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

Timeline

According to the prosecution, Simpson was last seen in public at 9:36 p.m. that evening when he returned to the front gate of his house from McDonald's with Kaelin. Simpson was not seen again until 10:54 p.m. – an hour and eighteen minutes later – when he got in Park's limousine. Brown's neighbor Pablo Fenjves testified about hearing a "very distinctive barking" and "plaintive wail" of a dog at around ten to fifteen minutes after 10:00 p.m. while he was at home watching the news on television. Eva Stein, another neighbor, testified about very loud and persistent barking, also at around 10:15 pm, which kept her from going back to sleep. The prosecution used this for the time of the murders. The prosecution alleged that Simpson had driven his Bronco during the required five minutes to and from the murder scene. They presented a witness in the vicinity of Bundy Drive who saw a car similar to Simpson's Bronco speeding away from the area at 10:35 pm.

DNA evidence and blood trail

The prosecution presented a total of 108 exhibits, including 61 drops of blood, of DNA evidence allegedly linking Simpson to the murders. With no witnesses to the crime, the prosecution was dependent on DNA as the only physical evidence linking Simpson to the crime.  The volume of DNA evidence in this case was unique and the prosecution believed they could reconstruct how the crime was committed with enough accuracy to resemble an eye witness account.  Two different types of DNA matching, along with conventional serology, were used in the Simpson case: Polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, and restriction fragment length polymorphism, or RFLP.

Renee Montgomery of the California State Department Lab testified May 23, 1995 to her results from D1S80 DNA matching and reconstructed the prosecution’s theory of how the crime happened that night.  Marcia Clark stated in her opening statements on January 24, 1995 that there was a "trail of blood from the Bundy Crime scene through Simpson's Ford Bronco to his Bedroom at Rockingham".

·         Simpson's DNA found on blood drops next to the bloody foot prints near the victims at the Bundy Crime Scene.

·         Simpson's DNA found on a trail of blood drops leading away from the victims, towards and on the back gate at Bundy.

·          Simpson, Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown's DNA found on blood on the outside of the door and inside Simpson's Bronco.

·         Simpson's DNA found on blood drops leading from the area where his Bronco was parked at Simpson's Rockingham home to the front door entrance.

·         Simpson, Brown and Goldman's DNA on a bloody glove found behind his home.

·         Simpson and Nicole Brown's DNA found on blood on a pair of socks in Simpson's bedroom.

Gregory Matheson, chief forensic chemist at the Los Angeles Police Crime Lab, testified May 1, 1995 that serology testing verified all of the above matches with the chance of error being 1-in-200 or 0.5%.

Dr. Robin Cotton, Lab director of Cellmark Diagnostics, testified on May 8, 1995 to RFLP DNA matching that the chances the blood found next the to bloody foots prints coming from someone other than Simpson was only 1-in-9.7 Billion and the chances of the blood found on a sock in Simpsons bedroom coming from anyone else other than Nicole Brown was only 1-in-6.8 billion.

Gary Sims of the California Department of Justice Crime Lab testified on May 16, 1995 using DQ Alpha DNA matching that the chances of the blood found in Simpsons Bronco coming from anyone else other than the two victims was only 1-in-20 Billion.

Hair and fiber evidence

Strands of hair consistent with Simpson's were found on Goldman's shirt.  Several strands of dark blue cotton fibers were found on Goldman. The prosecution presented a witness who said Simpson wore a similarly colored sweatsuit that night.  The gloves contained particles of hair consistent with Goldman's, and also contained a long strand of blonde hair similar to Brown's. The knit cap contained carpet fibers consistent with fibers from Simpson's Bronco, and contained strands of a black person's hair. The defense showed the analysis that found that the hair could be Brown's was not reliable.

