O. The murder case of J. Simpson (officially titled People from the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson ) is a criminal trial held at The Los Angeles County Superior Court in which former National Football League (NFL) player, broadcaster and actor Orenthal James "OJ" Simpson was tried on two counts of murder for June 12, 1994, the death of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and friend Ron Goldman. On June 12, 1994, Nicole and Goldman were found stabbed to death outside Nicole's condominium in the Brentwood area of ​​Los Angeles. Simpson is the one who is interested in their killing. Simpson did not surrender, and on June 17 he was subjected to a low-speed pursuit at a 1993 SUV owned by White Bronco owned and driven by Al Cowlings. TV stations interrupted the 1994 NBA Finals coverage to broadcast the incident directly. This event was watched by an estimated audience of 95 million people. Pursuit, arrest, and trial are among the most publicized events in American history. The trials, often characterized as trials of this century because of its international publicity are similar to the abductions of Sacco and Vanzetti and Lindbergh, spanning eleven months, from a jury on November 9, 1994. The opening statement was made in January. 24, 1995, and the verdict was announced on October 3, 1995, when Simpson was released on both counts of murder. After Simpson's release, no arrests or additional convictions related to the murder had been committed. According to the USA Today newspaper, the case has been described as the most "publicized" criminal trial in history.
Simpson was represented by a very well-known defense team, also called the "Dream Team", initially led by Robert Shapiro and later directed by Johnnie Cochran. The team also included F. Lee Bailey, Alan Dershowitz, Robert Kardashian, Shawn Holley, Carl E. Douglas, and Gerald Uelmen. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld are two additional lawyers who specialize in DNA evidence.
District Deputy District Prosecutors Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden believed they had a strong case against Simpson, but Cochran was able to convince the jury that there was reason to doubt the DNA evidence provided by the State, which was a relatively recent form of evidence in the trial at the time. Reasonable theories of doubt include evidence that blood samples are suspected to have been mismanaged by scientists and lab technicians, and there are questionable situations surrounding other court exhibitions. Cochran and the defense team also accuse other mistakes by the LAPD associated with systemic racism and Detective Mark Fuhrman's actions. Simpson's celebrity status, racial issues, and lengthy television trials highlight national attention. At the end of the trial, the national survey showed a dramatic difference in Simpson's judgment or innocence between blacks and whites.
The immediate reaction to the verdict was notable for its split along racial lines: a poll of the Los Angeles County population showed that most African-Americans there felt that justice had been served by an "innocent" verdict, while the majority of whites and Latinos expressed the opinion that it was not.
After the trial, Brown and Goldman's family filed a civil suit against Simpson. On February 4, 1997, the jury unanimously found that Simpson was responsible for both deaths. The families were awarded compensation and penalties of $ 33.5 million ($ 51.1 million in 2017 dollars), but received only a fraction of that.
Video O. J. Simpson murder case
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Perkawinan Brown-Simpson
O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown married on February 2, 1985, five years after Simpson's retirement from professional football. The couple has two children, Sydney Brooke Simpson (b 1985) and Justin Ryan Simpson (b 1988). Their marriage lasted for seven years, during which time Simpson was investigated repeatedly by the police for domestic violence and pleaded for no contest for marital abuse in 1989. Brown filed for divorce on February 25, 1992, citing "differences that can not be reconciled ". However, harassment continues; Brown called 9-1-1 on October 25, 1993, cried and said that "[Simpson] will beat my nonsense".
Murder
At 12:10 am on June 13, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were found murdered outside Nicole Bundy Drive condominiums in the Brentwood area of ​​Los Angeles, California. Brown has been stabbed several times in the head and neck, and has a sustained wound in his hand. The larynx can be seen through the gaping wound on its neck, and the C3 vertebra sliced; his head still attached to the body. Both victims have been dead for about two hours before being discovered by police. Robert Riske, one of the first two officers on the scene, found a bloody glove, among other evidence.
Detective went to Simpson's Brentwood plantation to inform him that his ex-wife had been murdered. Detective Mark Fuhrman climbed up the outer wall and opened the gate to allow the three other detectives to come in as well. The detectives argued that they entered without a search warrant for an emergency - specifically, in this case, out of fear Simpson might also be hurt. Simpson was not present when the detectives arrived early that morning; he had flown to Chicago the night before. Detective briefly interviewed Brian "Kato" Kaelin, who lives in Simpson's guest house. In a walk-around of the premise, Fuhrman discovers a second bloody glove; it was then determined to be a match of gloves found at the site of the murder. Through DNA testing, this one blood is determined to come from both victims. This, along with other evidence collected in both scenes, was determined to be a possible cause for issuing an arrest warrant for Simpson.
Simpson Capture
The lawyers convinced the LAPD to allow Simpson to surrender himself at 11 am on the morning of June 17, 1994, although the indictment of double murder meant that no guarantees would be established and first-degree murder convictions could result in the death penalty. More than 1,000 journalists waited for Simpson at the police station, but he did not show up. At 2 pm, LAPD issued a bulletin of all points. At 5 pm, Robert Kardashian, a friend of Simpson and one of his defense lawyers, read a letter by Simpson to the media. In the letter, Simpson sends greetings to 24 friends and writes, "Everyone first understands I have nothing to do with Nicole's murder... Do not feel sorry for me I've lived a great life." Some people interpret this as a suicide note; Simpson's mother, Eunice fainted after hearing it, and reporters joined Simpson's search. Simpson's lawyer Robert Shapiro was present at the Kardashian press conference and said Simpson's psychiatrist agreed with the interpretation of the suicide note. Through television, Shapiro asks Simpson to surrender.
