The O.J. Simpson Murder Trial (Part I)

The O. J. Simpson murder case (officially People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson) was a criminal trial held in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Former National Football League (NFL) player, broadcaster, and actor O. J. Simpson was tried on two counts of murder for the June 12, 1994 slashing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. At 12:10 a.m. on June 13, 1994, Brown and Goldman were found stabbed to death outside her condominium in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Simpson was a person of interest in the murders. He did not turn himself in, and on June 17 he became the object of a low-speed pursuit in a white 1993 Ford Bronco SUV owned and driven by his friend Al Cowlings.  TV stations interrupted coverage of the NBA finals to broadcast the incident. The pursuit was watched live by an estimated 95 million people.  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 because of its international publicity—spanned eleven months, from the jury's swearing-in on November 9, 1994.  Opening statements were made on January 24, 1995, and the verdict was announced on October 3, 1995, when Simpson was acquitted on two counts of murder.   Following his acquittal, no additional arrests related to the murders have been made, and the crime remains unsolved to this day.  According to USA Today, the case has been described as the "most publicized" criminal trial in history.

Simpson was represented by a high-profile defense team, also referred to as the "Dream Team", which was initially led by Robert Shapiro and subsequently 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 were two additional attorneys who specialized in DNA evidence.

Deputy District Attorneys Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden thought that they had a strong case against Simpson, but Cochran was able to convince the jury that there was reasonable doubt concerning the validity of the State's DNA evidence, which was a relatively new form of evidence in trials at that time.   The reasonable doubt theory included evidence that the blood sample had allegedly been mishandled by lab scientists and technicians, and there were questionable circumstances that surrounded other court exhibits.   Cochran and the defense team also alleged other misconduct by the LAPD related to systemic racism and the actions of Detective Mark Fuhrman. Simpson's celebrity status, racial issues, and the lengthy televised trial riveted national attention.

The immediate reaction to the verdict created a division along racial lines. A poll of Los Angeles County residents showed that most African Americans felt that justice had been served by the "not guilty" verdict, while the majority of whites and Latinos expressed an opposite opinion on the matter.

After the trial, the families of Brown and Goldman filed a lawsuit against Simpson. On February 4, 1997, the jury unanimously found Simpson responsible for both deaths.  The families were awarded compensatory and punitive damages totaling $33.5 million ($53.4 million in 2019 dollars), but have received only a small portion of that monetary figure. In 2000, Simpson left California for Florida, one of the few states where personal assets such as homes and pensions cannot be seized to cover liabilities that were incurred in other states.

Background

Brown–Simpson marriage, abuse

Nicole Brown met O. J. Simpson in 1977, when she was 18 and working as a waitress at a Beverly Hills private club called The Daisy.  Although Simpson was still married to his first wife, Marguerite, the two began dating. Simpson and Marguerite divorced in March 1979.  Simpson and Brown were married on February 2, 1985, five years after Simpson's retirement from the NFL.  The marriage lasted seven years and produced two children, Sydney (b. 1985) and Justin (b. 1988).

Simpson was investigated multiple times by police for domestic violence.  Detective Mark Fuhrman responded to Simpson's Rockingham estate in 1985 on a domestic violence call. Brown was crying and Simpson had broken the windshield of her car with a baseball bat.  On New Year's Day 1989 Simpson beat Brown. She called a 9-1-1 operator and told officers "He's going to kill me." Simpson pleaded no contest to spousal abuse.  Photos of Brown's bruised and battered face from that attack were shown to the court.

Brown filed for divorce on February 25, 1992, citing "irreconcilable differences".  Following the divorce, Simpson and Brown got back together and the abuse continued. Audio released during the murder trial of O. J. Simpson revealed that Brown called 9-1-1 on October 25, 1993, crying and saying that "He [Simpson] is going to beat the shit out of me". After this incident, the relationship would end for a second and final time.

