Mark Fuhrman
Mark Fuhrman (born February 5, 1952) is a former detective of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). He is primarily known for his part in the investigation of the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in the O. J. Simpson murder case.
Mark Fuhrman
February 5, 1952
1975–1995
Retired
- Sworn in as Officer (1975)
- Officer (1975–1989)
- Detective (1989–1995)
- Author
- Radio host
United States
United States Marine Corps
1970-1975
Sergeant
In 1995, Fuhrman was called to testify regarding his discovery of evidence in the Simpson case, including a bloody glove recovered at Simpson's estate. During the trial, witnesses claimed that during the 1980s, Fuhrman frequently described African Americans with a racist epithet, claims he denied. In response, Simpson's defense team produced recorded interviews with Fuhrman and witnesses proved that he had repeatedly used racist language during those interviews.[2] As a result, the defense claimed that Fuhrman had committed perjury and was not a credible witness. The credibility of the prosecution has been cited as one reason Simpson was acquitted.[3] The defense claimed that Fuhrman planted key evidence as part of a racially motivated plot against Simpson. When asked under oath (with the jury not present), Fuhrman declined to answer all questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right. These questions included whether he planted or manufactured evidence.
Fuhrman retired from the LAPD in 1995. In 1996, he pleaded no contest to perjury for his false testimony related to his use of racial epithets. Fuhrman has claimed that he is not a racist and apologized for his use of racist language.[4] Some of his former coworkers who are minorities have expressed support for him.[5] Fuhrman maintains that he did not plant or manufacture evidence in the Simpson case, and Simpson's defense team did not present any evidence to contradict this claim.[6]
Since his retirement from the LAPD, Fuhrman has written true crime books and hosted talk radio.
Life before the O. J. Simpson murder trial[edit]
Fuhrman was born in Eatonville, Washington, and attended Peninsula High School in Gig Harbor, Washington. Fuhrman's parents divorced when he was seven years old, and his mother remarried briefly. In 1970, aged 18, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he was trained as a machine gunner and military policeman.[1] He served during the Vietnam War era,[7] although his service in the Vietnam theater was restricted to being assigned to the USS New Orleans, an amphibious assault ship stationed offshore. Having attained the rank of sergeant,[1] he was honorably discharged in 1975.[8] After leaving the military, Fuhrman entered the Los Angeles Police Academy and graduated in 1975.[9]
In 1981, Fuhrman requested leave for workers' compensation. During a psychiatric interview regarding this claim, Fuhrman expressed racist sentiments, stating that he stopped enjoying military service because of alleged insubordination from Mexican-Americans and African-Americans, whom he described as "niggers".[10][11] Fuhrman received workers' compensation and remained on paid leave until 1983. During this time, Fuhrman attempted to leave the police force permanently and receive a stress disability pension. In a 1982 psychiatric interview, he claimed that he had "tortur[ed] suspects and con[ned] internal affairs detectives", that he would choke suspects and break their arms and legs "if necessary", and that he had pounded suspects' faces to "mush".[10][11] Fuhrman claimed that he was afraid he would kill someone if he were returned to street patrol.[11] Although several psychiatrists recommended that he be removed from duty completely, and others recommended that he not be allowed to carry a gun,[11] the City of Los Angeles argued that Fuhrman's statements were merely part of an elaborate ruse to win a pension.[10] In 1983, Fuhrman lost his case, and a subsequent appeal to Superior Court was rejected; therefore, Fuhrman returned to active duty as a police officer.[10][11]
In 1985, Fuhrman responded to a domestic violence call between retired NFL football player O. J. Simpson and his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.[12] In 1989, a statement by Fuhrman about this call resulted in Simpson's arrest for spousal abuse.[13] Fuhrman was promoted to detective in 1989.[1] In October 1994, he worked to prove the innocence of Arrick Harris, an African-American male who Fuhrman believed had been falsely implicated for murder.[14] Fuhrman retired from the LAPD in early 1995, after serving as a police officer for 20 years.[15][16]
Post-trial career[edit]
Murder in Brentwood[edit]
After retiring from the LAPD in early 1995, Fuhrman moved to Sandpoint, Idaho. He wrote a book about the Simpson case, called Murder in Brentwood (1997, ISBN 0895264218), which includes a foreword by Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor of the Charles Manson case. In the book, Fuhrman apologized for the racist remarks on the audiotapes, terming them "immature, irresponsible ramblings" made because of a desire to make money; he contends that the tapes were merely part of a screenplay. He argued that Lungren had charged him to garner black support for a planned campaign for governor of California, in 1998.
