Humanity Wrap 

How 'The Juice' Got Loose

Was the 1995 murder trial of O J Simpson a travesty of Justice?
By David Cocksedge
MOST cases in this series involving a miscarriage of justice concern an innocent defendant being found guilty. But when an obviously guilty person beats the rap, that is not justice either. It happened at a Los Angeles courthouse one day in October 1995, when a rich and famous man named O.J. Simpson literally "got away with murder".
The famous American football and movie star, Orenthal James Simpson (born 9 July 1947) affectionately known as 'Orange Juice' because of his initials, was charged with a double homicide on 17 June 1994. This followed a dramatic car chase down Hollywood Freeway that was filmed by airborne TV cameras and beamed live to millions of American viewers. Pursued by a phalanx of police cars, Simpson's Ford Bronco was driven by his friend Robert Hardashian in a slow speed chase as the former sports star literally held a gun to his own head. Excited Simpson fans were shouting, "Hey man! 'The Juice' is loose! 'The Juice' is loose!" The media soon took up the hypnotic chant. It could only happen in America. Simpson's private life was now public property.
On the morning of 13 June 1994, the bodies of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson (36) and her male friend Ronald Goldman (25), a Los Angeles chef, were found outside Nicole's residence in Bundy, California. They had both been savagely murdered, sometime on the evening of 12 June, possibly with a knife, though no murder weapon was ever found. The first two Los Angeles police officers on the scene, Mark Furhman and Dennis Wong, noted bloodstained finger and footprints all around the murder scene. At Simpson's house on the exclusive Rockingham Estate, a leather glove, covered in blood, was discovered on a path behind the building. And inside Simpson's Ford Bronco car was more blood, which experts later established belonged to Simpson and both murder victims.
When Simpson was interviewed much later that day, he gave a rambling, almost incoherent, account of his movements the previous evening. It was known that he had boarded a flight to Florida for a golf tournament (on 13th) that night. However, the cab driver that came to collect him at Rockingham at 9pm and take him to the airport had been kept waiting for around 20 minutes as he repeatedly pressed the front door buzzer. Shortly before Simpson finally let him in, the cab driver had observed Simpson's Ford Bronco pull up on the road outside, and a man enter the building from a rear entrance. Simpson also had a badly cut finger on his right hand, and gave the police several contradictory accounts as to exactly how he had managed to cut himself.
There was a mountain of forensic and witness evidence to pinpoint the famous O.J. Simpson as the killer. He was known to be insanely jealous of his former wife; there had been a series of domestic scenes before they divorced in 1992, with O.J. obtaining parental rights to visit their children. On 16 June 1993, Nicole's frantic 911 call to the LAPD had been recorded. "I can't stay on the line", she had stated, "he is going to beat the s..t out of me." Nicole had then hung up. The speculation was that Simpson must have called unexpectedly at the Bundy residence on the evening of 12 June 1994, and finding Nicole with Ronald Goldman, had murdered them both in a furious and jealous rage.
"Not so", said Mr Simpson. On 23 July 1994, he pleaded that "I am absolutely, one hundred percent, not guilty!" 'The Trial of the Century' was scheduled to start in Los Angeles on 24 January 1995 with Judge Lance Ito presiding. Robert Shapiro, Simpson's first senior attorney, had his client take a lie detector test regarding his plea. Simpson scored minus 66; about as low a score as one can get. In all his statements to the police and to his own defence team, Shapiro now knew that O.J. had simply not told the truth. Shapiro was determined that he could not allow his famous client to take the stand and give evidence in his own defence. Simpson would be unable to withstand the fierce and relentless cross-examination that would be certain to come from prosecuting attorneys Chris Darden and Marsha Clark.
But after his initial period of shock and disarray, Simpson began to mount a bullish defence. With his considerable wealth, he could afford to collect around him the so-called 'Dream Team'. Alongside Shapiro were F. Lee Bailey and the even more famous black defence lawyer, Johnnie Cochrane, a brilliant and vociferous man much given to grandstanding and theatrics in court.
Conventional lawyers may frown on these tactics, but they had swayed juries before and were often very effective in televised trials. It was apparent that this trial was going to be the focus of more media attention than any other in American legal history. It was, quite probably, the television show of the decade.
After a jury was finally empanelled, the prosecution case proceeded very effectively at first. The forensic evidence was impressive, even though clumsy investigators had inexcusably wiped a bloody fingerprint on the gate at Bundy. Detective Mark Furhman stated later that Simpson had done everything to incriminate himself short of making a video as he committed the two murders and then turning the tape over to the Los Angeles Police Department.
But in August, Cochrane made a major breakthrough for the defence. He obtained audiotapes on which Furhman had made some dreadful racist comments. Several years earlier, Furhman had been discussing the possibility of working as an advisor on a television documentary series showing LA cops 'in the raw'. To this end, he had talked on tape with a female producer and invented a character making some very colourful exaggerations. Most damaging to Furhman himself was the comment that "all niggers should be collected together in one place and then burned alive".
The prosecution fought hard to have these tapes suppressed. Judge Ito even quashed a motion to have himself disqualified from the case, as his wife had once been Furhman's superior in the LA police department, where she and Furhman had had a stormy professional relationship. It was argued that Ito could therefore be biased against the detective. "No way", said Ito. "Objection overruled".
