Murder trial of O. J. Simpson

The O.J. Simpson murder case was a highly publicized U.S. criminal trial in which former football star and actor O.J. Simpson was charged with the murder of one of his ex-wives and her friend. Simpson was acquitted after the lengthy criminal trial, but was later found liable for the wrongful death of Ronald Goldman in civil court.

Shortly before midnight on June 12, 1994, Simpson's former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were found stabbed to death outside Brown's Bundy Drive Brentwood area condominium in Los Angeles, California with the Simpson children sleeping in an upstairs bedroom. The Simpsons were divorced in 1992. Evidence found and collected at the scene led police to believe that Simpson might have been the killer.

Simpson's lawyers convinced the Los Angeles Police Department to allow Simpson to turn himself in at 11 a.m. on June 17 even though the double murder charge meant no bail and a possible death penalty verdict if convicted. Double homicide is a capital offense in California.[1] In the end, the prosecution elected not to ask for the death penalty and was seeking a life sentence.

The slow-speed chase

File:O J Simpson.jpg

O.J. Simpson's mugshot, taken in 1994

June 17, 1994, over one thousand reporters waited for Simpson to turn himself in to police and then give a statement to the media after booking. When he failed to show, confusion set in, and at 2 p.m., an all-points-bulletin was issued by the police. Robert Kardashian, a Simpson friend and one of his defense lawyers, then read a rambling letter by Simpson to the collected media. In the letter Simpson said, "First everyone understand I had 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 then joined the search for Simpson.

At 6:45 p.m., a sheriff's patrol car saw a white Ford Bronco belonging to Simpson's friend, Al Cowlings, going north on Interstate 405 (Simpson also owned a white Bronco, but it was Cowlings's vehicle that was involved in this incident.) When the officer approached the Bronco, Cowlings, who was driving, yelled that Simpson was inside the vehicle, and had a gun to his head. The officer then backed off and a low-speed chase began.

For some time a KCBS news helicopter had exclusive coverage of the chase, but by the end of the chase they had been joined by about a dozen others as news agencies from around the country tried to charter every available helicopter in the city. NBC interrupted coverage of the 1994 NBA Finals to air the pursuit.

Radio station KNX also provided live coverage of the low-speed pursuit. As the events unfolded, USC announcer Pete Arbogast, who was doing sports updates, 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 went on the air, asking Simpson to pull over and turn himself in instead of committing suicide.

Numerous spectators and on-lookers packed overpasses in front of the procession; some of them had signs encouraging Simpson to flee and many more were caught up in a festival-like atmosphere. Cowlings eventually drove the Bronco back to Simpson's Brentwood home, arriving at 8 p.m. at 360 North Rockingham Avenue. Simpson, however, did not emerge from the vehicle for another 45 minutes, increasing fears of a suicide or a shoot-out with police. When he did surrender, police confiscated $8,000 in cash, family pictures, a fake goatee and mustache, a passport and a loaded Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum from Simpson.