At about 6:20, a rider in Orange County told police after seeing Simpson drive a white Ford Bronco that was being driven by his old friend Al "A.C." Cowlings. Police track calls placed from Simpson on his cell phone. At 6:45 am, police officer Ruth Dixon spotted Bronco's head north on Interstate 405. When he caught him, the Cowlings shouted that Simpson was in the backseat of the vehicle and brought a gun to his own head. Officers retreated, but followed the vehicle at 35 miles per hour (56 km/h), with up to 20 police cars following him in pursuit.
More than nine news helicopters finally joined in the pursuit; the high level of media participation caused the camera signal to appear on the wrong television channel. The chase was so long that one helicopter ran out of fuel, forcing his station to ask the others for a camera bait. The KNX-AM radio station also provides live coverage of low-speed pursuits. USC Peter Arbogast sports broadcaster and Kash Limbach station producer contacted former USC John McKay football coach to broadcast and encourage Simpson to end the chase. McKay agreed and asked Simpson to step aside and surrender instead of committing suicide; "Dear God, we love you, Juice, Come down and I'll come out and stand by your side for the rest of my life," he promised.
LAPD detective Tom Lange, who had previously interviewed Simpson about the June 13 murder, realized he had a Simpson phone number and called him repeatedly. A colleague tied a tape recorder to Lange's phone and caught a conversation between Lange and Simpson where Lange repeatedly pleaded with Simpson to "throw the gun out the window" for the sake of the mother and her children. Simpson apologizes for not surrendering the day before and replies that she is "the only one who deserves to be hurt" and "will only go with Nicole." Cowlings's voice was heard in the recording (after Bronco arrived at Simpson's house surrounded by police) begging Simpson to surrender and end the pursuit peacefully. During the chase, and without having a chance to hear the phone conversations being recorded, Simpson's friend Al Michaels interpreted his actions as a plea of ​​guilt.
ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN, as well as local news channels, interrupt regularly scheduled programs to cover the incident, with an estimated 95 million viewers nationwide; only 90 million watched the Super Bowl that year. While NBC continued to cover Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the Houston Rockets at Madison Square Garden, the game appeared in a small box on the corner while Tom Brokaw covered the chase. The pursuit was covered live by ABC anchor Peter Jennings and Barbara Walters on behalf of five network news magazines, which reached some of their highest ratings throughout the week. Taking advantage of the show that took place at night, Domino's Pizza stated that the sale of pizza delivery during the chase was as great as the Super Bowl Sunday.
Thousands of spectators and spectators who watched were filled along the procession of the journey, waiting for the white Bronco. In an atmosphere like a festival, many are asking for Simpson to flee. They and millions of people watching the television pursuit feel part of a "general emotional experience," one writer wrote, as they "wonder [ed] if OJ Simpson will commit suicide, run away, be caught, or engage in some kind of confrontation violence. "Whatever happens, the joint adventure gives millions of interest viewers, a sense of participation, a feeling of being inside the national drama in its making." Sports Illustrated then commenting on the chase and the next hoopla is " The Sugarland Express meets The Fugitive ".
Simpson reportedly demanded that she be allowed to talk to her mother before she surrendered. The chase ends at 8:00 pm. on the Brentwood plantation, 50 miles (80 km) later, where his son Jason ran out of the house, "gesturing wildly", and 27 SWAT officers waited. 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 talked to his mother and drank a glass of orange juice, causing the reporter to laugh. Shapiro arrived, and Simpson surrendered to the authorities a few minutes later. In Bronco, the police found "$ 8,000 cash, change of clothes, an item.357 Magnum, passport, family photo, and fake beard and false mustache." Both Bronco recordings and items found in Bronco were shown to the jury as evidence at the hearing.
Maps O. J. Simpson murder case
Trial
On June 20, Simpson was indicted and pleaded not guilty to both murders. As expected, the presiding judge ordered Simpson to be held without guarantee. The next day, a grand jury was summoned to determine whether he would be charged for the two murders. Two days later, on June 23, the grand jury was expelled for excessive media coverage, which could affect his neutrality. Jill Shively, a Brentwood resident who testified that she saw Simpson drove from Nicole's home area the night of the murder, told the Grand Jury that the Bronco almost collided with Nissan at the intersection of Bundy and San Vicente Boulevard. Another grand jury witness, a carmaker Jose Camacho, said he had sold Simpson's 15-inch (380 mm) Simpson German knife, similar to a murder weapon, three weeks before the killings. Shively and Camacho were not filed by prosecutors in criminal proceedings because they had sold their story to the tabloid press. Shively had talked to the Hard Copy television show for $ 5,000, while Camacho sold his story to National Enquirer for $ 12,500.
Of the grand jury trial, the authorities held a possible hearing to determine whether or not to bring Simpson to court. This is a minor victory for Simpson's lawyers, as it will give them access to evidence as filed by prosecutors, in contrast to procedures in the grand jury trial. After a one-week trial court, California High Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell ruled on July 7 that there was enough evidence to bring Simpson to court for the killing. At the second charge on July 22, when asked how he appealed to murder, Simpson, violated the practice of a courtroom saying the defendant might plead for only using the words "guilty" or "innocent," expressly declaring: "Of course, one hundred percent , not guilty. "
District Attorney Gil Garcetti was elected to file charges in downtown Los Angeles, as opposed to Santa Monica, where the crime took place. The decision would prove very controversial, especially after Simpson was released. This may result in a jury pool with more blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans, and blue-collar workers than those found from Santa Monica.
