O.J.: Made in America (2016) s01e04 Episode Script

(dog barking) (rumble of car engine) (barking continues) We got this call, and I didn't know whose house it was.
I had never been on a call there but there had been 10, 11, 12 officers that had been on various calls over the years.
Simpson is standing on the left side of the driveway, by the shrubs, holding a baseball bat.
Nicole is sitting on the front part of a 450SL Mercedes, windshield smashed in, and she's bawling, heaving, I mean, almost uncontrollably.
He's got this look on his face, like he's going to do battle.
And I say, "Put the bat down.
" And he's got this look, this rage look.
I said, "Put the bat down.
" He didn't do it the second time.
I took out my baton, and I said, "Put it down now.
" And then all of a sudden there was this calm that came over his face, he dropped it, and he goes, "Oh, sorry, Officer.
" And I went over, and she was still crying, and I said, "Do you want to make a report?" And she goes, "No.
" I remember saying this because it was I think expressing my displeasure that she was allowing herself to be treated like this.
I said, "It's your life.
" (somber music) Alright, let the record reflect that we have been rejoined by all member of our jury panel.
Mr.
Darden, you may continue.
Did that search warrant authorize you to drill a hole in a safe deposit box at Union Bank? Yes.
Whose safe deposit box was it? Nicole Brown Simpson.
Recognize that item? Yes, it was in a sealed envelope that was contained inside the safe deposit box.
The strategy had been to open the case with a couple weeks of domestic violence evidence.
Did you remove that Polaroid from Nicole Brown's safe deposit box? Yes, I did.
Do you know who took that photograph? I did.
The swelling over her right eye.
That isn't how she usually looked, is it? No, it's not.
Going to present all that evidence in an effort to knock Simpson off the iconic pedestal on which he stood.
And you mentioned that pictures began flying off the walls.
How did they come flying off the wall? O.
J.
was walking up the hall, or up the staircase, and he started throwing them.
He took them off the wall and started throwing them down.
Did the defendant say anything? He wanted her out of his house, and he threw her up against the wall, and the eyes got real angry.
It wasn't as if it was O.
J.
anymore.
I was so disappointed.
I just had no comprehension about it, no knowledge.
What did the defendant say about your sister's weight while she was pregnant? He used to call her a fat pig.
It's like finding out your wife's a bad person, you know? 911 Emergency, (inaudible)? I heard a female screaming.
Hello? I definitely felt for Nicole.
And then I heard someone being hit.
(taped screams) You know, I looked at him, "You're a pretty bad person.
" He's capable of outbursts.
(inaudible) in the living room! If you have the personality, you can physically abuse women.
I don't want to stay on the line.
He's going to beat the shit out of me.
Wait a minute.
Well, then to me, you're also capable of murdering that woman.
She felt like she was in imminent danger, and so we made it life I made it life threatening.
Miss Brown, directing your attention to June 12, 1994.
Had you and your sister and your parents planned to go somewhere after the recital was over? Yes we did, we were going out to dinner.
Okay, and where were you planning to go? We were going to Mezzaluna Restaurant.
The domestic violence testimony was the 'why' of it.
Did you invite the defendant to go to the Mezzaluna? No, I did not.
Did you hear anyone else invite the defendant to go to the Mezzaluna? No, I did not.
Abusers blame their victims for the cycle of violence, and on that particular night I think it all came to a head for him.
He went to the recital, and the Mezzaluna date was made, he was not included, and then he tries to reach Paula later that night, at 10:03, calling her twice, when he was in the Bronco.
She was not there.
And I think that was the last straw for him.
He was abandoned by Nicole, he was abandoned by Paula, and that's why we're here.
There's a connection with abuse, and could it lead to death? Sure.
But I don't think they proved that.
How many times did you hear her shout, "He's going to kill me, he's going to kill me,"? Four or five times.
Let me tell you, I lose respect for any woman that take an ass-whupping when she don't have to.
Don't stay in the water If it's over your head.
You'll drown.
They did not get it.
They just didn't care.
They got it, I mean, you know, it's not that complicated.
They didn't care.
So Our hearts sank.