Brown had also reported a set of keys missing from the house a few weeks before her murder, which were found on Simpson when he was arrested.  A women's shelter, Sojourn, received a call from Brown four days prior to the murders; she said that she was afraid of her ex-husband, who she believed was stalking her. The prosecution did not present this information in court because they thought that Judge Ito would rule the evidence to be hearsay. In addition, friends and family indicated that Brown had consistently said that Simpson had been stalking 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.

Frogmen

A few months before the murders, Simpson completed a film pilot for Frogmen, an adventure series similar to The A-Team in which he starred. Simpson played the lead role of "Bullfrog" Burke, who led a group of former U.S. Navy SEALs. He received "a fair amount of" military training – including use of a knife – for Frogmen, and holds a knife to the throat of a woman (playing the role of his daughter) in one scene.   A 25-minute tape of the pilot, which did not include the knife scene, was found by investigators and watched on Simpson's television as they searched his house. The defense tried to block its use on these grounds, but Judge Ito allowed the tape to be shown. However, the prosecution never introduced it as evidence during the trial.  It has also been reported that his character's skills included night killings and the "silent kill" technique of slashing the throat, and that SEALs regularly wear knit caps like the one found at the scene. The Navy calls these watch caps.

Mezzaluna

On Brown's last evening alive, she attended a dance recital of Sydney's at Paul Revere Middle School with her family. Simpson also attended. The family then went to eat at the Mezzaluna restaurant, and Simpson was not invited. Goldman was a waiter at Mezzaluna, though he was not assigned to Brown's table. After eating at Mezzaluna, Brown and her children went to Ben & Jerry's before returning home.  Karen Lee Crawford, the manager of Mezzaluna, recounted that Brown's mother phoned the restaurant at 9:37 p.m. about a pair of lost eyeglasses. Crawford found them and put them in a white envelope. Goldman left the restaurant at 9:50 p.m., after his shift, to return the glasses by dropping them off at Brown's house.

Simpson ate McDonald's with Kato Kaelin, a bit-part actor and family friend who had been given the use of a guest house on Simpson's estate. Kaelin testified Simpson was "upset" after the recital.  Rumors circulated that Simpson had been on drugs at the time of the murder, and the New York Post's Cindy Adams reported that the pair had actually gone to a local Burger King, where a prominent drug dealer known only as "J. R." had admitted to selling them crystal meth.

Murders

At 12:10 am. on June 13, 1994, Brown and Goldman were found murdered outside of Nicole's Bundy Drive condominium in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, California. Both victims had been dead for about two hours prior to the arrival of police. The defense and prosecution would both agree that the murders took place sometime between 10:15 and 11:00 pm. Nicole's Akita dog with bloodstained paws led neighbors to the body.  Steven Schwab testified that while he was walking his dog in the area near Brown's house at around 11:30 pm, he noticed that Brown's Akita dog had bloody paws but was uninjured. Schwab said he took the dog to a neighbor friend of his, who took the dog for a walk at approximately 12:00 midnight and testified that it tugged on its leash and led him to Brown's house. There he discovered Brown's dead body and flagged down a passing patrol car.

Brown was found face down and barefoot at the bottom of the stairs leading to her front door, which was left open, with no signs of forced entry nor any evidence that anyone had entered the premises.  The scene had a large amount of blood, but the bottom of Brown's feet were clean, leading investigators to conclude she was murdered first and the intended target.  She had been stabbed multiple times in the head and neck, but had few defensive wounds on her hands, which implied a short struggle to investigators. The final cut was deep into her neck, severing her carotid artery. Brown did have a large bruise on the center of her upper back so investigators concluded that, after the assailant had killed Goldman, he returned to Brown's body, put his foot on her back (causing the bruise), pulled her head up by the hair as he slit her throat.   Her larynx could be seen through the gaping wound in her neck, and vertebra C3 was incised; her head remained barely attached to the body.  Underneath Brown was a restaurant menu she may have been holding. On her banister was a melting cup of ice cream.  Her bath was full and she had lit candles, as well as had a stereo and television on.