The prosecutor decides not to seek the death penalty and instead seeks a life sentence. Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark was appointed as the main prosecutor. Deputy District Attorney Christopher Darden became Clark's legal counsel. Simpson wants a quick trial, and defense lawyers and prosecutors work around the clock for months to prepare their case. In October 1994, Judge Lance Ito began interviewing 304 jurors, each of whom had to complete a 75-page questionnaire. On Nov. 3, twelve jurors sat down with 12 alternatives.
The trial began on January 24, 1995 and broadcast by TV Court, and partly by cable news outlets and other networks, for 134 days. Darden argues that Simpson killed his ex-wife in a jealous anger; The prosecutor opened his case by playing a 9-1-1 call from Nicole Brown Simpson on January 1, 1989, in which he expressed fears that Simpson would physically harm him, and he could hear shouting behind him. Other materials related to domestic violence are presented. The AGO also brought dozens of expert witnesses to place Simpson at the scene, on subjects ranging from DNA profiles to blood and shoeprint analysis.
During the opening weeks of the trial, the prosecution presented evidence that Simpson had a history of physical abuse of Nicole. Simpson's lawyer Alan Dershowitz argues that only a small percentage of women are abused by their murdered spouses. Within days of the start of the trial, lawyers and people who watched the trial of a closed-circuit TV camera in the courtroom noticed the pattern that emerged: persistent and incalculable interruptions with objections from both sides of the courtroom, as well as a sidebar conference after another with a judge, beyond the invisible jury hearing located just below and out of the frame of the camera.
Selection of jurors and rebels
According to media reports, Clark thinks that women, regardless of race, will sympathize with aspects of domestic violence and connect with him personally. On the other hand, defense research suggests that women are generally more likely to be released than men, and that the judges do not respond well to Clark's aggressive justice style. The defense also speculated that black women would not be sympathetic to white, white women, because of the tension of interracial marriages. Both sides received a disproportionate number of female jurors. From the original jury pool 40% white, 28% black, 17% Hispanic, and 15% Asian, the last jury for the trial has ten women and two men, nine blacks, two white and one Hispanic.
At the beginning of the trial, twelve jurors and twelve alternatives were selected from a group of 250 jurors. During probation ten people were dismissed for various reasons. Only the four original jurors are left in the last panel. During the trial, a number of judges held what the media called "rebellion." After being exiled for 101 days, thirteen of the eighteen jurors refused entry into the courtroom until they were given a meeting with Judge Ito. Finally, the jury returned with thirteen members wearing black or dark clothes in what was described as a "funeral procession."
Prosecution case
The AGO believes that they have a strong case even though no witnesses are known about the crime and the failure to restore the murder weapon. The case of Clark is supported by DNA evidence, and he expects a belief. From the physical evidence collected, the prosecutor claims that Simpson went to Brown's house on the night of June 12 with the intention of killing him. They maintain that Brown has put their two children into bed and prepares to go to bed alone when he opens his front door after responding to a knock at the front door or hearing a noise outside. Simpson supposedly grabbed her before she could yell and attack her with a knife. Forensic evidence from Los Angeles County coroners alleges that Goldman arrived at the front gate to the townhouse sometime during the attack, and the assailant seemed to attack him and stab him repeatedly in the neck and chest with one hand while holding him with a chokehold arm. Brown was found lying face down when the authorities arrived at the scene. According to the prosecution account, after Simpson finished with Goldman, he grabbed Brown's head again using his hair, put his foot on his back, and slit his throat with a knife, severing his carotid artery. They further argue that Simpson left a "trace of blood" from the condominium to the alley behind him; there is also testimony that three drops of Simpson's blood are found in the entrance near the gate to his home in Rockingham Drive.
According to the prosecution, Simpson was last seen in public at 09.36. that night when he returned to the front gate of his house with Kaelin, an actor and family friend who was given little use of the guest house at Simpson's house. Simpson was not seen again until 10:54 pm - an hour and eighteen minutes later - as she came out of her front door to the limousine she had rented to take her to Los Angeles International Airport to fly to the Hertz Convention in Chicago. Both defense and prosecution agreed that the killings took place between 10:15 and 10:40 pm, with prosecution stating that Simpson had been riding his Bronco for the five minutes needed to and from the scene of the murder. They presented a witness around Bundy Drive who saw a car similar to Simpson's Bronco that raced from the area at 10:35.
The Limousine driver, Allan Park, testified that he arrived at Simpson's house at 10:24 pm. Driving through the Rockingham gate, he did not see Simpson's Bronco parked on the sidewalk. Park testified that he had searched and had seen the house number, and the attorney presented the exhibit 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 existed at that time). According to Simpson's version, Bronco was parked in that position for several hours. Meanwhile, Kaelin was at the guest house and on the phone to his friend, Rachel Ferrara. Park parked opposite the gates of Ashford Street, then back to the Rockingham gate to check which entrance would have the best access to the limousine. Deciding that Rockingham's entrance was too tight, he returned to the Ashford gate and started buzzing the intercom at 10:40, got no answer. Park got out of the limo and looked through the Ashford gate and saw that the house was dark with no lights on, except for the dim light coming from one of the second-floor windows, which was Simpson's bedroom. While smoking, Park made a series of phone calls from his cell to the pager of his boss, Dale St. John, and then to Park's house, trying to get his home number. John from his mother in an effort to get a phone number for Simpson's house. At around 10:50 pm, Kaelin (who is still on the phone to Ferrara) hears three blows hard on the outside wall of his guest house. Kaelin hung up the phone and ventured out to investigate the voices, but decided not to be directly on the dark south lane where the roar came from. Instead, he walked to the front of the property and saw the Park limo outside the Ashford gate.
