Nicole Brown Simpson Case

Midnight on June 13, 1994, Akita, Nicole Brown Simpson’s dog was disoriented and could not be calmed down by Brown’s neighbors. The dog soon led the concerned neighbors back to Brown’s house where they discovered a bloody scene of two lifeless bodies. The bodies belonged to Nicole Brown Simpson (O.J. Simpson’s ex wife) and her friend Ron L. Goldman. There bodies had been punctured deeply with cuts from a knife. The neighbors quickly told Loa Angeles Police department about their discovery.

O. J. and his wife had gone through a lot of difficulties during their marriage, and it was because of those difficulties they decided to divorce. Nicole had made countless calls to the police to charge O. J. with harassment and physical abuse when they

were married. O. J. can be described by friends as possessive of Nicole and very jealous of her male friends. Nicole and O. J. had seen each other earlier that day (the day the bodies were found) at their daughters dance recital, and four hours after the murder O. J. checked into a hotel in Chicago, Illinois.
Police contacted and in formed O. J. that his ex-wife had been murdered (he was not yet a suspect), and he quickly checked out of his hotel and returned back to his mansion in California. After looking over the crime scene the Police Department felt that they had enough evidence against O. J. and made an arrest (Pellowski, M., 2001, ps. 7,8).
How was the offender caught?
When O. J. Simpson found out that his ex-wife had been murdered he told the police he would surrender, but O. J. was nowhere to be found. He was not found until someone called the local police station that they say O. J. driving in a white SUV down the interstate. That is when police began to chase him; police chased him until O. J. finally stopped in his residence and surrendered there (The O. J. Simpson Trial).
Correct actions taken by Criminal Justice persons

Incorrect actions taken by Criminal Justice persons
When Police Officer, Mar Fuhrman, was investigating the crime scene, he stumbled upon a brownish/black leather glove.

Fuhrman had no partner with him when he made this discovery so when the defense interrogated him it was seem as though Fuhrman planted the glove. The defense figured he planted the glove because Fuhrman was a racist (Anastaplo, G., 2004, p. 382). The defense had evidence that he was. Fuhrman said that he had not used the “N” word within ten years, they found recordings of an interview he did, where he countlessly used the “N” word. The tapes were from less than ten years from the date (The O. J. Simpson

Trial)
Another incorrect action taken from this case was from expert LAPD Criminologists, Denis Fong.

While collecting evidence from the case Fong did not wear any gloves when he was handling the evidence. Also, Fong took pictures of the crime scene, 20 days after the discovery, and his pictures did not match the original pictures that were taken hours after the discovery. The defense stated that Fong altered the crime scene to make Simpson look guilty (The O. J. Simpson Trial).

The last incorrect action that was taken is when the prosecution team made O. J. try on the gloves. When O. J. tried on the gloves on, over a pair of clear latex gloves, it was to everyone’s surprise that the gloves did not fit. The prosecution team did not take into account that when you put one glove on top of another the glove will have a tighter fit and that when after leather gloves are wet they shrink (The O. J. Simpson Trial).

Technology used to solve

crime
DNA sampling was available during this time. DNA sampling would be able to tell if the victims’ (Nicole and Ron) blood that was collected form Nicole’s house matched the blood that was at O.J’s house (Abramson, J. (Ed.)., 1996, p. 105).
Technology not available then

Observations
Some observations that I noted from this case are that the prosecution team could have made a conviction if the evidence had not been tampered with, everyone involved with handling the evidence wore gloves, and if evidence had not been added to the crime scene. Another observation is, did they check any of O. J.’s records/purchases to see if he had bought gloves similar to the ones found at the crime scene. Lastly, it never states whether or not the tested inside of the glove to see if O. J.’s fingerprint was inside of it.