Goldman lay nearby by a tree and fence. He had been stabbed multiple times in the body and neck but like Brown had relatively few defensive wounds, which also signified a short struggle to investigators.  Forensic evidence from the Los Angeles County coroner alleged that Goldman had been attacked and stabbed repeatedly in the neck and chest with one hand while the assailant restrained him with an arm chokehold. Near Goldman were his beeper and car keys, as well as the assailant's blue knit cap and left-hand glove - an extra-large, Aris Isotoner light leather glove. Robert Riske, the first officer on the scene, testified only to seeing a single bloody glove, among other evidence, at the crime scene.  Also near Goldman was an envelope with the glasses he was returning.

Bloody shoe prints leaving the scene through the back gate were left by the assailant. To the left of some footprints were drops of blood from the assailant apparently bleeding from their left side, and coins were on the ground from apparently reaching into a pocket. Measuring the distance between the steps showed the assailant walked away rather than ran.

Flight to Chicago

Simpson was scheduled for a red-eye flight at 11:45 p. m. to Chicago, to play golf at a convention with representatives of Hertz Rental Car Company the following day, for which he was a spokesman.  Limousine driver Allan Park was scheduled to pick him up and take him to Los Angeles International Airport, and arrived early at around 10:25.  He drove around Simpson's estate to make sure he could navigate the area with the stretch limousine properly and testified he did not see Simpson's Ford Bronco parked outside.  Park testified that he had been looking for and had seen the house number on the curb, 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).  Park parked opposite the Ashford Street 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. He noted the house was dark and nobody appeared to be home as he smoked a cigarette and made several calls to his boss to get Simpson's home phone number. He then testified he saw a large figure similar in height and build to Simpson emerge from the area where the Bronco was later found to be parked and approached the front entrance before aborting and heading towards the southern walkway. The same figure then appeared shortly afterwards from the southern walkway and entered the house through the front door and the lights then came on.

At the same time Park witnessed this "shadowy figure" head towards the south walkway where the bloody glove would later be found, Brian "Kato" Kaelin had just previously been on the telephone to his friend, Rachel Ferrara. At approximately 10:50, something crashed into his wall, which he described as three thumps, and which he feared was an earthquake. Kaelin hung up the phone and ventured outside to investigate the noises, but decided not to venture directly down the dark south pathway from which the thumps had originated. Instead, he walked to the front of the property, where he saw Park's limo outside the Ashford gate. Kaelin let Park in the Ashford gate, and Simpson finally came out the front door a few minutes later claiming he had overslept.  Both Park and Kaelin would later testify that Simpson seemed agitated that night as well.

Park noted that on the way to the airport Simpson complained about how hot it was and was sweating and rolled down the window, despite it not being a warm night.  Park also testified that he loaded four luggage bags into the car that night, with one of them being a knapsack that Simpson wouldn't let Park touch, insisting he load it into the car himself. James Williams, skycap at LA International Airport, testified that Simpson only checked three bags at LAX that night and the police determined that the missing luggage was the same knapsack Park had mentioned earlier.  Another witness not used at trial, Skip Junis, claimed he saw Simpson at the airport discarding items from a bag into a trash can.  Detectives Lange and Vannatter believe this is how the murder weapon, shoes and clothes that Simpson wore during the murder were disposed.

Simpson was running late but caught his flight. A passenger on the plane and the pilot testified to not noticing any cuts or wounds on Simpson's hands.  Simpson stayed at the O'Hare Plaza Hotel.

Arrest of Simpson

Soon after discovering the female victim was Nicole Simpson, LAPD commander Keith Bushey ordered detectives Lange, Vannatter, Philips and Fuhrman to notify Simpson of her death and to give him a ride to pick up his children, who had been in Nicole's condo at the time of the murders, and were at the police station now. They buzzed the intercom at the property for over 30 minutes but received no response. They noted the Bronco was parked on Rockingham at an awkward angle, with its back end out more than the front, and had blood on the door which they feared meant someone inside might be hurt. Detective Vannatter then instructed Fuhrman to scale the wall and unlock the gate to allow the other three detectives to enter. The detectives would argue they entered without a search warrant because of exigent circumstances – specifically, in this case, out of fear that someone inside might be injured.

