Murder trial of O. J. Simpson
The People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson was a criminal trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court, in which O. J. Simpson, the National Football League (NFL) player and actor, was tried and acquitted for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. The two were stabbed to death outside Brown's condominium in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on June 12, 1994. The trial spanned eleven months, from November 9, 1994,[1] to October 3, 1995.
"O. J. Simpson case" redirects here. For the 2007–2008 robbery case involving Simpson, see O. J. Simpson robbery case. For other civil and criminal cases involving Simpson, see O. J. Simpson § Legal history.People v. Simpson
The People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson
June 17, 1994
January 24, 1995
October 3, 1995
Not guilty in violation of Penal Code Section 187(a), a felony upon Nicole Brown Simpson, a human being.
Not guilty in violation of Penal Code Section 187(a), a felony upon Ronald Lyle Goldman, a human being.
First-degree murder with special circumstances (2 counts)
Civil lawsuit filed by the Brown and Goldman families; Simpson was found responsible by a preponderance of the evidence for both deaths on February 4, 1997.
- Kathleen Kennedy-Powell (Preliminary Hearing)
- Lance Ito (Trial)
Opening statements were made on January 24, 1995.[2] Though prosecutors argued that Simpson was implicated by a significant amount of forensic evidence, Simpson was ultimately acquitted of both counts of murder on October 3.[3][4][5] Commentators agree that the defense capitalized on anger among the city's African-American community toward the Los Angeles Police Department, which had a history of racial bias, and whose actions had inflamed racial tensions in major incidents two years prior, to convince the majority-Black jury to acquit Simpson.[6][7][8] The trial is often characterized as the trial of the century because of its international publicity, and has been described as the "most publicized" criminal trial in human history.[9]
Following questioning by detectives, Simpson was formally charged with the murders on June 17 after investigators found a blood-stained glove on his property. When he did not turn himself in at the agreed time, he became the subject of a low-speed police pursuit while riding in a white 1993 Ford Bronco SUV owned and driven by his friend Al Cowlings.[10] TV stations interrupted coverage of the 1994 NBA Finals to broadcast live coverage of the pursuit, which was watched by an estimated 95 million people.[11] The pursuit and Simpson's arrest were among the most widely publicized events in American history.
Simpson was represented by a high-profile defense team, referred to as the "Dream Team", which was initially led by Robert Shapiro,[12][13] 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.
While Deputy District Attorneys Marcia Clark, William Hodgman, and Christopher Darden believed they had a strong case against Simpson, Cochran and the defense team persuaded the jury that there was reasonable doubt concerning the DNA evidence in this case.[3] They contended that the blood sample had been mishandled by lab scientists and technicians,[14] and that the case against Simpson had been tainted by LAPD misconduct related to racism and incompetence, in particular noting actions and comments of Detective Mark Fuhrman. The use of DNA evidence in trials was still new, and many people did not understand how to evaluate it.
The trial was considered historically significant for the wide division in reaction to the verdict by the public.[15] Observers' opinions of the verdict were largely related to their ethnicity; the media dubbed this the "racial gap".[16] A poll of Los Angeles County residents showed that most African Americans thought that the "not guilty" verdict was justified, while the majority of whites thought it was a racially motivated jury nullification,[17][18] by the mostly African-American jury.[19] Polling in later years showed that the gap narrowed since the trial; more than half of polled black respondents expressed belief Simpson was guilty.[20] In 2017, three jurors who acquitted Simpson said that in retrospect they would still vote to acquit, while one said he would vote to convict.[21]
After the trial, Goldman's father filed a civil suit against Simpson. On February 4, 1997, the jury unanimously found Simpson responsible for the deaths of both Goldman and Brown.[22] The Goldman family was awarded compensatory and punitive damages totaling $33.5 million ($63.6 million in 2023 dollars), but have received only a small portion of that 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.