Shoe Print Analysis

On June 19, 1995, FBI shoe print expert William J. Bodziak testified that the bloody footprints found at the crime scene and leading away from the victims towards the back alleyway and inside Simpson's Bronco were made from a rare and expensive pair of Bruno Magli Lorenzo model Italian shoes. Bodziak determined the shoes were a size 12, the same size that Simpson wears. The prosecution discovered that the shoes are only sold at Bloomingdale’s and that only 29 pairs had been sold in the U.S and one of them was sold at the same store that Nicole Brown had purchased the gloves she gave Simpson and the prosecution believed he wore during the murders. Bodziak also testified that, although there are two sets of footprints at the crime scene, they were all made by the same shoes; indicating only one attacker was present. During cross-examination Bailey suggested the murderer deliberately wore shoes that were the wrong size, which Bodziak dismissed as "ridiculous".

Simpson denied ever owning a pair of those "ugly ass shoes" and the prosecution could only offer circumstantial evidence that he did. They believe Simpson discarded them in the knapsack he took with him to the airport that was never found.  On June 20, 1995 Samuel Poser, the shoe department manager at Bloomingdale's, testified that Simpson had purchased shoes from him four or five times in the past and that he remembers showing Simpson the Bruno Magli shoes. Poser claims that Simpson wanted something casual to wear on the sidelines while reporting during Buffalo Bills game. During cross-examination he admitted not recalling whether Simpson actually purchased the shoes and added that he likely discouraged it because they were not suited for the weather in that area. During redirect he confirmed that the UPC records show only one pair of those shoes were sold in that size at Bloomingdale’s but it was paid for with cash so there is no credit/debit card receipt that could prove Simpson was the purchaser.

Although the prosecution could not prove that Simpson owned a pair of those shoes, Bodziak testified that a similar footprint was left on the floor inside Simpson's Bronco. Barry Scheck suggested that Fuhrman broke into the Bronco and accidentally left the footprint there. The prosecution responded that Fuhrman was never inside the Bronco but the defense noted that during the preliminary hearing he said he saw blood on the lower door sill of the Bronco and photographs show that blood is only visible if the door is open and produced a photo of Fuhrman walking through a puddle of blood at the crime scene. Bodziak admitted he cannot identify the shoe print in the car as coming from a Bruno Magli shoe but said he examined the shoes of the police officers, including Fuhrman, and ruled them all out as making any of the footprints at the crime scene.

Dr. Henry Lee testified on August 8, 1995 that photographs show that a second set of shoe prints were present at the crime scene, indicating a second attacker was present. The prosecution then called Agent Bodziak again and he testified that Dr. Lee had erred and what he thought was another set of foot prints were actually impressions left in the concrete when it was poured and criticized Dr. Lee for basing his opinion on a photograph of a photograph.

Defense case

Simpson hired a team of high-profile defense lawyers, initially led by Robert Shapiro, who was previously a civil lawyer known for settling, and then subsequently by Johnnie Cochran, who at that point was known for police brutality and civil rights cases.  The team included noted defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, Robert Kardashian, Harvard appeals lawyer Alan Dershowitz, his student Robert Blasier, and Dean of Santa Clara University School of Law Gerald Uelmen. Assisting Cochran were Carl E. Douglas and Shawn Holley. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld were also hired; they headed the Innocence Project and specialized in DNA evidence. Simpson's defense was said to have cost between US$3 million and $6 million; the media dubbed the group of talented attorneys the Dream Team.

Theory

The defense team's reasonable doubt theory was summarized as "compromised, contaminated, and corrupted" in opening statements.  They argued that the DNA evidence against Simpson was "compromised" by the mishandling of criminalists Dennis Fung and Andrea Mazzola during the collection phase of evidence gathering, and that 100% of the "real killer(s)" DNA was lost from the evidence samples.  The evidence was then "contaminated" in the LAPD crime lab by criminalist Collin Yamauchi, and Simpson's DNA from his reference vial was transferred to all but three exhibits.[150] The remaining three exhibits were planted by the police and thus "corrupted" by police fraud.  The defense also questioned the timeline, claiming the murders happened around 11:00pm that night.