had
planted any evidence at Simpson's house. In his second round of
testimony, Fuhrman took the Fifth Amendment when asked the same
question.
Racial differences
In closing arguments, Darden ridiculed the notion
that police officers might have wanted to frame Simpson. He questioned
why, if the LAPD was against Simpson, they went to his house eight
times on domestic violence calls without arresting him before
eventually citing him for abuse in 1989, and why they then waited five
days to arrest him for the 1994 murders.
Cochran's jury summation compared Fuhrman—proven to
have repeatedly referred to African-Americans as "niggers" and to have
boasted of beating young African-Americans in his role as a police
officer—to Adolf Hitler, a technique which was later criticized by
Robert Shapiro and by at least one juror, as well as Ron Goldman's
father, Fred Goldman. Cochran called Fuhrman "a genocidal racist, a
perjurer, America's worst nightmare and the personification of evil."
Fuhrman later pleaded Nolo contendere to felony charges of perjury,
arising from his testimony in Simpson's trial.
Fears grew that race riots would erupt all over Los
Angeles and the rest of the country if Simpson were convicted of the
murders, similar to the 1992 riots following the acquittal of four
police officers for beating black motorist Rodney King three years
earlier. As a result, all L.A. police officers were put on 12-hour
shifts, and a line of over 100 police officers on horseback surrounded
the L.A. county courthouse on the day of the verdict, in case of
rioting by the crowd.
Verdict
At 10 am on October 3, 1995, the jury returned a
verdict of not guilty. It had arrived at the verdict by 3 pm the
previous day, after only four hours of deliberation, but Judge Ito
postponed the announcement.
Evidence
The prosecution used several tactics to show
Simpson's culpability.
DNA analysis of blood found on a pair of
Simpson's socks found in his bedroom identified it as Nicole Brown's.
The blood had DNA characteristics matched by approximately only one
in 9.7 billion, with odds rising to one out of 21 billion when
compiling results of testing done at the two separate DNA
laboratories. Both socks had about 20 stains of blood.
DNA analysis of the blood found in, on, and near
Simpson's Bronco revealed traces of Simpson's, Brown's, and
Goldman's blood.
DNA analysis of bloody socks found in Simpson's
bedroom proved this was Brown's blood. The blood made a similar
pattern on both sides of the socks. Defense medical expert Dr. Henry
Lee of the Connecticut State Police Forensic Science Laboratory
testified that the only way such a pattern could appear was if
Simpson had a "hole" in his ankle, or a drop of blood was placed on
the sock while it was not being worn. Lee testified the collection
procedure of the socks could have caused contamination.
African-American hair was found on Goldman's
shirt.
Several coins were found along with fresh blood
drops behind Nicole's condo, in the area where the cars were parked.
DNA analysis of blood on the left-hand glove,
found outside Brown's home, was proven to be a mixture of Simpson's,
Brown's, and Goldman's. Although the glove was soaked in blood,
there were no blood drops leading up to, or away from the glove. No
other blood was found in the area of the glove except on the glove.
The gloves contained particles of hair consistent
with Goldman's hair and a cap contained carpet fibers consistent
with fibers from Simpson's Bronco. A knit cap at the crime scene
contained African-American hair. Dark blue cotton fibers were found
on Goldman, and the prosecution presented a witness who said Simpson
wore a similarly-colored sweat suit that night.
The left-hand glove found at Nicole Brown's home
and the right-hand glove found at Simpson's home proved to be a
match.
The LA County District Attorney's Office and the
Medical Examiner's Office could not explain why 1.5 cm³ of blood
were missing from the original 8 cm³ taken from Simpson and placed
into evidence.
Officers found arrest records indicating that
Simpson was charged with the beating of his wife Nicole Brown.
Photos of Brown's bruised and battered face from that attack were
shown.
Much of the incriminating evidence: bloody glove,
bloody socks, blood in and on the Bronco, was discovered by Los
Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman. He was later charged with
perjury for falsely claiming during the trial that he had not used
the word "nigger" within ten years of the trial. During the trial he
pleaded the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination to avoid
further questioning after his integrity was challenged on this point.
The bloody footprints were identified by FBI shoe
expert William Bodziak as having been made by a pair of extremely
rare Bruno Magli shoes, of which it has been reported that only 299
pairs were sold in the US. The large size 12 (305 mm) prints matched
Simpson's shoe size. In the criminal trial, Simpson defense
attorneys had said the prosecution had no proof Simpson had ever
bought such shoes, however then free-lance photographer E.J. Flammer
claimed to have found a photograph he had taken of Simpson in 1993
that appeared to show him wearing a pair of the shoes at a public
event, which was later published in the National Enquirer. Simpson's
defense team claimed the photograph was doctored, although other pre-1994
photos appearing to show Simpson wearing Bruno Magli shoes were
since discovered and published.