We thought, we are really going to have a tough time if our jurors don't understand how this is relevant.
The last thing I told her is that I loved her.
Knowing what I believed I knew, I still refused to testify.
But, I get a call from Chris Darden, he said, "Look, you know, you don't, you're not going to testify, but I need you to come down here.
I've got to ask you a couple of questions.
Would you please?" I went, "Okay.
" Chris is sitting there, and he goes, "Hey, man, how you doing, what's going on?" 30, 45 seconds goes by, someone went, "Chris, you've got a phone call.
" He goes, "Oh, Ron, be right back.
" And as I'm sitting there, I look in front of me, you know, where Chris was sitting, I see this book, and it has a big Ron and Nicole on it.
I opened it up.
And I see these beautiful pictures of Nicole, with her modeling.
I keep opening it, nice pictures of Ron.
And all of a sudden, I get to the actual homicide pictures.
Now, I've seen a million homicide pictures, I've been in, I don't know how many homicides in my 15 years as an L.
A.
P.
D.
cop.
But all of a sudden you look at some pictures of somebody you actually know.
Looked at those pictures, it changed me.
It changed me.
Everybody always beating cops up.
Man, there's a lot of stuff that we see, and we suppress.
I'll never forget the first homicide that I saw.
Oh, it was, um excuse me.
It was a 19-year-old girl.
(police radio chatter) We got a call.
When I went up there, she was totally nude.
She had been beaten to a pulp, and discarded in the parking lot.
I was like, "What kind of guy would do this?" She was 19 years old.
I couldn't even, I couldn't make out her face, because it was beaten in so bad.
Blonde hair.
And we got a call that the guy turned himself in.
We went and picked him up.
And I sat in the back seat with this guy.
I wanted to kill him.
I mean, all I thought about is this is somebody's daughter, sister, whatever, that's never coming home.
Oh, when I saw Nicole's pictures, that was the same thing, I felt like that, with O.
J.
Only an animal would do something like this to the mother of your kids.
Chris came back, and when he sat down, I said, "I'm testifying.
" He said, "What?" I said, "I'm testifying.
" The People call Ron Shipp to the stand, Ron.
To the stand, Mr.
Shipp.
Raise your right hand, please.
Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Yes, I do.
Please be seated.
Traitor.
Judas.
Ronald Shipp.
R-o-n-a-l-d.
Becky called him Judas.
And what did the defendant say? He kind of jokingly just said, you know, you know, to be honest, Shipp, that's what he called me, Shipp.
He said, "I've had some dreams of killing her.
" This is my one moment to help put somebody who's responsible for Nicole and Ron's murder, put them in prison.
Do you and the defendant remain friends today? Well, I still love the guy, but I don't know, I mean, this is a weird situation.
I'm sitting here.
You say you still love him.
Sure.
Did he tell the truth? Yeah.
But anybody's that's credible, what do you have to do? Nothing further.
You have to destroy them.
You drink a lot, don't you? I used to.
You've had a drinking problem, haven't you? In the past I have.
They painted him out to be an alcoholic, womanizer.
Isn't it true, Sir, that you were with a friend, other than your wife.
Yes I was.
She was blonde, was she not? It was a friend of my wife's, that's correct.
I see.
And when you were at his home, in the dark, with the blonde, who wasn't your wife, who's here in court, you did ask that he bring you a bottle of wine.
Didn't you? That's correct.
They destroyed him.
You're not really this man's friend, are you, Sir? Well, I guess you could say I was like everybody else.
one of his servants.
I did police stuff for him all the time, I ran license plates.
You weren't the kind of friend that he would share some private secret with, were you, Sir? Nothing except for the 1989 beating, where he needed me.
When they started lying, and they came up with all these different things.
Isn't it true, Sir, that you have told Mr.
Simpson's friend that if Mr.
Simpson weren't around, you might have a shot at Nicole Brown Simpson yourself? No, I did not.
He looked at me with that O.
J.
Simpson smile.
And, oh, I felt that hate come back.
I felt it come back.
Mr.
Douglas, I hope you get your facts straight, okay? Hold on, hold on.
You're attacking me.
Hold on, Mr.
Shipp.
This is sad, O.