• DNA analysis of the blood found in, on, and near Simpson's Bronco revealed traces of Simpson's, Nicole's, and Ronald Goldman's blood.
• DNA analysis of bloody socks found in Simpson's bedroom showed the blood to be Nicole's.
• Simpson's hair was found on Goldman's shirt even though Simpson claimed not to have been at the home and never to have met Goldman.
• DNA analysis of blood on the gloves was proven to be a mixture of Simpson's, Nicole's, and Ronald Goldman's. The gloves also contained particles of Goldman's hair and carpet fibers from Simpson's Bronco.
• Arrest records indicate that Simpson had been charged with the beating of his wife Nicole. Photos of Nicole's bruised and battered face emerged. Simpson was sentenced to 3 years of community service for the crime.
• Police discovered that the dome light in the Bronco had been removed. A search of the vehicle revealed the light was carefully placed under the passenger seat and was in good working condition. Puzzling blood smears on the passenger floorboard indicated that Simpson may have purposely removed the light and placed it under the seat before the murders (assuming he had indeed murdered Brown Simpson and Goldman). Then after the murders he may have unsuccessfully tried to find it to put it back in the socket. Police on stakeouts routinely remove the dome lights from their vehicles to avoid detection when the car doors are opened.
• It was discovered that one set of keys to Nicole Brown Simpson's home were missing. She had indicated to several family members and friends that she feared Simpson had stolen them to gain entry into her home. The keys were later found in Simpson's home.
• Paula Barbieri indicated that she had broken up with Simpson the day of the murders. She indicated he seemed very disturbed at the news. Phone records proved that Simpson attempted to contact her shortly before the murders from his Bronco's cellular phone.
• The left-hand glove found at Nicole's home and the right-hand glove found at O.J.'s home proved to be a match. They were also proven to be Simpson's size. Even though Simpson claimed under oath that he did not own a pair of Aris Isotoner gloves, several media pictures emerged showing Simpson wearing these exact gloves.
• Bloody footprints in Nicole's home were identified as being made from a pair of Bruno Magli shoes. These shoes are expensive and rare. The size 12 prints match Simpson's shoe size. Simpson claims under oath that he does not own such shoes and in fact indicates that he thinks they "are ugly." A photograph was introduced showing Simpson wearing the exact shoes at an NFL football game. Simpson claimed under oath that the photo is a forgery and is backed up by an expert witness. Later, another photo taken by a different source, also showed Simpson wearing the same shoes at another NFL football game.
• Friends and family indicated that Nicole claimed that Simpson had been stalking her. She said that everywhere she went she saw Simpson there watching her. She was afraid because Simpson had already told her he would kill her if he ever found her with another man.
• Ross Cutlery provided store receipts indicating Simpson had purchased a 12-inch Stiletto knife six weeks before the murders. A replica of the knife was purchased by the police and provided an exact match to the wounds on Nicole and Ronald Goldman.

Criminal trial

Simpson, appearing at his first court arraignment on June 20, pleaded "Absolutely, one hundred percent, not guilty" to the murders. A grand jury was formed to see whether to indict him for the two murders. But two days later on June 22, the grand jury was dismissed as a result of the excessive media coverage which might influence the grand jury’s ability. After a week-long court hearing, a California court superior judge ruled that there was ample evidence to try Simpson for the murders. At his second court appearance, on July 22, Simpson pleaded in a confident and defiant tone: "absolutely one hundred percent not guilty."

What followed in 1995 was 133 days of televised testimony in a very public criminal trial. Many figures in the trial became unwitting celebrities due to this exposure, including judge Lance Ito, who was parodied by many comedians including Tonight Show host Jay Leno (Leno featured a troupe of Asian men in black robes called the "Dancing Itos").

The trial began on January 24, 1995, with the prosecutorial team led by Marcia Clark arguing that Simpson killed his ex-wife in a jealous rage. The prosecution opened its case by playing a 9-1-1 call Nicole Brown Simpson had made in 1989 in which she expressed fear that Simpson would physically harm her. The prosecution also presented dozens of expert witnesses on subjects ranging from DNA fingerprinting to shoe print analysis that they contended placed Simpson at the scene of the crime.

A limousine driver, Allan Park, testified that he could not contact anyone through the intercom at Simpson's gate at 10:45 p.m. on the evening of June 12, the time he was due to pick him up. Around 10:50, he saw a large figure enter the house, some lights came on, and Simpson answered the gate's intercom. They loaded some bags into the limo and left for the airport around 11:15. He passed a vehicle parked on the street as he left, but Park could not positively say whether or not it was there initially. His testimony was requested by the jury during deliberation, and reportedly rejected because of his uncertainty regarding the parked vehicle.

Simpson hired a team of expensive ($4 million), high-profile lawyers, including F. Lee Bailey, Barry Scheck, Robert Shapiro, Robert Kardashian, Alan Dershowitz, and Johnnie Cochran, who argued that Simpson was the victim of police fraud and sloppy internal procedures that contaminated the DNA evidence. Simpson's defense team (dubbed the "Dream Team" by reporters) had argued that LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman had planted evidence at the crime scene. In all, 150 witnesses gave testimony during the eight-month-long trial.

In March, Fuhrman denied on the stand that he was a racist or had ever used the word "nigger" to describe black people, but months later, the defense found audio tapes of Fuhrman using the word repeatedly. These notorious Fuhrman tapes became one of the cornerstones of the defense's case that Fuhrman's testimony lacked credibility, and may have led to Simpson's acquittal. Fuhrman was recalled to the stand in September, but pleaded the Fifth. As a result of his testimony, he was later indicted for perjury, to which he pled no contest. Fuhrman later wrote a book about the case called Murder in Brentwood.