Evidence collected by LAPD criminalist Dennis
Fung came under criticism. He admitted to "having missed a few drops
of blood on a fence near the bodies," but on the stand he said that
he "returned several weeks afterwards to collect them."
Fung admitted that he had not used rubber gloves
when collecting some of the evidence. Although, the blood that was
tested ruled out Fung within published guidelines.
LA Police Detective Phillip Vanatter testified
that he saw photographs of press personnel leaning on Simpson's
Bronco before evidence was collected.
Evidence not presented at trial
Ross Cutlery provided store receipts indicating
that Simpson had purchased a 12-inch (305 mm) stiletto knife six
weeks before the murders. The knife was determined to be similar to
the one the coroner said caused the stab wounds. The prosecution did
not present this evidence at trial after discovering that store
employees had sold their story to The National Enquirer for
$12,500. The knife was later collected from Simpson's residence by a
court-appointed special master, who took control of the knife. It
turned out not to be the murder weapon because prosecution tests on
the knife determined that an oil used on new cutlery was still
present on the knife, thus, the knife had never been used.
Jill Shively saw a white Ford Bronco speeding
away from Bundy Drive, in such a hurry that it almost collided with
another car at an intersection. She talked to the television show
Hard Copy for $5,000, after which prosecutors declined to use
her testimony at trial.
A women's shelter, Sojourn, received a call from
Nicole Brown four days prior to the murders saying that she was
scared of her ex-husband, who she felt was stalking her. The
prosecution thought that Judge Ito would rule the evidence to be
hearsay. In addition, friends and family indicated that Nicole Brown
had consistently said that Simpson had been stalking her. She
claimed that everywhere she went, she noticed Simpson would be there,
watching her. Her friends Faye Resnick and Cynthia Shahian said she
was afraid because Simpson had told her he would kill her if he ever
found her with another man.
Former NFL player and pastor Rosey Grier visited
Simpson at the Los Angeles County Jail in the days following the
murders. A jailhouse guard, Jeff Stuart, testified to Judge Ito that
at one point Simpson yelled that he didn't mean to do it, after
which Grier had urged him to come clean. Ito ruled that the evidence
was hearsay and could not be allowed in court.
Media coverage
The murders and trial—"the biggest story I have
ever seen", said one television news producer—received extensive media
coverage from the very beginning; at least one nonfiction "instant
book" was proposed two hours after the bodies were found, and was
published only a few weeks later. The Los Angeles Times alone
covered the case on its front page for more than 300 days after the
murders, and the Big Three networks' nightly news broadcasts gave more
air time to the case than to the Bosnian War and the Oklahoma City
bombing combined. The media outlets served an enthusiastic audience;
one company put the loss of national productivity from employees
following the case instead of working at $40 billion, and an estimated
100 million people worldwide stopped what they were doing to watch or
listen to the verdict announcement. Simpson—who, besides his acting
career, had worked as a sports reporter for both NBC and ABC—had many
friends and relationships in the media world, causing most networks to
be reluctant to air a television movie dramatization of the case. Fox
was an exception, airing one in 1995, and CBS followed several years
later.
The media coverage was itself at times
controversial; the issue of whether or not to allow any video cameras
into the courtroom was among the first issues Judge Ito had to decide,
ultimately ruling that live camera coverage was warranted. Ito would
be later criticized for this decision by other legal professionals,
and Ito himself, along with others related to the case (Marcia Clark,
Mark Fuhrman, Kato Kaelin) were said to have been influenced to some
degree by the media presence, and the publicity that came with it. The
trial was covered in 2,237 news segments from 1994 through 1997.
Time
magazine cover
On June 27, 1994, Time published a cover
story "An American Tragedy" with a mugshot image of O. J. Simpson on
the cover. The image was darker than a typical magazine image, and the
Time photo was darker than the original, as shown on a
Newsweek cover released at the same time. Time itself then
became the object of a media scandal, and it was found it had employed
photo manipulation to darken the photo, for the purpose of, as
commentators have claimed, making Simpson appear more "menacing." The
publication of the cover photo drew widespread criticism of racist
editorializing, and yellow journalism. Time publicly apologized.