At the same time Park saw Kaelin coming from behind the property forward, he testified that he saw "a tall black man" from high and Simpson's building entered the front door of the house from the entrance area, after which the lights were turned on. turned on and Simpson finally answered Park's call. Simpson explains that he has overslept and will be at the front gate soon. Kaelin opened the Ashford gate to let Park push the limo to the estate, and Simpson came out of the house through the front door a few minutes later. Both Kaelin and Park helped Simpson put his things (which were already outside the front door when Park drove to the front of Simpson's house) into the limousine luggage for the ride to the airport. Both Kaelin and Park commented in their testimony that Simpson looked uneasy. But other witnesses, including the ticket attendant at LAX who checked Simpson on the plane and a flight attendant, said that Simpson looked and acted very normal. This contradictory testimony became a recurring theme throughout the trial.
Simpson's initial claim that he fell asleep at the time of the murder was denied by several different accounts. According to defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran, Simpson never left his home that night, and he was alone when packing his things to travel to Chicago. Cochran claims that Simpson went out through the back door to hit several golf balls into the children's sandbox in the front garden, one or more that made three loud knocks on the walls of the Kaelin bungalow. Cochran produced a potential alibi witness, Rosa Lopez, a neighboring Spanish speaking maid who testified that she had seen Simpson's car parked outside her home at the time of the murder. However, Lopez's account, which was not presented to the jury, was pulled apart under an intense cross-examination by Clark, when he was forced to admit that he could not confirm the exact time he saw Simpson's Bronco outside his home.
The defense tried to convince the jury that Simpson was physically incapable of murder, saying that Goldman was a suitable young man who fiercely resisted his attacker. Simpson is a 46-year-old professional football player with chronic arthritis, and has a scar on his knee due to an old football injury. However, Clark produced evidence of a workout video made by Simpson months before the assassination titled O.J. Simpson Minimal Maintenance: Fitness For Men, which shows that, regardless of some physical conditions and limitations, Simpson is not at all weak.
The prosecutor's office called Brown's sister, Denise, to the witness stand. She tearfully watched many episodes of domestic violence in the 1980s, when she saw Simpson pick up his wife and throw it against the wall, then physically throw it out of their house during a fight. The prosecutor then called Karen Lee Crawford, Mezzaluna's restaurant manager where Brown ate on the night he was killed. Crawford recounts that Brown's mother called the restaurant at 9:37 pm. about a pair of missing glasses. Crawford found them and put them in a white envelope. Goldman left the restaurant at 9:50 pm. after her shift, take a glass to put it in Brown's home.
Brown's neighbor, Pablo Fenjves, testified about hearing "the very distinctive barks" and "sad lament" of a dog around ten to fifteen minutes after 10:00. While he was at home watching the news on television. Eva Stein, another neighbor, testified about a very loud and persistent barking, also around 10:15, which made her not sleep anymore. Steven Schwab's neighbors testified that while he was walking his dog in the area near Brown's house around 11:30, he saw Akita's dog wandering around and nervous behind the rope. He sees that it has bloody claws, but after examining it, he finds his dog unharmed. Schwab said he brought the dog to a friend of his neighbor, Sukru Boztepe, before taking him to his home where he became more agitated. Boztepe took the dog for a walk around 12:00 midnight and testified that the dog pulled the rope and brought it to Brown's home. There he found the body of Brown. A few minutes later, Boztepe stopped the passing patrol car.
Riske, the first officer at the scene, testified that he found a barefoot woman in black clothes lying face down in a pool of blood on the path leading to the front door of his house. He then noticed that Goldman's body was not far away, lying beside a tree and outside the path. Riske said he saw a white envelope, which was later found to contain a glass left in the restaurant by Mrs. Brown. He also saw Goldman's pager, black leather gloves, and dark blue knit ski cap on the ground near the corpse. The front door of Brown's house was wide open, but there were no signs of forced entry or evidence that anyone had entered the place. Nothing outside is amazing.
On Sunday, February 12, 1995, a long motorcade went to Brentwood and the judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and Judge Ito conducted a two-hour check at the scene. It was followed by a three-hour tour of Simpson's house. Simpson is under guard by some officers but does not wear handcuffs; he waited outside the crime scene in and around the unmarked police car and was allowed into his house.
Detective Ron Phillips testified that when he called Simpson in Chicago to tell him about his ex-wife's murder, he sounded shocked and annoyed, but did not ask how he died. Lange testified that Brown might have been killed first because of his bare feet, implying that he was beaten to the ground before blood flowed. This is a key point suggesting Simpson might have set out to kill Brown, while Goldman apparently accidentally stumbled on the scene, prompting Simpson to kill him as well. In cross-examination of Lange, Cochran proposed two hypotheses for what happened at the site of the murder. First, he suggested that one or more drug dealers meet Brown while looking for his friend and guest, Faye Resnick, a confessed cocaine actor. In the second hypothesis, Cochran suggested that "a murderer, or a murderer," follows Goldman to Brown's house to kill him.