Fuhrman briefly interviewed Kato Kaelin, who told him the Bronco belonged to Simpson and about the thumps on his wall he heard earlier that night. In a walk-around of the premises to inspect what may have caused the thumps, Fuhrman discovered a second bloody glove; it was later determined to be the matching right hand glove of the one found at the murder scene. Through forensic testing, the glove was determined to have blood from both victims and Simpson, as well as clothing and hair fibers consistent with all three. This evidence, matched with other evidence that was collected at both scenes, was determined to be probable cause to issue an arrest warrant for Simpson.

Detective Ron Phillips testified that when he called Simpson in Chicago to tell him of his ex-wife's murder, he sounded "very upset" but was oddly unconcerned about the circumstances of her murder.  Simpson later claimed to the police that in his grief he broke a glass, cutting his finger on his left hand. Simpson then returned to Los Angeles. While Simpson was waiting in his bedroom, he invited longtime friend and police officer Ron Shipp for a private discussion; Simpson jokingly told him, "To be honest, Shipp, I've had some dreams about killing her."

The police handcuffed Simpson at his home on Monday, June 13, took him to Parker Center for questioning, and released him. Simpson hired Robert Shapiro on Tuesday; the lawyer later said that an increasingly distraught Simpson began treatment for depression. On Friday, June 17 detectives recommended that Simpson be charged with two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstance of multiple killings.

Simpson stayed Thursday night at the San Fernando Valley home of friend Robert Kardashian; Shapiro asked several doctors to attend to him because of Simpson's fragile mental state. LAPD notified Shapiro at 8:30 am on Friday that Simpson would have to surrender that day. At 9:30 am Shapiro went to Kardashian's home to tell Simpson that he would have to surrender by 11 am; the murder charges were filed that day. The lawyer described Simpson as being in suicidal depression; he updated his will, called his mother and children, and wrote three sealed letters: one to his children, another to his mother, and one to the public.

Lawyers persuaded the LAPD to allow Simpson to turn himself in; the police believed that someone as famous as Simpson would not flee, although the double murder charge meant that bail would not be set and a first-degree murder conviction could result in a death penalty.  The surrender was delayed by an hour because of a medical examination of the suspect, so police called Shapiro to say that Simpson would be arrested at Shapiro's house. He did not tell Simpson, who was with friend Al Cowlings elsewhere in the house; they apparently escaped at this time.  More than 1,000 reporters waited for Simpson's perp walk at the police station, but he did not arrive. At 1:50 pm, Commander Dave Gascon, LAPD's chief spokesman, publicly declared that Simpson was a fugitive; the police issued an all-points bulletin for him and an arrest warrant for Cowlings.

Suicide note

At 5 pm, Kardashian and one of his defense lawyers read Simpson's public letter.  In the letter, Simpson sent greetings to 24 friends and wrote, "First everyone understand I had nothing to do with Nicole's murder." He described the fights with Brown and their decision to not reconcile as normal parts of a long relationship and asked the media "as a last wish" not to bother his children. He wrote to then girlfriend Paula Barbieri "I'm sorry ... we're not going to have, our chance ... As I leave, you'll be in my thoughts." It also included "I can't go on" and an apology to the Goldman family. The letter concluded, "Don't feel sorry for me. I have had a great life, great friends. Please think of the real O.J. and not this lost person".  Most interpreted this as a suicide note; Simpson's mother Eunice collapsed after hearing it, and reporters joined the search for Simpson. At Kardashian's press conference, Shapiro said that he and Simpson's psychiatrists agreed with the suicide note interpretation. Through television, Shapiro appealed to Simpson to surrender.

Bronco chase

News helicopters searched the Los Angeles highway system for Cowling's white Ford Bronco (Cowling and Simpson both had white Broncos). At 5:51 pm. Simpson reportedly called 9-1-1; the call was traced to the Santa Ana Freeway, near Lake Forest. At around 6:20 pm, a motorist in Orange County notified California Highway Patrol after seeing someone believed to be Simpson riding in the Bronco on the I-5 freeway heading north, driven by Cowlings. The police tracked calls placed from Simpson on his cell phone. At 6:45 pm, police officer Ruth Dixon saw the Bronco head north on Interstate 405. When she caught up to it, Cowlings yelled out that Simpson was in the back seat of 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 following her in the chase.