Under cross-examination, Cochrane had asked Furhman if he had ever used the term 'nigger' in the last ten years. Furhman replied that he had not, and thereby perjured himself. The defence then had damaging sections of the tapes played in open court, and Furhman was exposed as a liar. The LA detective was now thoroughly demonised. Cochrane suggested that this 'racist cop' could have planted and manipulated evidence to implicate the former football star. It was speculated that Furhman might even have obtained a blood sample taken from Simpson for comparison purposes and squirted the bag inside the Ford Bronco. Cochrane carefully slid around the fact that blood from Nicole Brown and Goldman was also found inside the vehicle.
Now Ronald Goldman was a man unknown to Simpson. How could his blood have got there unless Simpson had attacked him? Unfortunately, this vital fact was not brought to the jury's attention by either Darden or Clark, who were by now very keen to distance themselves from Furhman and his damaging racial comments, which were, strictly speaking, irrelevant to the case anyway.
For the defence, Bailey and Cochrane speculated that a criminal gang might have committed the double homicide. But what was the motive? Nicole Brown's house had not been broken into and neither victim had been robbed. Furhman, amongst others, lamented the fact that no autopsy tests had been carried out to determine if Brown and Goldman had engaged in sexual intercourse on 12 June. (This would have established the exact extent of their relationship and thus Simpson's jealousy). The police view was that after committing the murders, Simpson had rushed back to Rockingham, knowing the cab driver was waiting for him. He had entered his house from the back, dropping a bloodstained glove in the process, then ran upstairs and showered. The driver saw a holdall amongst Simpson's luggage that he held on his lap as they drove off. Could this bag have contained OJ's bloody clothing that he later burned in Florida? The bag was not with him when he returned to Rockingham on the late afternoon of 13 June 1994.
When recalled to the stand to answer questions about his taped remarks, Detective Furhman pleaded the Fifth Amendment and declined to comment. The prosecution team (especially Darden, who was black himself) would no longer even speak to him, and Furhman had no choice. Talking frankly about the case later, Robert Shapiro said that "Not only did we play the Race Card, we dealt it from the bottom of the deck". Shapiro became so soured with the Dream Team's tactics that he also said that he could never again work with Bailey or Cochrane. The latter had artfully diverted attention away from Simpson's innocence or guilt to Furhman's behaviour and racial beliefs; implying that the detective hated black people so much that he would go to any lengths to frame them, especially a famous personality such as the black sporting icon O.J. Simpson.
Cochrane also scored a major coup when he asked Simpson to try on the leather glove discovered at the Rockingham Estate. Simpson struggled to get the glove over his right hand - it had shrunk in all the dried blood. Cochrane triumphantly told the jury, "If it does not fit, then you must acquit!" His implication was obvious; Furhman had planted a blood-soaked glove at Rockingham without even bothering to check if it was the right size. The defence also stated that Simpson did not possess such leather gloves, but hastily backtracked on this claim when Marsha Clark produced photographs of Simpson wearing identical gloves at a golf tournament in 1993. On talk shows and bars everywhere, the OJ Trial was still the biggest topic of conversation.
Cochrane said he believed that his client's bizarre behaviour during the famous car chase on 17 June was not guilt, but severe remorse after brooding on the death of his ex-wife; five days after she had been brutally slain. We can safely assume from this that Mr. Cochrane also believes in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.
After a long, complicated and bitterly fought trial, watched daily by millions, the jury's verdict of "Not Guilty!" was delivered on 3 October 1995. Simpson, who had sat looking either grim or expressionless throughout the previous ten months, smiled, waved and mouthed the words "Thank You" to the jury as the defence team danced with joy.
Many black members in the public gallery cheered and whooped with delight. Their 'main man', wickedly framed by a racist cop, had at last been cleared of these heinous murder charges. 'The Juice' was loose once more. Hallelujah!
Later, Detective Mark Furhman was handed a two-year suspended sentence for perjury. That was his reward for simply doing his job. There was no clear proof, only wild speculation, that Furhman might have planted or tampered with evidence in this case. But he had lied whilst under oath, and for that Cochrane hung him out to dry, whilst Simpson avoided 30 years in prison.
After more congratulatory backslapping, Simpson and the 'Dream Team' drove back to the Rockingham Estate for a champagne celebration amid scenes of public adulation. But at least one man had not been impressed by the verdict. He held up a large placard on a bridge over the Los Angeles Freeway as Simpson's entourage drove beneath. The sign was just one word. It read: 'MURDERER'.
Footnote:
Ronald Goldman's father was not prepared to let matters drop and filed a civil lawsuit against O.J. Simpson. After another trial in 1997, Orenthal James Simpson was found guilty of the double murder of his former wife and friend and was forced to pay around 33 million dollars in punitive and compensatory damages to the Goldman and Brown families. Simpson subsequently sold his large home in the Rockingham Estate to help pay his huge legal fees. Eight years after the crime he now lives on a pension of $30,000 a month from the NFL (National Football League) that the courts cannot touch.
The man who said not one word in his own defence throughout his criminal trial had videotapes available for sale at $29.95 each soon after the acquittal. On the tape, a relaxed OJ Simpson finally gave his own side of the story. He talked frankly about his innocence, and vowed to pursue the real killers and bring them to justice. There are millions of people in the world who do not believe him.
(Research: Internet web sites on the two OJ Simpson trials)

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