J.
, this is really sad.
Your Honor, I move to strike that.
I was like, "This guy deserves to rot in hell.
" I do remember that I was told, you know, after I did make that decision to testify, "You're not alone.
" And I saw a list, they said, "These are the ones that are going to be testifying.
" But after they got through with me, everybody got amnesia.
I will not have the blood of Nicole on Ron Shipp.
I can sleep at night, unlike a lot of others.
Mr.
Shipp.
I think that was the first person that it became evident that everybody's expendable.
That if the Titanic sank, O.
J.
was going to take a life vest for himself, but he's going to probably take yours, too, just in case.
He was a fighter, he was a hustler, he was a competitor.
To survive, to get to where he was, he had to be good, and he was.
I was struck by how engaged he was.
That when we're in court that day, you'll recall, usually I'm sitting next to him when we talk about that, you know what I mean? In a lot of cases, the defendant is really sort of incidental.
You really have the sense that it's legal team versus legal team, whereas I did have the sense that he was a significant player within his own team.
O.
J.
was brilliant.
in terms of how things played.
You say that the conversation with Mr.
Simpson was eating you up.
Is that your statement? That's correct.
And did you hope to excorcise this pain from your body.
He would give me more than a few tongue lashings to make sure that I would communicate in a way that would convey the image that he thought would be best.
I remember I had some spittle on my mouth.
And he said, "Wipe your mouth!" "Wipe the spit off your mouth!" He took me to the woodshed.
But I was 39 years old, working on behalf of O.
J.
Simpson and on television.
I'm living the life of all my colleagues would dream.
So, if I had to eat a little cheese, while being on TV, that was a small price for me to pay.
What was remarkable about him was his ability to turn on the charisma.
And it, like that.
In a moment, he could smile.
He knew when the camera was on him in that courtroom, and he would be, have a really benign expression.
And when the camera moved away from him, the face fell.
Everything that happened in that courtroom was by design.
Who sat where, what colors they wore, what ties they wore.
Some days, it would be very irritating to see the games the defense was playing when they would put on those ties, that kente cloth.
Stop it.
He's communicating to the jury.
I know Johnnie well enough, I know how he works.
Now the prosecution, Miss Clark.
They're insulting you.
They're insulting the intelligence, and the credibility of this jury.
When they implied that we are in some way trying to manipulate a predominantly black jury by my wearing this African tribal tie.
(laughter) That's an insult to this jury, and I am personally offended.
Not only on my behalf, but also on the behalf of my esteemed colleagues.
Mr.
Shapiro Mr.
Bailey And Mr.
Scheck.
I had spent a lot of time thinking about cameras in the courtroom.
The camera is going to be out to about here.
It was supposed to be something that would really elevate the country's understanding of the American legal system.
Having the cameras in the courtroom allows everyone to see how a trial really proceeds, so then they see the actual evidence, as it's being brought out, and that's a good thing.
But that's not what happened.
There was no internet.
There was no MSNBC.
There was no FOX.
There was one cable news network, and CNN covered the case gavel to gavel.
This case was everywhere.
The Simpson Trial, by any standard, is a very, very big news story.
In this country, the O.
J.
Simpson.
At the O.
J.
Simpson Trial.
There are some big decisons to report in the O.
J.
More on the O.
J.
Simpson story tonight on Nightline, and tomorrow night on 20/20.
I think before O.
J.
, what was the biggest story? The Lindbergh kidnapping.
I can't think of one bigger than O.
J.
where celebrity drove the story.
On the 3 Network Newscast, the Simpson story has been given more time in two months than any other topic this year.
There is a ravenous public appetite for this, and the fact of the matter is, it is one whale of a good story.
O.
J.
's celebrity status clearly made it a big time story.
But I think the fact that you had the interracial angle there kind of juiced it and I think it had a little extra pizzazz.
Here is a black man, in America, who is accused of killing a white woman.
Black hero killing white woman.
Black men killing white women, now that happens.
Nobody cares.
But black American hero killing white woman was a giant thing.
It was branded as the 'trial of the century', and my mother said, "If O.
J.
had killed Marguerite, this would not be the trial of the century, and his black ass would be in jail.