Frogmen
One part of the murder case that was never brought
up was the broadcast of the two hour-long film pilot for Frogmen,
an The A-Team-like adventure series starring Simpson, that
Warner Bros. Television completed in 1994, a few months before the
murders. NBC had not yet decided on whether to order the series when
Simpson's arrest canceled the project. While searching his home the
police obtained a videotaped copy of the pilot as well as the script
and dailies. Although the prosecution investigated reports that
Simpson, who played the leader of a group of former United States Navy
SEALs, received "a fair amount of" military training—including use of
a knife—for Frogmen, and there is a scene in which he holds a
knife to the throat of a woman, it was not introduced as evidence
during the trial.
Most pilots that are two hours long (including
commercials) are aired as TV movies whether or not they are ordered as
series. Because "the appetite for all things O.J. appeared insatiable"
during the trial, Warner Bros. and NBC estimated that a gigantic,
Super Bowl-like television audience would have watched the Frogmen
film. One of Simpson's co-stars observed that their decision to not
air it and forego an estimated $14 million in profits was "about the
only proof you have that there is some dignity in the advertising and
television business".
Reaction to the verdict
In post-trial interviews with the jurors, a few
said that they believed Simpson probably did commit the murders, but
that the prosecution failed to prove their case. Three jurors
published a book called Madam Foreman, in which they described
how police errors, not race, led to their verdict, and that they
considered prosecutor Darden to be a token black assigned to the case
by the prosecutor's office.
Critics of the not-guilty verdict contend that the
deliberation time was unduly short compared to the length of the trial,
and that the jurors, most of whom did not have any kind of college
education, did not understand the scientific evidence.
Defense attorney Robert Shapiro wrote a book,
The Search for Justice, in which he criticizes F. Lee Bailey as a
"loose cannon" and Johnnie Cochran for bringing race into the trial.
He didn't believe Simpson was framed by the LAPD for racial reasons,
but believed the verdict was correct due to reasonable doubt.
Former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney
Vincent Bugliosi (who had handled the Manson trial) wrote a book
called Outrage: The Five Reasons O.J. Simpson Got Away With Murder.
Bugliosi was very critical of Clark and Darden, faulting them, among
other reasons, for not introducing the note that Simpson had written
before trying to flee. Bugliosi contended that the note "reeked" of
guilt and that the jury should have been allowed to see it. He also
pointed out that the jury was never informed about items found in the
Bronco: a change of clothing, a large amount of cash, a passport and a
disguise kit. The prosecution explained that they felt these items of
evidence would bring up emotional issues on Simpson's part that could
harm their case, despite the fact that the items seemed as though they
could be used for fleeing.
Simpson made an incriminating statement to police
about cutting his finger the night the murders took place first by
claiming to have accidentally cut his finger with a shard of broken
glass in his Chicago hotel room, then changing his story minutes later
that it was the tip of a knife, and later claiming not to remember at
all how he received the cut on his left middle finger. Bugliosi took
Clark and Darden to task for not allowing the jury to hear the police
audio tape of this statement. Bugliosi also said the prosecutors
should have gone into more detail about Simpson's abuse of his wife.
He said it should have been made clear to the mostly African-American
jury that Simpson had little impact in the black community and had
done nothing to help blacks less fortunate than he was. Bugliosi
pointed out that, although the prosecutors obviously understood that
Simpson's race had nothing to do with the murders, once the defense "opened
the door" by trying to paint Simpson falsely as a leader in the black
community and that he might have been framed by the overzealous
prosecution looking for a suspect, the evidence to the contrary should
have been presented, to prevent the jury from allowing it to bias
their verdict. Bugliosi also criticized the prosecution's closing
statements as inadequate.
Rather than try the crime in mostly white Santa
Monica, California, where murders occurring in Brentwood would
normally have been held, Bugliosi claimed that the prosecution made a
big mistake by deciding to have the trial in mostly nonwhite Los
Angeles. During the jury selection process, the defense made it
difficult for the prosecution to challenge potential black jurors on
the grounds that it is illegal to dismiss someone from the jury for
racially motivated reasons (California courts barred peremptory
challenges to jurors based on race in People v. Wheeler, years
before the U.S. Supreme Court would do so in Batson v. Kentucky.).
District Attorney Garcetti's supporters noted that
the decision to move the trial was actually that of the Los Angeles
Superior Court Presiding Judge, and not that of the District Attorney.
The trial was moved due to security concerns and the poor condition of
the Santa Monica Courthouse.