The evidence presented to the jury
Samples from bloody shoe prints that lead out of the body and from the back gate of the condo were tested for a DNA match. Early polymerase chain reaction testing did not rule out Simpson as a suspect. In a more exact polymorphism fragment restriction test, a match was found between the blood and Simpson blood samples taken from the scene (both the blood-shoe mold and the gate sample). Fung testified that this DNA evidence placed Simpson in the Brown family's home at the time of the murder. But defense expert Barry Scheck conducted an eight-day cross-examination that questioned most of the DNA evidence. Robin Cotton, from Cellmark Diagnostics, testified for six days. Blood evidence has been tested in two separate laboratories, each performing a different test. At this time, the general population is still unfamiliar with the precision and significance of DNA matching.
It emerged during Fung's cross examination and other laboratory scientists that LAPD scientist Andrea Mazzola (who collected blood samples from Simpson to compare with evidence from the scene) was a trainee carrying a bottle of Simpson's blood around in his lab coat. sac for nearly a day before handing it off as evidence. While two errors have been found in the history of DNA testing at Cellmark, one of the test laboratories, in 1988 and 1989, errors were found during quality control tests and have not occurred since then. One of the companies hired for DNA consultation by Simpson's defense has made the same mistake as it found in 1988. What should be the strong point of the prosecutor's office is their weak link, amid allegations of defendance that police technicians handle blood samples with such disability levels it's to make sending accurate and reliable DNA results almost impossible. The prosecutor argued that they had made DNA evidence available to the defense for its own testing, and if defense lawyers disagreed with the prosecutor's test, they could do their own testing on the same sample. The defense has chosen not to accept the offer of the prosecutor.
On May 16, Gary Sims, a California Justice Department criminal who helped set up their DNA lab, testified that the gloves found at Simpson's house tested positive for Goldman's blood game.
Mark Fuhrman
In March 1995, Fuhrman testified to take Simpson's home to question him on the night of the murder. After not getting a response when buzzing the house intercom, which seemed empty, he climbed one of the outer walls to get into the property. He found signs of blood in the driveway, as well as black leather gloves in place near the location of the Kaelin bungalow. He was later found to have blood from both murder victims on it, as well as Simpson, who was matched by DNA analysis.
Despite aggressive cross-examination by F. Lee Bailey, Fuhrman denies in the stands that he is racist or has used the word "negro" to describe blacks within ten years before his testimony. However, a few months later, the defense played Fuhrman's audio recording repeatedly using the word - 41 times, in total. The tape was made between 1985 and 1994 by a young North Carolina screenwriter named Laura McKinney, who has interviewed Fuhrman at length for the scenario he wrote to police officers. The recording of Fuhrman became one of the pillars of the defense that Fuhrman's testimony lacked credibility.
In the absence of the jury, Fuhrman was summoned back to the witness stand by the defense to answer more questions about the discovery of the blood marks and leather gloves he had found on the Simpson property. When asked by lawyer Gerald Uelmen, Fuhrman, with his lawyer standing by his side, asked the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-torture and further questions after his integrity was challenged. The prosecutor told the jury in the closing argument that Fuhrman was a racist, but said that this should not reduce the factual evidence that indicates Simpson's fault. Fuhrman's testimony produced his indictment with a false oath; he later admitted there was no contest.
Gloves
A dark leather scabbard was found at the scene, with a match found near Kaelin's guest house behind Simpson's house. Kaelin testified that he had heard "the boom at night" in the same area around the guest house on the night of the murder. Brown has bought Simpson two pairs of gloves of this type in 1990. Both gloves, according to the prosecutor, contained DNA evidence from Simpson, Brown, and Goldman. The gloves at Simpson's house also contain a long blond hair similar to Brown's.
On June 15, 1995, Bailey persuaded Darden to ask Simpson to wear leather gloves that were found at the scene. The prosecutor had previously decided not to ask Simpson to try the gloves because his gloves had been soaked in blood from Simpson, Brown and Goldman, and frozen and not frozen several times. The leather glove looked too tight for Simpson to wear easily, especially on the gloves he wore underneath. Uelmen comes by, and Cochran repeats, an allusion that has been used several times in relation to other points in his closing argument: "If it does not fit, you must liberate". On June 22, 1995, Darden told Judge Ito about his worries that Simpson "suffered from arthritis and we saw the drugs he took and some of them were anti-inflammatory and we were told he had not taken the stuff for a day and it caused swelling in the joints and inflammation in his hands ". The prosecutor's office also expressed their belief that gloves are shrinking because they have been soaked in blood and then tested. They presented a photo during the Simpson trial before using the same type of glove that was found at the scene.
Prosecutors claim that the presence of Simpson's blood at the scene is the result of blood dripping from the wound in the middle finger of his left hand. The police have recorded his injuries and confirmed that they suffered during a fatal attack on Goldman. However, the defense indicated that no gloves were taken at the crime scene cut. Plus, both prosecutors and defense witnesses testified that they had not seen any injuries or injuries in Simpson's hands in the hours after the killings. The defense suspects that Fuhrman may have planted gloves at Simpson's house after taking them from the scene. Analysis that found that hair could belong to Brown is unreliable. The prosecutor argued that the glove had not been removed. They noted that by the time Fuhrman arrived at Simpson's house, the scene at Brown's house had been combed by several officers for almost two hours, and nobody had seen the second glove on the scene. In the first round of his testimony, Fuhrman replied "no" when asked by Bailey if he had instilled any evidence at Simpson's house. In the second round of testimony after the tapes were revealed, Fuhrman took the Fifth Amendment when asked the same question by Uelmen.