At one point during the trial on June 15, 1995, assistant prosecutor Christopher Darden asked Simpson to put on a leather glove that was found at the scene of the crime. The glove was too tight for Simpson to put on over his latex-gloved hand, which inspired Cochran to reuse a quip he used several times earlier in the trial in relation to other points in his closing arguments, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." (Here, "it" refers not only to the leather glove, but the prosecution's argument as a whole.) On June 22, 1995, assistant prosecutor Christopher Darden told Judge Lance Ito 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 had shrunk while being soaked in blood. Prosecutors contended that Simpson's blood found at the crime scene was the result of blood dripping from cuts on the middle finger of Simpson's left hand that police saw on June 13, and that they asserted were suffered during the fatal attack on Ronald Goldman. However, none of the gloves found had any cuts. While there was blood on the glove at the crime scene, there was none on the glove found on Simpson's property.

The prosecutorial team was confident that they presented a solid case and fully expected a conviction. In polls, a large percentage of African Americans across the nation were largely unconvinced or felt that Simpson had not committed the crime, and that to convict would be to give a green light to police misconduct. Most white Americans, in the same polls, believed that the case against Simpson was solid. Racial tensions grew through the trial and officials feared a repeat of the 1992 Los Angeles riots if Simpson received a guilty verdict.

At 10 a.m. on October 3, 1995, after only three hours of deliberation and in front of an estimated 150 million American television viewers, the jury returned a verdict of "not guilty."

Reaction to verdict

The mid-day revelation of the not guilty verdict appeared to shock the prosecutorial team, and likewise shocked many in America (even though one of Simpson's lawyers feared at first that the quick verdict might mean conviction).

Some social commentators have stated that the celebration in the black community over the Simpson verdict was a "social payback" for the acquital of the white police officers involved in the Rodney King beating trial a few years earlier (which led to the L.A. riots, and hence, one reason for moving the trial from Brentwood). It has been suggested that the O.J. Simpson trial ended a 25-year pandering/political correctness to African Americans by white society, ending the "guilt reaction" begun after the Civil Rights Movement and associated white-on-black violence of the 1960's.

Several commentators who opposed the outcome concluded that the verdict demonstrated the effects money can have on the judicial system. Other skeptics blamed the jurors, who acquitted despite being presented with what they were convinced was overwhelming evidence of Simpson's guilt (especially overwhelming DNA evidence). In post-trial interviews with the jurors, a few said that they believe Simpson probably committed the murder, but that the prosecution bungled the case. Those that did mention the DNA evidence showed what critics purport to be a lack of understanding of it. Critics of the verdict therefore allege incompetence from both the prosecutors and the jury.

Famed prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi (who had handled the Manson trial) seemed to share this opinion, writing a book called Outrage: The Five Reasons O.J. Simpson Got Away With Murder. Bugliosi was very critical of Clark and Darden and pointed out many glaring mistakes that they had made during the trial. He faulted them, for example, for not introducing the note that Simpson had written before trying to flee. Bugliosi said that the note "reeked" of guilt and that the jury should have been allowed to see it. He also pointed out that there was a change of clothing, a large amount of cash, a passport and a disguise kit found in the Bronco of which the jury was never informed. Simpson had made a very incriminating statement to police about cutting his finger the night of the murders. Bugliosi once again took Clark and Darden to task for not allowing the jury to hear the 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 those blacks less fortunate than he. 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, the evidence to the contrary should have been presented to prevent the jury from allowing it to bias their verdict.

Many legal experts think that the jury selection phase of the trial was crucial to the outcome. Polls and surveys at the time indicated that the public's opinion of whether Simpson was the murderer was split along racial lines. But rather than try the crime in mostly white Santa Monica, California, the prosecution decided to have the trial in Los Angeles; Bugliosi also criticized this decision in his book. During the jury selection process, the defense made it very 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, 22 Cal. 3d 258, 583 P. 2d 748 (1978) years before the U.S. Supreme Court would do so in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U. S. 79 (1986).)