" The Simpson Case never felt like a real murder case.
It felt like a media circus.
I would walk out the door, and there would be the press standing right there with microphones, and cameras and I'm wearing a white dress, and the press is holding microphones in my face, and saying, "What's the significance of the white dress? What does it mean?" You know, it was clean.
There was a certain amount of denial I was living in in terms of how much attention I would get at any given time.
As you can see, Clark is smack-dab in the middle of a national debate, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the O.
J.
Simpson trial.
Here's more on the story from Judy Muller.
I really hated it.
The coverage of it became, you know, real infotainment.
O.
J.
girlfriend in Playboy, O.
J.
girlfriend before Grand Jury.
O.
J.
Defense Tip Hotline unplugged.
O.
J.
houseboy's girlfriend holds news conference.
The O.
J.
stories are everywhere.
So is the ET coverage.
Our job is to tell people what happened today, and what was important.
We have lost sight of giving people the news in terms of its significance.
We're giving it to them in terms of what we think simply is the most titillating and the most ratings-grabbing.
You think he'd be there for you the way you were there for him? The celibacy thing, I don't know about.
There was so much hand-wringing at TV networks, and at The New York Times.
There was one editor at The Times who was quoted as saying, "Now I find myself reading the Enquirer every week, and chasing leads out of it.
" I think we have to ask at what point do what should be journalistic decisions become marketing decisions? I think a lot of the elitism went out of the mainstream media at that point.
And they're like, "Well, if this is what people want, this is what we're going to give them.
" Tonight the woman who calls herself Nicole Brown Simpson's best friend, Faye Resnick.
If Nicole was caught talking to the gas station attendant, he would make it seem as if she was having an affair with him.
The cameras in the courtroom, I think, gave too much notoriety to the witnesses.
I heard a thumping noise.
How many thumps did you hear? Three.
(thud, thud, thud) Someone pointed out and said, "There's Kato Kaelin.
" I'll say, "Oh, yeah.
" And I'll gawk like everybody else.
The same can be said for all the attendants, in the courtroom, I mean, I remember one day I saw Marcia and she said, "Larry King is in chambers with Judge Ito.
" Did you talk about him possibly appearing on your show? They made everyone celebrities.
I understood money and attorneys, reputation and celebrity.
And who am I? I'm a nobody.
I am nobody.
I began to get some insight into Fuhrman, and I said, "There's the jugular vein.
" All we have to do is cut that.
And there's nothing left of consequence.
He was going to be their fall guy.
We all knew it.
But they were going to go after him any way they could.
We heard from a guy that Fuhrman wanted a job in South Africa.
He wanted to be in a force where you could shoot niggers that have not been accused of anything.
Another witness said Fuhrman had pulled her over, and when he did a Corvette went by with a black guy driving and a nice looking white girl.
And Fuhrman spewed out a line of epithets about how unconstitutional that was, for this guy to be running around with a white woman.
These stories were hair-raising.
These allegations get more outrageous by the minute.
And I'm stricken again by the preposterousness of the claims of the defense.
The people respectfully submit to the court that what we have here is not a defense, it's a smear campaign.
We made him a central part, consistent with the themes that he's the boogeyman.
Who is Mark Fuhrman, and what was he like? I got a bunch of calls from black police officers, who said, "Fuhrman is absolutely not a racist.
" His former commanding officer, who happens to be black, told me that he was one of those people who made the most remarkable turnaround, and became such an exceptional detective, and was really a good guy.
Joining us now is the former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, Daryl Gates.
We knew that the police department would take a very defensive posture.
I think the record supports the fact that Mark was a good police officer.
That he was a nice young man.
He was not a racist, he was this and that.
The better he played to us.
You cannot take the words of a defense team as the gospel in the city of Los Angeles.
(applause) There was one glove found at the crime scene.
Its match was found at his house bearing the blood and hair and fiber from Ron and Nicole.
How does it get more incriminating than that? And that's why the defense knew they had to knock out that glove.
I had to go.
One way or another.
A truck hitting me, they would have done whatever it took to get rid of me.
None of them thought that I planted that glove.
But they wanted the question to loom.