Another common criticism was that Garcetti was "micromanaging"
the trial, and made the decision to have Simpson try the bloody
leather gloves recovered at the scene of the murder and at Simpson's
estate in open court. Simpson's hands appeared unable to fit into
those gloves which was highly damaging to the prosecution's case. In
fact, the decision to have Simpson try on the gloves was made by both
Darden and Clark. Also, pundits criticized the prosecution for calling
Mark Fuhrman to the witness stand in the first place and stated that
the prosecution failed to do due diligence on his previous racist
statements. The D.A.'s office argued that the defense would have
called Fuhrman anyway and that no one knew of the existence of the
McKinney tapes until after the trial actually started.
According to media reports, prosecutor Marcia Clark
thought that women, regardless of race, would sympathize with the
domestic violence aspect of the case and connect with her personally.
On the other hand, the defense's research suggested that women
generally were more likely to acquit than men. Also, the jurors did
not respond well to Clark's combative style of litigation, and the
defense also correctly speculated that black women would not be as
sympathetic to a white woman as the victim. Both sides accepted a
disproportionate number of female jurors. From an original jury pool
of 40% white, 28% black, 17% Latino, and 15% Asian, the final jury for
the trial had 10 women and two men, of which there were nine blacks,
two whites, and one Latino.
Discussion of the racial elements of the case
continued long after the trial's end. Some polls and some commentators
have concluded that many blacks, while having their doubts as to
Simpson's innocence, were nonetheless more inclined to be suspicious
of the credibility and fairness of the police and the courts, and thus
more likely to question the evidence. After the civil trial verdict
against Simpson, most whites believed justice had been served and most
blacks (75%) disagreed with the verdict and believed the verdict to be
racially motivated. An NBC poll taken in 2004 reported that, although
77% of 1,186 people sampled thought Simpson was guilty, only 27% of
blacks in the sample believed so, compared to 87% of whites. Whatever
the exact nature of the "racial divide," to this very day, the Simpson
case continues to be assessed through the lens of race with most white
people believing Simpson to have committed the two murders, while most
black people believe the opposite.
Judge Lance Ito was also criticized for allowing
the trial to become a media circus and not doing enough to regulate
the court proceedings as much as he could have. Many law critics claim
that Ito allowed the courtroom proceedings to drag on needlessly, as
well as allowed both prosecution and defense lawyers to get out of
control with arguing with one another over presentation of the
evidence. However, Ito and others present in the courtroom dispute
this characterization, challenging critics to identify a proceeding
that was not under anyone's control. Because the jury was sequestered,
an attorney gag order would not have been supported by any appellate
court, leading to often chaotic scenes outside the courthouse. Ito
also allowed a jury field trip through O.J. Simpson's home after it
had been supposedly stage dressed by the defense team, in one case
replacing an artistic nude painting of Simpson's then-current
girlfriend with a reproduction of Norman Rockwell's painting of Ruby
Bridges being escorted to school in the Little Rock desegregation
struggle. Ito was also criticized for the way that the jury was
handled, bowing to defense team pressure to dismiss various jurors
including Francine Florio-Bunten late in the trial.
Civil trial
The parents of Ron Goldman, Fred Goldman and Sharon
Rufo, brought suit against Simpson for wrongful death, and Brown's
estate, represented by her father Lou Brown, brought suit against
Simpson in a "survivor suit", in a trial that took place over four
months in Santa Monica and was not televised (by judge's order). The
Goldman family was represented by Daniel Petrocelli, with Simpson
represented by Bob Baker. Attorneys for both sides were given high
marks by observing lawyers. Simpson's defense in the trial was
estimated to cost $1 million and was paid for by an insurance policy
on his company, Orenthal Enterprises.
At one point, Baker made a mistake that allowed
Petrocelli to introduce evidence regarding Simpson's failure of a lie
detector test about the murders. Fuhrman was not called to testify,
and Simpson was subpoenaed to testify on his own behalf. In addition,
a photo of O.J., taken while he was attending a Buffalo Bills game in
1993 was produced and showed him wearing Bruno Magli shoes, the same
type of shoes which investigators stated the killer of Goldman and
Smith was wearing when the murders were committed. The photo was then
presented as evidence against him, as O.J. had previously denied ever
wearing such shoes. The jury in the civil trial awarded Brown and
Simpson's children, Sydney and Justin, $12.5 million from their father
as recipients of their mother's estate. The victims' families were
awarded $33.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Simpson came under fire following the civil verdict
for "dodging" the jury's award against him by allegedly hiding assets
from the Goldman family.
