A 360 degree study of the infamous crime of OJ Simpson

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A 360-degree study of the infamous crime of OJ Simpson

It was on June 1994 when O. J. Simpson’s case was taken to court in America. He was reported to have killed his ex-wife and another man known as Ronald Lyne Goldman. The victims were found outside Nicole’s – his ex wife – house in Brentwood, California thus providing a link to the defendant. The victims were the whites and O.J Simpson, an African American citizen, was a famous football player. He was also a football commentator on the network TV and was well known for the TV commercial of Rental agency that was dealing with Hertz car sales. Overnight, he became the most famous person in America ever charged with murder and his case was all over in radio, magazines, newspapers and TV news. His criminal trial was given the name ‘Trial of the century’, though that name had already been used in the description of Lindbergh baby executioner, which took place in 1935. The evidence indicated that Simpson committed the murder of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman but his defense said that the evidence was false because the motive of their deaths was unclear.

Prior to the case of murder, Simpson’s ex-wife had already put her house on sale and wanted to live in Simpson’s house to evade taxes. However, Simpson refused to agree with her plan and consequently sent a letter to Nicole three days before the murder scene took place. Nicole was annoyed and this led to the disagreements between the two; this seemed to account for the murder of the two people. Nicole and Simpson attended their daughter’s party at Paul Revere Middle school and they were accompanied by the family of Nicole. Simpson was always close to the family of his ex-wife but during that day of the party, she denied Simpson the chance to be near her parents. Simpson dragged the chair, and watched the recitals from a distance. The video taken during the party showed Simpson cheering and in a happy mood. However, in spite of such evidence, the prosecution asserted that Simpson had committed the murders since he was annoyed at being restrained from being close to the family (Savive 56).

Simpson’s criminal trial was taken in Los Angeles because of his celebrity status and the fact that he was an African American charged with murder. It was taken to Los Angeles where the black jury would handle his case rather than being held by the white jury in the Brentwood area. The trial began on 1995 and took nine months to be accomplished. It was the longest criminal trial in the Californian history. The state spent a lot of money prosecuting his case and his defense was equally costly. He spent around six million dollars in the case. The defense argued persistently within and outside the courtroom saying that Simpson was innocent of the murder. Some tapes were brought as evidence to the court but the prosecutors fought to reject them.

The proof showed that the victims were killed at a quarter past 10 p.m. outside Nicole’s house. It was believed that Lyn Goldman had gone to visit Nicole that night when Simpson was going to kill his wife. One of the witnesses said that it seems that Simpson had already committed the murder earlier before that time because the dog started barking and left Nicole’s compound, running towards the neighborhood. It was then Nicole’s neighbor followed the dog, which led him to the two bodies. The two children were sleeping during that time and the house help said that he came outside and saw Simpson’s Ford Bronco parked near Nicole’s home (Savive 76). It was believed that in case the house help’s testimony was true, then the murder could have been committed by Simpson before the witness had heard the dog barking since this time was definitely before the fact.

Evidence indicated that Simpson traveled on his Ford Bronco to Nicole’s house where he allegedly committed murder. It was evidenced that Simpson fled to Los Angeles after the murder took place. His driver said that Simpson was supposed to take a flight at 11.15 p.m. and he went to pick him from his house but he noticed his Ford Bronco was not in the compound. The Ford Bronco was noticed parked in the city street because he did not want to be seen near the house. Later, Simpson came and banged three times in the back door of the guest room’s house to call Kato to open the door for him. However, by that time Kato was on the phone making some conversations with a friend so he did not respond immediately. Nevertheless, Simpson’s driver saw the shadowy man entering the house but he could not see him clearly, because he was far (Wald 1565). It was this time when Simpson came out of his house in different clothes. He carried a small bag that was reported to have carried shoes, which was stained by blood when he left to airport and had a plan to throw them.