I am convinced that glove was placed there.
We call that framing a guilty man.
I mean, look, cops plant guns, I mean, why do you think they plant guns? They don't plant guns on somebody who they perceive as innocent, they plant guns on somebody who they think is a dirt bag, and they had maybe a questionable shooting, so they needed to place the other gun in order to justify their shootings.
Mark Fuhrman picked the glove up at the scene, put it in a baggie, and carried it with him until he had a chance, with no witnesses, to plant it.
Do you realize how ignorant he sounds? You have a man that's a famous attorney, that has made up everything without a shred of evidence, and then you have people hook, line and sinker, go, "Yeah.
" I do not for one second believe there was any sort of conspiracy here.
15 people were at the scene before Fuhrman got there, and viewed the left-handed glove.
The right glove was found behind the bungalow when he ran into the air conditioner and dropped it.
Fuhrman would have been willing to sacrifice his career and be convicted of a felony when he didn't know who did it.
And on top of it, there's absolutely no motivation for anyone to want to do this.
O.
J.
had sinned having a consort, let alone a wife, of white race.
It was a capital offense in Fuhrman's mind.
So that would justify to him whatever he did.
And he had come to O.
J.
's house, when Nicole complained to police, as she often did, that O.
J.
was going to beat her up.
When Fuhrman got there, they sent him home.
No complaint.
I think Mark Fuhrman dwelled on it, and was inspired by it.
The People call Detective Mark Fuhrman.
Detective Fuhrman, can you tell us how you feel about testifying today? Nervous.
Reluctant.
Will you tell us why? Since June 13th, it seems that I've seen a lot of the evidence ignored, and a lot of personal issues come to the forefront.
If I don't put him on I basically can't put the glove into evidence.
And if I don't do that, it looks like an admission that it was planted.
So I had no choice.
What did you do next? I asked Mr.
Kaelin if anything unusual happened last night.
He said he heard a crash, or thump on his wall, he thought there was going to be an earthquake, and his picture shook.
He looks confident, he's tall, he's nice looking, has nice hair.
He came off as a nice guy to the jury.
I walked out of the driveway, and I started walking in the direction going back towards Kaelin's room.
They had no reason to doubt him.
I continued walking down the path, and saw what now I identified as a possible glove.
If he were telling the truth, that would condemn O.
J.
Thank you, Sir, I have nothing further.
Early, early, early on, Fuhrman had been a witness that Lee staked out, and he wanted to take.
I thought it required to dismantle this guy, as he should be dismantled, the work of somebody with a lot of cross-examination experience.
I was the only one on the Defense team that fit that bill.
He's one of my heroes.
F.
Lee Bailey.
Mr.
Bailey, what do you think Sam Sheppard's chances are of going free? Sam is free, and he's going to stay that way and the odds are astronomical.
F.
Lee Bailey was one of the great criminal advocates of his time, for sure.
He pioneered a lot of, you know, great techniques as a criminal defense lawyer.
As far as I'm concerned right now, Lee Bailey is the doctor, he's a surgeon, and I do what he tells me.
He was obviously a man of great ability.
Detective Fuhrman, you went out there in the alley, where you've never been before.
Yes, I went in that pathway.
You walked there by yourself, correct? Yes.
You had three detectives, who were armed, in the house, and didn't tell any of them where you were going, correct? That's correct.
The purpose of a cross-examination is to peel back the witness' outer skin, and let the jury see what's underneath.
If it's a saint, you're going to get buried, but if it's a Fuhrman, you'll be making money every minute of the day.
Didn't it seem strange to you that after seven and a half hours that glove still showed moist, sticky blood, Detective Fuhrman? No, I knew nothing at that time when it was deposited, or left there.
That's seven and a half hours.
That's enough for blood to dry, isn't it? Under certain conditions, yes, I'm sure it would be.
Unless it's encased in plastic, or rubber, and evaporation is stopped.
Wouldn't you agree? No.
I thought Mark Fuhrman told the truth about what happened.
But, F.
Lee Bailey, in his brief star turn, knew how to pin him down.
Detective Fuhrman, when you said earlier that you were concerned about matters that you viewed as irrelevant, that was about certain language that some find offensive.