Aftermath of trials
Some of Simpson's supporters changed their minds in
the years following his trials as to his innocence, as he seemed to
dodge the civil jury's verdict for the victims' families and appeared
not to search for the "real killer" as he had promised to do.
Apparent
confessions
In September 2004, Jennifer Peace, an adult actress
who performed under the name "Devon Shire", came forward claiming that
she was Al Cowlings' girlfriend, and that Cowlings had told her that
Simpson had confessed his guilt. Peace was subpoenaed to testify
before a Grand Jury by Clark and Hodgman, and later said that Cowlings
had told her that Simpson was guilty of both murders, and that the
weapon "sleeps with the fishes." Peace sold her story to Star Magazine
and American Journal for a reported mid six-figure sum, an action that
discredited her and led to her not being called as a witness during
the larger trial. Speculation at the time was that the prosecution was
using Peace to try to put pressure on Cowlings to "flip" on Simpson
and testify against him. When that strategy failed to work, the Grand
Jury was dismissed and the case proceeded to trial.
In the February 1998 issue of Esquire,
Simpson was quoted as saying, "Let's say I committed this crime… Even
if I did this, it would have to have been because I loved her very
much, right?" Simpson said that he would look for the real murderer,
who he said he believed was a hitman.
In November 2006, ReganBooks announced a book by O.
J. Simpson, as well as a TV interview, titled If I Did It, an
account that the publisher pronounced a hypothetical confession. "This
is a historic case, and I consider this his confession," publisher
Judith Regan told The Associated Press. On November 20, News
Corporation, parent company of ReganBooks, canceled both the book and
the TV interview due to a high level of public criticism. CEO Rupert
Murdoch, speaking at a press conference, stated: "I and senior
management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered
project." Regan was fired in December 2006 for apparently unrelated
reasons.
In June 2007, a federal judge ruled that Fred
Goldman, Ron Goldman's father, could pursue the publishing rights to
Simpson's book. In July 2007, a federal bankruptcy judge awarded the
rights to the book to the Goldman family to help satisfy the $38 million
wrongful death civil suit judgment against Simpson. After Goldman had
won the rights to the book, he arranged to publish it under the new
title If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.
The book was ghostwritten by Pablo Fenjves. Fenjves
stated in interviews that Simpson actively collaborated on the book,
and that he "knew" him to be the murderer.
Fox Television was to air a related interview with
Simpson in late November 2006, in which Simpson would allegedly
describe how he would have committed the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife,
Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, "if he were the
one responsible."
In May 2008, Mike Gilbert released his book How
I Helped O.J. Get Away with Murder, which details O. J. confessing
to the killings to Gilbert. Gilbert, a memorabilia dealer, is a former
agent and friend of Simpson. He states that Simpson had smoked
marijuana, taken a sleeping pill and was drinking beer when he
confided at his Brentwood home weeks after his trial what happened the
night of the murders. Simpson allegedly said, "If she hadn't opened
that door with a knife in her hand... she'd still be alive." This,
Gilbert said, confirmed his belief that Simpson had confessed. Simpson
has denied ever having said this, although smoking of marijuana and
crack cocaine has been known to cause memory blackouts.
Alternative
murderer theory
An alternative theory is that Simpson's son, Jason
Simpson, committed the murders. This is the central theory of a book
by private investigator William Dear titled O.J. is Guilty, But Not
of Murder. Published in 2000, the book was the result of a six-year
investigation by Dear. He attempted to explain Simpson's incriminating
behavior and the incriminating evidence. In the book, Dear claimed
numerous elements to support his theory.
The book is also the basis of a documentary film,
including new evidence, entitled The Overlooked Suspect,
released in late 2007.
Further reading
Bugliosi, Vincent
(1997). Outrage: 5 Reasons Why O.J. Simpson Got Away with Murder.
Seattle: Island Books. ISBN 0440223822.
Cotterill, Janet
(2002). Language and power in court, a linguistic analysis of the
O. J. Simpson trial. Basingstoke: Palgrave. ISBN 0333969014.
Felman, Shosana
(2002). The Juridical Unconscious: Trials and Traumas in the
Twentieth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674009312.
Garner, Joe (2002).
Stay Tuned: Television's Unforgettable Moments. Kansas City:
Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0740726935.
Hunt, Darnell M.
(1999). O. J. Simpson facts and fictions. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521624568.
Dear, William C.
(2000). O.J. Is Guilty But Not of Murder. Dear Overseas
Production. ISBN 0970205805