On Tuesday, October 3, across the country people learned that the jury had found Orenthal James Simpson not guilty of murder.
In the days following the verdict, while O.J. Simpson promised to find Nicole and Ron Goldman's killer(s), the LAPD and Los Angeles district attorney announced that the investigation into the murders was closed.
Plaintiffs: Fred Goldman, the estate of Ronald Goldman, Sharon Rufo, and the estate of Nicole Brown Simpson Defendant: Orenthal James Simpson Plaintiff Claim: Liability for assault and battery and for wrongful deaths Chief Defense Lawyers: Robert Baker, Phil Baker, Bob Blasier, Daniel Leonard Chief Lawyers for the Plaintiffs: For Fred Goldman and the estate of Ronald Goldman: Daniel Petrocelli, Pe…
That evening, nearly every television station interrupted their regular programming to go live from a helicopter above a Los Angeles freeway. Approximately 93 million viewers watched the scene as the helicopter followed a Ford Bronco. Below, Simpson's friend, Al Cowlings, reported by phone that O.J. was in the car with a pistol to his head, intent on suicide. Police cars and ordinary traffi…
Opening the trial on Monday, January 24, 1995, Clark assured the jury they would hear evidence involving a trail of blood from the death scene to a pair of socks in O.J.'s bedroom. DNA testing would confirm whose blood it was. Prosecutor Darden described the defendant's years of abusive behavior toward his wife. He included 911 tapes of Nicole screaming for help, and police photos of…
Limousine driver Allan Park testified about picking up Simpson and the airport trip. While loading the car, Park said, Simpson tried to get Kaelin away from the knapsack by saying, "No, no. I'll get it." Criminologist Dennis Fung described gathering and examining the physical evidence—gloves, cap, footprints, and hair and blood samples. He was crossexamined by defense a…
LAPD forensic chemist Gregory Matheson testified that blood on the Bundy walkway could not have come from 99.5 percent of the population but could be Simpson's, and that blood found on socks in Simpson's bedroom could have come from Nicole but not from the defendant. During the cross-examination, defense attorney Robert Blasier repeated a litany of incompetencies: police did not fol…
Prosecution witness Brenda Vemich, a glove buyer for Bloomingdale's department store in New York City, identified the expensive brand and size—extra large—of the bloody gloves. Prosecutor Darden asked the defendant to put them on. Wearing latex gloves (to protect the evidence), Simpson pulled and squeezed, then held up both hands with the obviously too-tight gloves only partwa…
Simpson family members were the first defense witnesses. O.J.'s sister, Carmelita Durio, and his eldest daughter, Arnelle, both said he was "distraught" when informed of the murders. His 73-year-old mother, Eunice, testified, "He seemed shocked." Johnnie Cochran objected furiously, "You can't tell by someone's voice when they're black.…
In North Carolina, on August 7, the court of appeals ruled that tape recordings and testimony of McKinny, the screenwriter whom Fuhrman advised, "could make a difference in the trial." This permitted Judge Ito to rule on whether the jury could hear the tapes. Cochran announced that the transcripts from McKinny disclosed that Fuhrman had used the word "nigger" at least 3…
The defense requested that Judge Ito either strike Fuhrman's testimony about finding the Rockingham glove or return the detective to the stand. The judge refused. Cochran filed an appeal, refusing to rest his case until the appeal decision came down. Judge Ito then ordered the prosecution to start its rebuttal before the defense had closed. The California Court of Appeals ruled that jurors …
Summations began on September 26. Prosecutor Clark took the Fuhrman bull by the horns: "Is he a racist? Yes. But it would be a tragedy if you found the defendant not guilty because of the racist attitude of one police officer." Clark reviewed the timing of the thumps on Kaelin's wall; the absurdity of defense contentions that blood had been planted; the trail of blood down the…
While the murder trial was going on, three civil suits for wrongful death had been filed against O.J. Simpson: by Fred Goldman, father of Ron Goldman; by Ron's mother, Sharon Rufo, who had divorced Fred when Ron was six years old; and by the Brown family. California law permitted two kinds of suits. The estate of a dead person could bring a survival suit by the victim's personal repr…
Bugliosi, Vincent. Outrage: The Five Reasons Why 0.1 Simpson Got Away with Murder. New York: Norton, 1996. Cochran, Johnnie L, Jr. with Tim Rutten. Journey to Justice. New York: One World (Ballantine), 1996. Darden, Christopher with Jess Walter. In Contempt. New York: Regan (HarperCollins), 1996. Dershowitz, Alan M. Reasonable Doubts: The O.J. Simpson Case and the Criminal Justice System. New York…
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