On September 8, 2012, Darden accused Cochran of damaging the glove before the trial. Dershowitz, a member of Simpson's defense team, denied the claim, stating "the defenders have no access to evidence except under controlled circumstances."
Racial problems
In closing arguments, Darden mocks the idea that police officers might want to trap Simpson. He questioned why, if LAPD was against Simpson, they went to his home eight times on domestic violence calls against Brown between 1986 and 1988 but did not arrest him; they only arrested him for alleged harassment in January 1989 (when Brown's face photo was inserted into the record). Darden noted that the police did not catch Simpson for five days after the 1994 killings.
In Cochran's summary to the jury, he stressed that Fuhrman proved repeatedly to refer to African-Americans as "negro" and also to boast the beating of African-American youth in his role as a policeman. Cochran's rhetoric was later criticized by Shapiro and by at least one judge, as well as Goldman's father, Fred Goldman. Cochran called Fuhrman "a racist genocide, a culprit of lies, America's worst nightmare and personification of evil". Fuhrman then pleaded no contest for alleged perjury crimes, arising from his testimony in Simpson's trial.
Concerns grew that racial unrest will erupt in Los Angeles and across the country if Simpson is convicted of murder, similar to the 1992 riots that occurred after the release of four police officers over the beating of a black motorist Rodney King (beating King) was arrested on amateur video). As a result, all Los Angeles police officers are given a 12-hour shift. Police arranged over 100 police officers on horseback to besiege the Los Angeles County Courthouse on the day the verdict was announced, in case of riots by the masses.
Defense case
Simpson hired a team of defense lawyers, including Bailey, Kardashian, Shapiro, Dershowitz, Cochran, Uelmen (then law deans at Santa Clara University), Carl E. Douglas and Shawn Holley. Two lawyers specializing in DNA evidence, Scheck and Peter Neufeld, were hired to try to discredit the claimant DNA evidence. They argue that Simpson is a victim of police fraud and what they call a careless internal procedure, which has polluted DNA evidence. Defson's defense is said to have cost between US $ 3 million and $ 6 million. Simpson's defense team, dubbed the "Dream Team" by journalists, argues that Fuhrman has instilled evidence at the scene. LAPD criminals Fung and Mazzola are subjected to rigorous scrutiny.
Defson's defense attempted to show that one or more hitman hired by drug dealers had killed Brown and Goldman - giving them both "Colombian ties" - because they were looking for Brown's friend Faye Resnick, a known cocaine user who had failed to pay for his medicine. However, Judge Ito banned testimony about Resnick's drug use. She had stayed for several days at Brown's condominium until she entered rehab four days before the murder. Ito stated that the defense had failed to provide sufficient direct or indirect evidence that the scenario was possible, showing: "I found that the offer of evidence on motives became highly speculative." As a result, he forbade Christian Reichardt to testify about the drug problem of his ex-girlfriend Resnick.
Verdict
At 10:07 am PDT on October 3, 1995, Simpson was acquitted of murder on both counts of murder. The only testimony reviewed was Limo driver Alan Park, who said he had not seen Bronco Simpson outside his property when he arrived to pick her up after the murder. The jury arrived at the 3:00 am decision. on October 2, after just four hours of consideration, but Judge Ito postponed the announcement.
Before the verdict, President Bill Clinton was informed of security measures if the unrest occurred nationally because of the verdict. An estimated 100 million people worldwide witness or hear the announcement of the verdict. The volume of long distance telephone calls decreased by 58%, and the trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange decreased 41%. The use of water decreases because people avoid using the bathroom. So much work was stopped so the verdict cost about $ 480 million in lost productivity.
The US Supreme Court received a message about the verdict during the oral argument, with the judges quietly passing notes to each other while listening to the attorney's presentation. Members of Congress canceled a press conference, with one reporter saying, "Not only will you not be here, but I will not be here either."
Reaction to verdict
In post-judicial interviews, some jurors say they believe Simpson may indeed have committed murder, but prosecutors have failed to prove the case without hesitation. Three joint jurors wrote and published a book entitled Madam Foreman, where they described how their perception of police misconduct, not race, led to their verdict. They say that they consider Darden as the black token assigned to the case by the prosecutor's office.
Critics of innocent juries argue that the deliberations are too short compared to the length of the trial. Some say that the jurors, most of whom have no college education, do not understand forensic evidence. After the verdict was read, the jury number six, 44-year-old Lionel Cryer, gave Simpson a black force of reverence. The New York Times reports that Cryer is a former member of the revolutionary Nationalist Black Panther Party whose prosecutors "can not be left behind in the panel".
In 1996, Cochran wrote and published a book on the trial. It's titled Journey to Justice, and describes his involvement in the case. That same year, Shapiro's defense attorney also published a book on the trial, titled Search for Justice. He criticized Bailey as a "loose gun" and Cochran for bringing the race to trial. Unlike Cochran's book, Shapiro says that he does not believe that Simpson was framed by the LAPD for racial reasons, but believes the verdict is true because of reasonable doubts.
Clark published a book on the case titled Without a Doubt (1998). His book tells the trial process, from the jury selection to the final summation. He concluded that nobody could save his case, given the defense strategy highlighting racial issues related to Simpson and LAPD, and black domination on the jury. In Clark's opinion, the factual evidence of the prosecutor's office, especially DNA, should easily punish Simpson. That's not, he says, proving the judicial system is compromised by race and celebrity issues.
