Nicole Brown Simpson Case Study

On June 12th, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were found knifed to death outside of her home in the wealthy Los Angeles town of Brentwood. Suspicion quickly focused on Simpson. He had beaten and threatened his former wife in the past. The police reported that they found a blood-covered sock and glove at his house. He had a gash on his hand. He had no verifiable alibi. Simpson, a black man, was in a marriage with a white woman, Nicole Brown Simpson, who he was accused of murdering, and was being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department, which had a reputation for corruption and racism. Simpson, however, was a rich actor and ad pro football player who had barely any connection to the black community. His money

Simpson got the best lawyers in the country to defend him. During his opening statement, Johnnie Cochran said that Simpson was home alone during the murders, golfing. The prosecution had tons of evidence, including DNA evidence. Prosecutors said that the DNA matched Simpson's blood to samples from the murder scene. They said they found the victims' blood in his car, and glove and on a sock at his home. The lead detective, a white man named Mark Fuhrman, the man who had found the bloody glove on Simpson's property, had his ethics in question. Defense lawyers said that he may have put the glove there to frame a black man. Simpson was found not guilty on October 3rd, 1995. The trial took over a year, but the jury only deliberated for six

He was later charged with perjury for lying during the trial that he had not used the word "nigger" in the last ten years. Evidence collected by LAPD doctor Dennis Fung also came under scrutiny. He said he "missed a few drops of blood on a fence near the bodies" then later claimed he "returned several weeks afterwards to collect them". In fact, the blood that was twenty days old was the freshest samples of all blood collected. Fung also said he had not worn gloves when gathering some of the evidence. Another detective, Detective Phillip Vannatter, later said that he had seen pictures of press leaning on Simpson's car before the evidence was collected. All of these things made it very easy for the defense to combat the evidence and distract the