Yes.
Okay.
I tried to put my best demeanor forward, and as professional as I could, but it was pure survival mode.
Do you use the word nigger in describing people? No, sir.
Have you used that word in the past ten years? Not that I recall, no.
You mean, if you called someone a nigger, you have forgotten it? I'm not sure I can answer that question the way you phrased it, Sir.
I had a dozen witnesses that would bury him as a racist, so I wanted him to lie.
Do you have difficulty understanding the question? Yes.
I'll rephrase.
I want you to assume that perhaps at some time, since 1985 or six, you addressed a member of the African-American race as a nigger.
Is it possible that you have forgotten that act on your part? No, it's not possible.
No I didn't, yes I did.
Which one's right? One you're lying, one you're a racist.
I whacked him with it really hard.
In the face.
And you say under oath, that you have not addressed any black person as a nigger or spoken about black people as niggers in the past 10 years, Detective Fuhrman? That's what I'm saying, Sir.
So that anyone who comes to this court, and quotes you as using that word, in dealing with African-Americans would be a liar, would they not, Detective Fuhrman? Yes, they would.
All of them.
Correct? All of them.
I didn't use that word to people.
Face to face, suspect to police.
Had I ever used the word? Well, obviously, yes.
That's all I have, Your Honor.
Alright, thank you very much.
You're excused, Sir.
Once Judge Ito allowed race into this trial, there was no escaping anything for me.
I had a visceral reaction to Fuhrman's testimony.
It just didn't seem credible.
Another cop, white cop.
Prejudice, bias.
Watch out.
The way you work around something like that is to deal with the physical objective evidence that we had.
This was a case about blood.
That was the heart of the case.
Simpson had cuts on his left hand, particularly on the middle knuckle.
How did you get the injury on your hand? I don't know.
To the left hand side of the bloody shoe prints, walking away, there were five blood drops found.
Those blood drops were tested through different DNA analyses, and by different labs, and it came back to Simpson.
Quite simply, that was Simpson's blood.
Inside the Bronco we have Nicole's blood, we have Ron's blood smeared inside there, and we have O.
J.
's blood.
2.
1 miles away from the Bundy crime scene, we've got blood drops in the driveway, blood drops inside the house.
The best thing about scientific evidence is that it's objective, it doesn't have biases or prejudices, that's why we concentrated so much on DNA.
We went to two labs, first time ever that's been done.
We gave them sample after sample.
We gave the opportunity to prove that it wasn't O.
J.
Simpson.
I could have been the biggest hero, perhaps in Los Angeles, if not the country, if I could have walked into court a week after he'd been arrested, and said, "Guess what? It's not O.
J.
Simpson.
" But all the DNA evidence points to Mr.
Simpson as being the person who committed those horrible crimes.
I think a lot of people stayed supportive up until the DNA.
I was 99.
9% sure he was the killer right then.
As the results were coming in, Mr.
Simpson was saying, "Look, you know, I can't explain it, but it's not true.
" There were six lawyers in court.
Sometimes seven, nine behind the scenes.
There were two lawyers, Barry and Johnnie.
Barry did the science, and Johnnie did everything else.
And even Barry did everything else.
He had a single minded focus, and purpose, and he emerged over the course of the trial as second chair in the case.
Good morning, Mr.
Fung.
How are you, Sir? Morning.
My favorite lawyer was Barry Scheck.
He was the most colorful.
I thought he was brilliant.
Why don't we talk about the envelope for a minute.
There was a key piece of evidence which was the envelope that Ronald Goldman was bringing back to Nicole, and there was some foot impressions in blood on the envelope.
Mr.
Fung, when you are collecting an item which could contain fingerprints, you would not touch that item with your bare hand, would you? I would try not to.
Well, you say you try not to, it would be wrong to do that.
Wouldn't it? Yes.
We had looked at hours and hours and hours of news footage of Mr.
Fung and Miss Mazzola picking up items of evidence at the crime scene.
Did you touch that envelope with your bare hands while collecting it, Mr.
Fung? No.
Are you sure of that? Yes.
I'd like to show you this piece of videotape, Mr.