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, that jurors did not respond well to Clark's style, and that black women would not be as sympathetic to the victim: a white woman. As a result, both sides accepted a disproportionate number of female jurors. From an original jury pool of 40% white, 28% black, 17% Hispanic, and 15% Asian, the final jury for the trial had 10 women and 2 men, of which there were 8 blacks, 2 Hispanics, 1 half-Native American, half-white, and 1 white female.

Discussion of the racial component of the case has continued long after the trial. Some polls and some commentators have concluded that many blacks, while having their doubts as to Simpson's innocence, were nonetheless much more inclined to be suspicious of the credibility and fairness of the police and the courts, and thus less likely to question the outcome. However, an NBC poll taken in 2004, reported that although 77% of 1,186 people sampled thought Simpson was guilty, only 27% of the blacks polled did vs. 87% of the whites. Whatever the exact nature of the "racial divide", the Simpson case continues to be examined through the lens of race.

Quasi confessions

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, whom he believed was a hitman. When the news media filmed Simpson playing golf, comedians joked about his lack of effort to find the murderer.

In November 2006, ReganBooks announced a book by O.J. Simpson as well as a TV interview entitled If I Did It, an account the publisher pronounced "his confession". Fox Television was to air an interview with Simpson November 27 and 29, 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." "This is an historic case, and I consider this his confession," Regan told The Associated Press. On November 20 News Corporation, parent company of ReganBooks, canceled both the book and the TV interview due to 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."

Alternative murder theories

Simpson has suggested a hitman killed Ron and Nicole. Those who agree with this assertion say it is supported by the following details:

• The murder of Ron and Nicole was among a string of murders of people associated with Simpson, Ron, and Nicole. Casimir Sucharski, a friend of Simpson, was murdered two weeks after Ron and Nicole. On March 19, 1995, Simpson's friend, record company promoter Charles Minor, was murdered. On July 30, 1993, eleven months before the famous double murder, Ron Goldman's friend Brett Cantor was killed with a knife in a manner identical to Ron and Nicole: from behind and across the throat and stabbed repeatedly on the arms and chest. Michael Nigg, a waiter at the Mezzaluna (where Ron Goldman was also a waiter) was shot in the head and killed. Another Mezzaluna waiter barely survived a car bombing.
• Many working at Mezzaluna were involved with the Mafia and/or the drug trade.
• Photos of Nicole with known criminals of the drug trade in a hot tub and on a bed were shown on the news. Simpson said he was upset when he saw his children associated with the drug scene with which Nicole had apparently become involved.
• Barry Hoestler, a private investigator hired for the Simpson case by Robert Shapiro, said Nicole talked about the idea of opening a restaurant with Ron Goldman as her partner, and financing it with cocaine profits. Hoestler said Nicole and her friends were "over their heads with some dope dealers".
• Nicole's best friend was Faye Resnick, a cocaine addict. Someone broke into Resnick's apartment to take documents and photographs. Later, Resnick skipped town. Simpson's defense team said Nicole and Ron may have been killed by drug dealers to scare Resnick into paying her drug debt. Prosecutors said there was no evidence to back this theory.
• There was an unexplained DNA mix on the steering wheel column of the car. The DNA was neither Simpson's, nor Nicole's, nor Goldman's.
• The "car testimonies" of Park and Kato, which suggest unexplained movement of vehicle/s, were suppressed from the trial.
• Al Cowlings once served as a bodyguard for convicted drug smuggler Joey Ippolito. Ippolito escaped from a Florida jail three weeks before the murders and made many calls to Simpson. According to the theory, Ippolito probably hired a hitman to commit the drug related murders. Frankie Viserto is one hitman known to be close to Ippolito. In the past, Viserto has tortured and beheaded his victims with a knife.
• Nicole's sister Denise Brown was often seen and photographed with ex-Mob enforcer and FBI informant Tony Fiato, a recruit of Ippolito. Denise denied that Fiato was her boyfriend.
• Police detectives broke state law and their own policy when they waited hours to summon the county coroner.
• In violation of policy, evidence remained in the processing room for three days before the first piece was booked in the secure ECU. The evidence was on a tabletop, and could be handled by anyone with access. 70 to 80 police personnel had access.
• Someone broke into Robert Shapiro's office, forced open a locked filing cabinet, and stole confidential papers related to the case.
• Simpson said that only once, in 1989, had he and Nicole got into a fight that injured her. Nicole used makeup in one of the photos showing her with facial bruises after the fight. He said Nicole's written statements of domestic abuse were a plan to get out of a prenuptial agreement.