Despite being told that Lungren's case was "flimsy at best", Fuhrman said that he felt that he had no choice but to plead no contest. He claimed that he could not afford to mount an adequate defense; he already owed thousands of dollars in legal bills, and the city's Police Protective League would not help him pay them. He also claimed that he could not pay the living expenses for a trial that would take several months (or years, in case of an appeal). He also believed that he could not get a fair trial in the racially charged climate of the time, and he thought that an acquittal would have caused a riot which would have been similar to the 1992 Los Angeles riots. He also wanted to protect his family from harassment by the press.[45]
Fuhrman has stated that he believes that the LAPD could have arrested Simpson on the afternoon of June 13, based on the blood evidence and his apparently contradictory statements during questioning; however, he believes that senior LAPD officials did not want to take a chance on being wrong about Simpson and they wanted to wait until the preliminary genetic evidence came in.[45] Fuhrman argues that several errors which were made by his LAPD colleagues permitted the defense team to allege that there was suspicious police conduct at Nicole Brown Simpson's residence. For instance, Fuhrman has claimed that the initial search warrant which was submitted by one of the detectives who was investigating the case, Phillip Vannatter, was too short and it did not include enough details regarding the probable cause and the evidence which was on hand at the time. Fuhrman has also argued that major pieces of evidence were mishandled and he also believes that his colleagues did not realize that their every move would be scrutinized in court due to the nature of the case.[45]
Fuhrman asserts that the police and the prosecution made other errors that reduced the chances of a guilty verdict. For example, Fuhrman and his partner, Brad Roberts, found a bloody fingerprint on the north walkway gate of Nicole Brown Simpson's house. According to Fuhrman, at least some of it belonged to the suspect, because there was enough blood at the scene to suggest that the suspect was bleeding. This piece of evidence was potentially critical; Simpson claimed that he'd cut himself on the night of the murders but he hadn't been to his ex-wife's house in a week. Had the fingerprint been tied to Simpson in any way, it could have been a crippling blow to his defense. It also could have contradicted the defense team's allegation that Fuhrman planted the glove, since Fuhrman did not know nor did he have a reason to know that it was Simpson's blood;[45] however, the fingerprint was destroyed at some point and at trial, it was only mentioned superficially. In fact, Fuhrman later discovered that Vannatter and Lange did not even know that the fingerprint was there because they never read Fuhrman's notes. Roberts could have offered testimony that would have corroborated the existence of the fingerprint and several of Fuhrman's other observations, but the leading prosecutor Marcia Clark never asked him to testify. This rankled Fuhrman almost as much as Vannatter's and Lange's failure to read his notes; Furhman believed that Clark decided not to call Roberts to avoid embarrassing Vannatter on the stand.[45]
Fuhrman has said that he feels that the prosecution abandoned him once the tapes were made public. He said that he pleaded the Fifth Amendment after he could not get the prosecution to call him to the stand for a redirect prior to the playing of the tapes for the jury. Fuhrman has said that once the tapes came out, his reputation as a credible witness would have been nearly beyond rehabilitation.[45] Fuhrman felt that Judge Lance Ito allowed the defense to control the trial. For instance, like Bugliosi, Fuhrman insists that relevant case law demanded that Ito foreclose the defense from asking him about racial slurs, since any potential relevance was outweighed by the prospect of prejudice against the prosecution's case. Fuhrman also asserts that Ito should have never been assigned to the case in the first place,[45] because Ito was married to Margaret "Peggy" York, an LAPD captain who had been Fuhrman's superior officer in the past. In the Fuhrman tapes which were recorded by Laura McKinny, Fuhrman disparages York's appearance and he also suggests that she used her sex to advance her career in the police force.[54] Fuhrman felt that Ito should have been challenged by the prosecution or he should have voluntarily recused himself from the case on that basis.[45] Although the prosecutors had asked Ito to step down, they later withdrew their request out of fear that it would result in a mistrial.[54]
Other books[edit]
For his next book, Murder in Greenwich (1998, ISBN 0060191414), Fuhrman investigated the then-unsolved 1975 murder of Martha Moxley and he theorized that the murderer was Michael Skakel, nephew of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Skakel was convicted of Moxley's murder in June 2002, but later, his conviction was overturned.[55][56] The book was adapted for a 2002 television movie starring Christopher Meloni as Fuhrman.[57]
In 2001, Fuhrman published Murder in Spokane: Catching a Serial Killer (ISBN 0060194375), which investigated a serial killer's spree in Spokane, Washington. In 2003, he published Death and Justice: An Exposé of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine (ISBN 0060009179), on the subject of capital punishment. In 2005, Fuhrman published Silent Witness: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo's Death (ISBN 0060853379 ), which emphasized gaps in the medical and legal records that might allow for the possibility that Schiavo was murdered.
In 2006, Fuhrman published A Simple Act of Murder: November 22, 1963 (ISBN 0060721545), about the John F. Kennedy assassination. In it, Fuhrman advanced a theory challenging the single-bullet theory while still maintaining that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. He claimed that the Warren Commission was forced to ratify the single-bullet theory for political reasons. However, he said that a dent in the chrome above the windshield of the presidential limousine used that day vindicated the story told by John Connally that the first shot that hit President John F. Kennedy did not also hit him.[58] In 2009, he published The Murder Business: How the Media Turns Crime Into Entertainment and Subverts Justice (ISBN 1596985844), which addressed the fine line between crime reporting and entertainment.
Radio and television commentary[edit]
Fuhrman is a forensic and crime scene expert for Fox News,[59] and he has been a frequent guest of Fox commentator Sean Hannity. He was also the host of the Mark Fuhrman Show on KGA-AM in Spokane. The show covered local and national topics and included guest callers. The show ended after the sale of the station by Citadel Broadcasting Corp. of Las Vegas to Mapleton Communications, LLC, of Monterey, California.[60]
Personal life[edit]
Fuhrman has been married three times. He was a collector of various war memorabilia and medals.[1]
In popular culture[edit]
In Murder in Greenwich, Fuhrman is portrayed by Christopher Meloni. In American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson, Fuhrman is portrayed by Steven Pasquale. He was portrayed by Alexander Man in Joshua Newton's film Nicole & O.J.. In Captain America: Civil War, he is mentioned by character Sam Wilson (Marvel Cinematic Universe).