Former Los Angeles County Deputy Attorney Vincent Bugliosi wrote a book called Angry: Five Reasons Why O. J. Simpson Gets Murder (1997). Bugliosi was very critical of Clark and Darden, blaming them, among other reasons, for not introducing the notes that Simpson had written before trying to escape. He argues that the record was "smelling" of mistakes and that the jury should be allowed to see it. He also notes that the jury was never told about the items found in the Bronco. Prosecutors said they felt the evidence would raise emotional issues in Simpson's part that could jeopardize their case, despite the fact that the stuff looked as if it could be used to escape. Bugliosi also said that prosecutors should explain more deeply about Simpson's abuse of households; that prosecutors should present evidence contrary to the defense statement that Simpson was a leader in the black community; and criticized the closing statements of the prosecutor as inadequate. Bugliosi also criticized the prosecutor for attempting murder in Los Angeles rather than Santa Monica. During the jury selection process, defense makes it difficult for prosecutors to challenge potential black jurors, arguing that it is illegal to fire someone from a jury for racially motivated reasons. (The California court forbids judicial challenges to jurors based on race in Wheeler people, years before the US Supreme Court will do so at Batson v. Kentucky.
Proponents of the Garcetti District Prosecutor noted that the decision to transfer the trial was made by the Judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles, and not by Garcetti. The trial was moved due to security concerns at smaller facilities and poor physical conditions at the Santa Monica Courthouse. In a 2010 review, Metropolitan News-Enterprise said that Garcetti had "tried" the trial, and that he had decided to ask Simpson to try the gloves in an open court that had been found at the homicide site and at Simpson's house. Also, experts criticized the prosecutor for summoning Fuhrman to the witness stand in the first place; they criticized prosecutors for lack of due diligence, which should have found a previous racist remark. Office D.A. Argue that the defense will call Fuhrman and nobody knows about the whereabouts of McKinney tapes until the trial begins.
Discussions about the racial elements of the case continued long after the end of the trial. Some polls and commentators have concluded that many blacks, while their doubts about Simpson's innocence, are more likely to be suspicious of police credibility and justice and courts, and thus more likely to question evidence. LAPD has a history of misappropriating African-Americans in the city, which is emphasized in the Rodney King case. After a civil verdict against Simpson, most whites surveyed said they believed that justice had been done. Most blacks (75%) disagree with the verdict and believe that it is the motivation of the race. A NBC poll conducted in 2004 reported that, although 77% of the 1,186 sampled people thought that Simpson was guilty, only 27% of blacks in the sample believed, compared with 87% of whites. The Simpson case continues to be assessed through the race lenses. In 2016, FiveThirtyEight reported that most blacks now think that Simpson is guilty.
According to a poll of 2016, 83% of white Americans and 57% of blacks believe that Simpson is guilty of the killing.
Media coverage
When it started, all the networks got these hate letters because people's soap operas were being interrupted for Simpson's trial. But then what happened was the people who liked the soap opera addicted to the Simpson trial. And they were really angry when Simpson's trial was over, and people would come up to me on the street and say, 'God, I love your show.'
Murder and trial - "the greatest story I've ever seen", an NBC producer Today - received extensive media coverage from the beginning; at least one instant book is proposed two hours after the body was found, and is scheduled for publication only weeks later. The Los Angeles Times covered this case on its front page for more than 300 days after the murder. The Big Three Night Television network broadcasts gave more time in the air than in the case of the Bosnian War and the Oklahoma City bombings. Media outlets serve an enthusiastic audience; one company loses national productivity from employees who follow this case instead of working with $ 40 billion. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno airs many plays in the trial, and Dancing Itos - a group of dancers dressed as judges - is a popular recurring segment.
The participants in this case received a lot of media coverage. Fans approached Clark at restaurants and malls, and when he got a new hairstyle during the trial, the prosecutor received a standing ovation on the steps of the courthouse; People approved the change, but advised him to wear "more fitting clothes and adjustable skirts". While Cochran, Bailey, and Dershowitz are well known, others like Kaelin became celebrities, and Resnick and Simpson's girlfriend Paula Barbieri appeared in Playboy. Those involved in the trial follow their own media coverage; When Larry King appeared in the courtroom after meeting Ito, both Simpson and Clark praised King's talk show. Interest in this case around the world; Russian President Boris Yeltsin's first question to President Clinton when they met in 1995 was, "Do you think O.J. did it?".
The problem of whether or not to allow video cameras into the courtroom was one of the first issues Judge Ito had to decide, finally deciding that direct camera coverage was justified. Ito will then be criticized for this decision by other legal professionals. Dershowitz says that he believes that Ito, along with others related to such cases as Clark, Fuhrman, and Kaelin, is influenced to some extent by the presence of media and related publicity. The trial was covered in 2,237 news segments from 1994 to 1997. Ito was also criticized for letting the trial into a media circus and not doing enough to organize court proceedings as well as he could.
Charles Ogletree, former criminal defense lawyer and professor at Harvard Law School, said in a 2005 interview for PBS ' Frontline that the best investigative report about the events and facts of murder, and evidence from the experiment, was by National Enquirer.
On June 27, 1994, Time published a cover story, "An American Tragedy," with a photo of Simpson on the cover. The image is darker than the usual magazine image, and the Time photo is darker than the original, as shown on the Newsweek cover released at the same time. Time is the subject of a media scandal. The commentator found that his staff had used photo manipulation to darken the photo, and speculated it made Simpson seem more threatening. After the publication of the photograph draws widespread criticism from editorial racism and yellow journalism, Time publicly apologizes.