Bob Tur of KCBS-TV was the first to find Simpson from a news helicopter, after colleagues heard that the FBI's mobile phone tracking had located him at the El Toro Y. More than nine news helicopters eventually joined the pursuit; Tur compared the fleet to Apocalypse Now, and the high degree of media participation caused camera signals to appear on incorrect television channels.  The chase was so long that one helicopter ran out of fuel, forcing its station to ask another for a camera feed.  Radio station KNX-AM also provided live coverage of the low-speed pursuit. USC sports announcer Peter Arbogast and station producer Kash Limbach contacted former USC football 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;  "My God, we love you, Juice. Just pull over and I'll come out and stand by you all the rest of my life", he promised.  Callers from around the country also pleaded with Simpson over KNX to surrender.

Simpson's escape embarrassed the LAPD and the Los Angeles County District Attorney, which denied that he had been treated unusually.  At Parker Center, officials discussed how to persuade Simpson to surrender peacefully. Detective Tom Lange, who had interviewed Simpson about the murders on June 13, realized that he had Simpson's cell phone number and called him repeatedly. A colleague hooked a tape recorder up to Lange's phone and captured a conversation between Lange and Simpson in which Lange repeatedly pleaded with Simpson to "throw the gun out [of] the window" for the sake of his mother and children. Simpson apologized for not turning himself in earlier that day and responded that he was "the only one who deserved to get hurt" and was "just gonna go with Nicole". He asked Lange to "just let me get to the house" and said "I need [the gun] for me". Cowlings's voice is overheard in the recording (after the Bronco had arrived at Simpson's home surrounded by police) pleading with Simpson to surrender and end the chase peacefully.  During the pursuit, and without having a chance to hear the taped phone conversation, Simpson's friend Al Michaels interpreted his actions as an admission of guilt.

Los Angeles streets emptied and drink orders stopped at bars as people watched on television.  ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN, and local news outlets interrupted regularly scheduled programming to cover the incident, watched by an estimated 95 million viewers nationwide; only 90 million had watched that year's Super Bowl.  While NBC continued coverage of 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 in the corner while Tom Brokaw covered the chase. The chase was covered live by ABC anchors Peter Jennings and Barbara Walters on behalf of the network's five news magazines, which achieved some of their highest-ever ratings that week.  The chase was broadcast internationally, with Gascon's relatives in France and China seeing him on television.

Thousands of spectators and onlookers packed overpasses along the route of the chase, waiting for the white Bronco. In a festival-like atmosphere, many had signs like "Go O.J." urging Simpson to flee.  They and the millions watching the chase on television felt part of a "common emotional experience", one author wrote, as they "wonder[ed] if O. J. Simpson would commit suicide, escape, 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 p.m. at his Brentwood estate, 50 miles (80 km) later, where his son, Jason, ran out of the house, "gesturing wildly", and 27 SWAT officers awaited.  After remaining in the Bronco for about 45 minutes, Simpson exited at 8:50 pm with a framed family photo and went inside for about an hour; a police spokesman stated that he spoke to his mother and drank a glass of orange juice, causing reporters to laugh.  Shapiro arrived, and Simpson surrendered to authorities a few minutes later. In the Bronco, police found "$8,000 in cash, a change of clothing, a loaded .357 Magnum, a United States passport, family pictures, and a fake goatee and mustache". Neither the footage of the Bronco chase nor the items found in the Bronco were shown to the jury as evidence in the trial.

Simpson was booked at Parker Center and taken to Men's Central Jail; Cowlings was booked on suspicion of harboring a fugitive and held on $250,000 bail.  As Simpson was driven away, he saw the crowds, many of whom were African Americans, cheering him; Simpson said, "What are all these niggers doing in Brentwood?"

The events of the Bronco chase, and the materials in the Bronco including the cash, handgun, and disguise, were not presented to the jury. The prosecution did not cover Simpson's apparent suicide note and statement to the police.