Fung.
There, there.
How about that, Mr.
Fung? Is that a question, Mr.
Scheck? Yes, how about that picture, Mr.
Fung, does that refresh your recollection that you took the envelope from Andrea Mazzola with your bare hand? It could be anything.
They called it a Perry Mason moment.
You know, it was just a good impeachment of the witness but in some ways it really encapsulated the problem that they'd used terrible methods in terms of gathering this evidence and potentially cross-contaminating it and destroying it, just very precious crime scene evidence.
I found that the specimen handling procedures were done in such a manner that there's a tremendous risk of the potential of cross contamination.
Something we'd never do unless you absolutely have to is cover a body because of contamination.
A sheet was over the body.
You recall seeing that? I believe it was a blanket, yes.
Do you know where that blanket came from? I believe the inside of the house.
And can you tell us, Detective, who took this blanket out and put it over the body, who did that? I did.
You have to make some decisions to protect the evidence.
Cameras were looking right down on the crime scene, all the evidence, the bodies.
As a general principle as a criminalist, you try at all costs to avoid taking an object that could have lots of hairs and fibers on it, and putting it right into the middle of a crime scene, don't you? That's correct.
That's a terrible mistake from the point of view of a criminalist, isn't it? Yes.
Over the past few days, the defense has chipped away at the growing presumption of O.
J.
Simpson's guilt.
The way evidence was collected, the way it was processed, the way it was stored gave rise to reasonable question as to whether something wrong could've happened.
You did not change gloves between the collection of each sample, did you? Not that I can recall, no.
Dennis Fung was a definite weak link.
This kid, he tries, okay? They ripped him up terribly.
On July 3rd, you saw blood on the gate that you collected.
Yes.
Let's look back at the picture of the gate on June 13th.
Where is it, Mr.
Fung? I can't see it in the pic photograph.
We don't know what happened to that blood.
All I know is when I was listening, they was saying they took a picture where there wasn't no blood on the back gate.
And then a month later, there was some blood.
Why it didn't get picked up, why it didn't get collected, difficult to explain.
In the fog of war, people on the scene and all the activity going on around it, things get missed.
It is my opinion that, that the bloodstain contained EDTA.
EDTA is a preservative that was added to the blood samples taken from Simpson, and the victims, and if EDTA is present on the evidence, the Defense says the blood may have been planted.
In your blood right now there is a low level of EDTA, because it's in everything you eat, it's in the laundry detergent, it's everywhere.
You're going to find EDTA no matter what you do.
But the defense is trying to insinuate that somebody took the blood that had been drawn from Simpson's arm, and took that test tube, and sprinkled it all over the crime scene.
And it's ridiculous.
When you took O.
J.
's blood sample, you were at a place called Parker Center? Yes, sir.
What type of security did you use for that blood vial? I placed it in a manila envelope, maintained control of it, and hand-delivered it to the criminalist.
Where was the criminalist? At Rockingham.
You're bringing the suspect's blood back to a crime scene where we're collecting blood? Really? How many times have you taken blood from Parker Center out to a crime scene? I don't know, this may have been the first time.
I don't know.
I can't recall right now any other times that I've done that.
If you're a juror who has grown up in Los Angeles, and spent your whole life hearing that the L.
A.
P.
D.
is capable of doing anything to a Black person, and you hear that, you've just been handed some doubt.
When did we start carrying blood in our pocket? When did our SID lab stop wearing gloves? When did we not book stuff in a timely fashion? That there's no rationale for that.
We had a, I think, a pretty good demonstrative of a black box.
The idea was that certain crime scene evidence came in and the black box was the L.
A.
P.
D.
, and the way they handled the evidence, and on the other side were all the results from Cellmark, the F.
B.
I.
, the DNA laboratories.
It was pretty simple when you broke it down.
Garbage in, garbage out.
I mean, you cannot go back and say, "Well, maybe they planted evidence on the glove, maybe on the back gate, oh, there's blood missing.
" Big deal.
How can that be a big deal? Scheck was very disingenuous.
I mean, EDTA, missing blood, coincidence? Corroboration.
Something is terribly wrong.
It was absolute nonsense.