Aftermath
Alleged confession
In May 2008, Mike Gilbert, former agent and friend of Simpson, released his book How I Helped O.J. Get Away with Murder , whose details Simpson admitted murder to Gilbert. Gilbert stated that Simpson had sucked marijuana, took sleeping pills and drank beer when she told him at Brentwood's house the week after her trial of what happened the night of the murder. Simpson allegedly said, "If he does not open the door with a knife in his hand... he's alive." This, Gilbert says, confirms his belief that Simpson has confessed. Simpson denied ever saying this.
Civil trial
In 1996, Fred Goldman and Sharon Rufo, Ron Goldman's parents, filed a civil lawsuit against Simpson for a wrongful death, while Brown's property, represented by his father, Lou Brown, brought a suit against Simpson in a "rescue suit." The trial lasted four months in Santa Monica and, by judge's order, was not broadcast on television. The Goldman family is represented by Daniel Petrocelli, with Simpson being represented by Bob Baker. Lawyers for both parties are highly rated by observing lawyers. Simpson's defense in the trial is estimated to cost $ 1 million and be paid by insurance policies at his company, Orenthal Enterprises.
Fuhrman was not called to testify, and Simpson was called to testify on his own behalf. In addition, Simpson's photograph, taken when he attended the Buffalo Bills game in 1993, was presented at a trial showing he was wearing Bruno Magli's boots, the same kind of shoes that investigators say that Goldman and Brown's killers were wearing murder. The photograph was presented as evidence against him, as Simpson previously denied ever wearing such shoes.
Juries in civil proceedings are awarded Brown and Simpson children, Sydney and Justin (Brown only children), $ 12.6 million from their fathers as recipients of their mother's inheritance. The victim's family was given $ 33.5 million in compensation and punishment, thus finding Simpson "responsible" for his murder. In 2008, the Los Angeles high court approved a plaintiff's extension of a civil court ruling against Simpson.
Four years after the trial, at an auction to pay some money in compensation, Bob Enyart, a conservative Christian radio host, paid $ 16,000 for some Simpson memorabilia, including his Hall of Fame induction certificate, two T-shirts, and two trophies awarded for charity work. Enyart takes things outside the courthouse where the auction is held, burns certificates and shirts, and with quiet consideration destroys the trophy with a hammer.
If I Do It
In November 2006, ReganBooks announced a book by Simpson, titled If I Did It , an account that publishers say is hypothetical recognition. The release of the book is planned to coincide with Fox's special featuring Simpson. "This is a historic case, and I consider this his confession", publisher Judith Regan told the Associated Press. On November 20, News Corporation, ReganBooks and Fox's parent company, canceled both books and TV interviews due to the 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 is a project that is considered bad."
Later, the Goldman family was granted the rights to the book to satisfy some civil suits against Simpson. The title of the book was changed to If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. On the front cover of the book, the title is styled with the word "If" appearing much smaller than the title "I Did It", and placed in "I", so unless looking closely, the title reads "I Did It: Confessions of the Killer ".
On March 11, 2018, Fox broadcast a Simpson interview that was not previously prepared with Regan in a special title O.J. Simpson: Missing Confession? In a decade of interviews, Simpson hypothesized how the murder would be done if he was involved, initially using phrases like "I would" and "I would think," but then moved on to using the first person's expression with sentences like "I remember I reached knife "," I can not remember unless I stand there "," I do not remember ", and" I have to. " Due to the change in phrase, these comments are interpreted by many as a form of acknowledgment, which elicits a strong reaction in the print and internet media. Next development
In 2007, as a result of the incident in Las Vegas, Nevada, regarding attempts to recover materials that Simpson claimed to have been stolen from, Simpson was convicted of several crimes including the use of deadly weapons for kidnapping, robbery and armed robbery, and sentenced to a minimum of nine years for a maximum of 33 years in prison. His attempt to appeal the sentence was unsuccessful and he stayed at Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nevada. During the 2013 parole hearing, Simpson was granted parole on all charges except related weapons and two counts of attacks with deadly weapons. After July 20, 2017, Nevada's parole board with a unanimous vote of 4-0, Simpson was granted parole after a nine-year minimum sentence of the remaining amount for Vegas's robbery by Sunday, October 1, 2017, to be the date of his release from prison on parole. According to Nevada's law if he continues his good behavior, Simpson will experience a 33-year sentence reduced by 50% to make September 29, 2022, the end of his sentence. Upon release, Simpson intends to live near his family in Miami, Florida. Goldman's sons and fathers, Fred and Kim, did not appear before the council, but stated that they had received about 1% of the $ 33.5 million spent on Simpson from the wrong civil lawsuit.
Simpson has participated in two high-profile interviews on the case - one in 1996 with Ross Becker, outlining the side of Simpson's story, as well as a guided tour of his estate, where the evidence used in the trial was found. The second occurred in 2004, on the tenth anniversary of the murder, with Katie Couric for NBC speaking to Simpson. He has worked for the network as a sports commentator.
In March 2016, the LAPD announced a knife was found in 1998 buried in Simpson plantation, when the buildings were destroyed. A construction worker had given the knife to a police officer, who, convinced that the case had been closed, did not present it as evidence at the time. The forensic test showed that the knife was not related to the murder.
It can be said that Kardashian's presence in Simpson's legal team, combined with the press coverage of the trial, will eventually become a catalyst for the ongoing popularity of the Kardashian family. While former Kardashian wife Kris Jenner is married to former Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner (then known as Bruce) at the time of the trial, the Kardashian family mostly came out of the public eye before the trial, only becoming famous for the trial.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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