None of these assertions explains Simpson's behavior following the murders, such as the self-incriminating statement to police, the attempt to flee, the suicide note, the apologies to the police who eventually arrested him, the inability to remember how he had cut his finger to the bone the night of the murders, or his differing statements about his whereabouts during the time of the murders. In addition, none of this explains how Simpson's DNA was at the murder scene and the victims' blood was inside his car and his home.

Jason Simpson Theory

Another theory that has been put forth is that Simpson's son, Jason Simpson, committed the murders. This is the central theory of a book by William Dear titled O.J. is Guilty, But Not of Murder (ISBN 0-9702058-0-5). This book attempts to explain Simpson's incriminating behavior and the incriminating evidence, and also presents an alternative theory of how the murders took place. Among the circumstances Dear, a former detective, claims in the book to support his theory are:

• Jason Simpson had developed a crush on Nicole Brown Simpson, and was angry at the lifestyle she was involved in, which included drug use.

• Jason Simpson had been known to go into violent epileptic rages and would often not remember what he had done.

• Jason was a chef-in-training and would always carry his knife set with him. These knives were more than capable of committing the murders, and inflicting the type of wounds found on the victims.

• Jason had no alibi the night of the murders, as the restaurant he was working at was closed that night. He stated he was cooking in front of 200 people the night of the murders. However, the restaurant that he worked at during the murders could hold a maximum of 87 people at any one time. He also later stated in a civil deposition that he clocked out after the murders had taken place.

• After committing the murders, Jason called Simpson to the crime scene. Simpson struggled with his son to take the weapons from him, thus providing the detectives with the gloves and the blood evidence that would be used at his trial. Dear also believes this is where O.J. received the cut on his hand that prosecuters said was inflicted during the murders.

• O.J. tried to cover up the crime of his son because of the guilt O.J. felt as a result of being a neglectful father.

References in Popular Culture

• The Rapper Eminem mentioned the murder case in a couple of his songs. In the most detailed one, Role Model he states "Me and Marcus Allen went over to see Nicole when we heard a knock at the door, must have been Ron Gold'. Jumped behind the door, put the orgy on hold killed 'em both and smeared blood in a white Bronco." On the song Kill You he claimed "I got the machete from O.J. I'm ready to make everyone's throats ache."

• Hip-Hop artist Mos Def mentions the trial in his song "Mr. Nigga", "O.J. found innocent by a jury of his peers and they been fucking with that nigga for the last five years,"

• Rap group A Tribe Called Quest mentioned the case on two songs from their 1996 album Beats Rhymes and Life, 1nce Again features Q-Tip saying "Cuz tonight, we gettin' off like O.J.", while on "The Hop" Phife Dawg says "Watch me stab up the track as if my name was O.J. Simpson"

References

• Bugliosi, Vincent. 1997. Outrage: 5 Reasons Why O.J. Simpson Got Away with Murder. Seattle: Island Books. ISBN 0-440-22382-2
• Cotterill, Janet. 2002. Language and power in court, a linguistic analysis of the O. J. Simpson trial. Basingstoke: Palgrave. ISBN 0-333-96901-4
• Felman, Shosana. 2002. The Juridical Unconscious: Trials and Traumas in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00931-2
• Garner, Joe. 2002. Stay Tuned: Television's Unforgettable Moments. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-2693-5
• Hunt, Darnell M. 1999. O. J. Simpson facts and fictions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62456-8

Other Key Witnesses Not Listed Above

• Candace Garvey, wife of former Los Angeles Dodger, Steve Garvey

External links

• The O.J. Simpson Verdict on YouTube
• CourtTV's OJ Simpson Criminal Trial Coverage
• Famous American Trials: The O. J. Simpson Trial
  • 5 year retrospective
• Notorious Murders: An online book by Thomas L. Jones
• The OJ Simpson Murders
• http://www.cnn.com/US/OJ/
• http://www.wagnerandson.com/oj/OJ.htm
• O.J. court drama: The players today (2004)