It was suggested that the murders were unexpected because they did not took place at the occasion when somebody could realistically imagine Goldman to be with Nicole. Thus far, according to the trial theory, it was said that Simpson planned to murder his wife in front of his children after the recital at the party. During the murder night, Simpson seemed not to have planned anything about the murder. They went out at 9.00 p.m. with Kato to get Hamburgers from a nearby place (Kuhl 45). On the other hand, Nicole went out with the children to buy them ice cream. Simpson and Kato left each other twenty minutes to 10 p.m. According to the evidence, Kato used to be Nicole’s resident and he was now staying freely in Simpson’s guesthouse that was located at 360 N Rockingham. His ex-wife lived two miles northwest from his house in Brentwood.

Prosecutor Marsha Clark provided an evidenced statement supposed to show clearly that the murder was committed by Simpson. He said that Simpson’s Ford Bronco was stained by blood. However, the amount of blood that was reported to be in the vehicle was small that could not even be measured. In addition, bloodstains were found outside his compound and even his socks were stained by blood and were found in his bedroom. However, his defense argued during the trial that most of the evidence provided was false. The most compelling false evidence was the blood found in the socks in his bedroom. It was said that the blood was found below one of his shoes liner and it saturated throughout the socks. The defense could not agree with this evidence because if Simpson was involved in a murder scene the evidence appeared too obvious and somewhat arranged.

However, evidence cannot be planted before investigations have been carried out. The investigators gather information first from various places before embarking on the conclusion. For instance, in Simpson’s case, false allegations could have been made in case the initial evidence was not gathered. Even though some allegations could have been falsified, some of the evidence seemed to be unreasonable to believe. The photos were taken and it was determined that the footprints that were found on the murder scene was clear evidence that Simpson and Bruno Magli were present when the murder scene took place. Nevertheless, the footprints indicated that Simpson had stepped on the pool of blood streams of the victims that had already dried after the blood was deposited.

Goldman had some bruises on his knuckles showing that Goldman had hit his attacker. However, Simpson was examined one day after the murder and it was discovered that he only had a cut on the finger but he had no visible bruises. The hand gloves containing blood were found in Simpson’s properties indicating that he used hand gloves when he committed murder and this protected him from not getting bruises when he attacked Goldman and Nicole. Therefore, the prosecution argued that Simpson did not get the cut during the murder indicating that he used gloves to protect him from any injuries. Nicole was murdered inside her front gate and Goldman outside the front gate (Wald 1563). His body was the thrown inside the gate to hide him from the passers-by. This was an indication that Nicole opened his front door for the murderer who then killed her on the spot. Then, on the arrival of Goldman, the murderer turned around and stubbed him on the throat using a knife.

The blood drops from Simpson’s shoes and the finger indicated that Simpson left Nicole’s compound by the back gate but not the front gate. The cut on the finger was the evidence that he sustained it while trying to climb over the back gate to get an exit. The prosecutors believed that he was carrying the gloves by the time he was trying to escape and he used one of the gloves to soak the dripping blood from his finger. The police found out Nicola’s keys for the gate at Simpson’s house and the evidence indicated that they were not brought by Simpson. During the trial, the prosecutor commented that Nicole was killed by his husband in an envious wrath because he had been abusing her physically before they separated. His layer, Dershowitz defended him saying that only a few women are abused and murdered by their husband in a jealousy ways.

In addition, the past life history of Simpson indicated that he had been a total drunkard. Therefore, it was assumed that he could have committed murder due to intoxication. However, neither Kato nor his driver could give the evidence that he was drunk the night when the victims were murdered. Even it was unclear to believe that Simpson was envious to Nicole because they had already divorced and they both were aware that each of them had different lovers and this seemed not to bother them. Everybody believed that nobody committed the murder a part from O.J Simpson thus the private investigator began to investigate the case. When the trial ended, the prosecutors and investigators were all exhausted and became discredited before the public. Simpson lost his good reputation and his careers but he managed to avoid a long court sentence after he was found innocent. Simpson’s case set a history in America hence many books were published reviewing on the trial of the century (Savive 56).

 

Works Cited

Kuhl, Victoria. Differing Views of the O. J. Simpson Trial: A Social Identity Perspective.

Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2008. Print.

Savive, Will. The Study Abroad Murder: Trial of the Century. Hackensack, N.J: Del-Grande

Pub, 2011. Print.

Wald, P M. “Running the Trial of the Century: the Nuremberg Legacy.” Cardozo Law Review.

27. 4 (2006): 1559-1598. Print.