Preliminary hearing[edit]
On June 20, Simpson was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to both murders and was held without bail. The following day, a grand jury was called to determine whether to indict him for the two murders but was dismissed on June 23, as a result of excessive media coverage that could have influenced its neutrality. Instead, authorities held a probable cause hearing to determine whether to bring Simpson to trial. California Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell ruled on July 7 that there was sufficient evidence to bring Simpson to trial for the murders. At his second arraignment on July 22, when asked how he pleaded to the murders, Simpson firmly stated: "Absolutely, one hundred percent, not guilty."
Jill Shively testified to the grand jury that soon after the time of the murders she saw a white Ford Bronco speeding away from Bundy Drive in such a hurry that it almost collided with a Nissan at the intersection of Bundy and San Vicente Boulevard,[4] and that she recognized Simpson's voice. She talked to the television show Hard Copy for $5,000, after which prosecutors declined to use her testimony at trial.[4][107]
Jose Camacho of Ross Cutlery provided store receipts showing Simpson had purchased a 12-inch (305 mm) stiletto knife six weeks before the murders. The knife was recovered and determined to be similar to the one the coroner said caused the stab wounds. The prosecution did not present this evidence at trial, after Camacho sold his story to the National Enquirer for $12,500.[4][107] Tests on the knife determined that an oil used on new cutlery was still present on the knife, indicating it had never been used.[111]
Former NFL player and pastor Rosey Grier visited Simpson on November 13 at the Los Angeles County Jail in the days following the murders. A jailhouse guard, Jeff Stuart, testified to Judge Ito that at one point Simpson yelled to Grier that he "didn't mean to do it", after which Grier had urged Simpson to come clean. Ito ruled that the evidence was inadmissible as being protected because of clergy-penitent privilege.[112]
At first, Simpson's defense sought to show that one or more hitmen hired by drug dealers had murdered Brown and Goldman – giving Brown a "Colombian necktie" – because they were looking for Brown's friend, Faye Resnick, a known cocaine user who had failed to pay for her drugs.[113][114] She had stayed for several days at Brown's condo until entering rehab four days before the killings. Ito ruled that the drug killer theory was "highly speculative" with no evidence to support it.[115][116] Consequently, Ito barred the jury from hearing it and prohibited Christian Reichardt from testifying about his former girlfriend Resnick's drug problems.[117][118][119][120]
Rose Lopez, a neighbor's Spanish-speaking housekeeper, stated on August 18 that she saw Simpson's Bronco parked outside his house at the time of the murders, supporting his claim he was home that night. During cross-examination by Clark, Lopez admitted she was not sure what time she saw Simpson's Bronco but the defense still intended to call her. However, a taped July 29 statement by Lopez did not mention seeing the Bronco but did mention another housekeeper was also there that night, Sylvia Guerra. Prosecutors then spoke with Guerra, who said Lopez was lying and claimed the defense offered both housekeepers $5,000 to say they saw the Bronco that night. When Ito warned the defense that Guerra's claim as well as the earlier statement not mentioning the Bronco and the tape where Clark claims "that [Lopez] is clearly being coached on what to say" would be shown to the jury if Lopez testified, they dropped her from the witness list.[121][122][123][124][125]
Exhibits[edit]
The suit Simpson wore when he was acquitted on October 3, 1995 was donated by Simpson's former agent Mike Gilbert to the Newseum in 2010. The Newseum has multiple trial-related items in their collection, including press passes, newspapers and the mute button that Superior Court Judge Lance Ito used when he wanted to shut off the live microphone in court so lawyers could talk privately during the trial. The museum's acquisition of the suit ended the legal battle between Gilbert and Fred Goldman, both of whom claimed the right to the clothing.[473]
Cowlings's white Ford Bronco that he drove in the police chase is on display at the Alcatraz East crime museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.[474]
In 2017, Adam Papagan curated a pop-up museum showcasing artifacts and ephemera from the trial at Coagula Curatorial gallery in Los Angeles.[475][476]