You believe that that blood was planted by the L.
A.
P.
D.
? You know, it's not my job to believe, or not believe.
Could the police officers in Los Angeles have planted evidence against Mr.
Simpson in this case to improve their chances of winning? You know, there was certainly good evidence to support that hypothesis.
Barry Scheck really was an expert.
Can you remember the whole business about development length and the notion of controls failing? He knew that so much of what he was trying to show with these witnesses was just garbage.
Mr.
Yamauchi opened up the reference tube in the morning and spilled out the blood.
It was unethical.
He argued things he knew were not true, he knew could not be true.
The most likely and probable inference is the one that is not for the timid or the faint of heart.
Somebody played with this evidence.
And there's no doubt about it.
Just so I'm clear, you believe that all the blood evidence in the case You know, you're asking me this question, do I believe Think, you know, is not the, because you're the, as you know from meticulously researching this case, and this has been written about, we presented, you know, sound arguments and evidence to explain each piece of this evidence, and how it got there.
You know, I'm not omniscient.
Do you think you did what you needed to do? I did the best I could.
It's the best defense money can buy, and that's very expensive.
For O.
J.
Simpson, an estimated 50,000 dollars a day.
O.
J.
had money to spend, and a willingness to spend it on his own defense.
This was the first for me.
Zillionaires, one of a kind.
He'd been in jail two or three days, tops.
The first thing he wanted to do is to make sure that we started marketing and merchandising and generating a lot of money.
Because O.
J.
was not convicted of any crime, and autographs was his normal business, he was allowed to still sign autographs in jail.
Rather than taking a jersey into the jail to be signed, he would take a number in, like this, he would sign the number, and then the number would be put onto a jersey like this.
Rather than being able to take in a whole football, would take in a panel.
He would sign the panel, then the panel would be sent in to the company, then you'd have a football.
I'm not sure what drove the market, but it was driven.
It was nonstop.
There were times he'd sit there, and go through 2500 cards.
And then say, "Okay, so 2500 cards times 25 dollars.
" He'd run the math.
And he said, "Not bad.
" He sat in jail, we did three million dollars in autographs.
It just went and went and went.
There was no end.
Photos of he and Johnnie Cochran that he and Johnnie signed.
That's probably the only item that I did it, and I'd look back, and I thought, "Man, this sucks, I can't believe we did this.
" The Goldmans were screaming, but you're innocent until convicted.
What was found on the glove at Rockingham? Simpson's blood, Nicole's blood, Ron's blood.
That glove is now tied into three people, that can only intersect when they're bleeding.
That might be a time frame that might be a little difficult to put together, unless you are killing two people and cutting yourself.
Whoever wore that glove killed those people? Yes.
I'd like to show you a pair of gloves.
Showing you People's 164A.
That is an Aris Leather Light glove that was an exclusive glove for Bloomingdale's.
And what is the size? Size is extra large.
Is that a Bloomingdale's credit card sales receipt? Yes.
And is there a signature on the credit card receipt? Yes.
Can you read that signature to us? Nicole Brown.
It was later in the afternoon, and the person they had giving the testimony regarding the glove.
Wait, may I try this on? You could see where it was leading up to.
So, this is an extra large glove? Yes.
Extra large is kind of small? No, but they stretch.
Obviously, it was too big.
At 24 years old I could see this is a trick.
Don't fall for it.
We can see that that glove is big on his hand.
You don't have to do anything.
That afternoon I got a call from Marcia, basically affirming the game plan, "We're not trying the glove on, right?" There's too much of a gamble here.
It's shrunk, he's probably been working out his hand, absolutely not.
I went over to him, and said, "Chris, you know you're a good shit, but you've got the balls of a stud fieldmouse.
That glove won't fit O.
J.
, and if you don't show the jury that, be it the fact, I will.
" Chris says, "I want to do it.
" And I told him in no uncertain terms why we should not be doing this, and he said, "Well, if we don't, they will.
" And I said, "Then let them, let them.
And we can show why it was a bullshit experiment, it was never going to work, between the shrinkage and the latex, it's never going to fit him the same way.
Don't do this.
Don't do this.
" It was the biggest fight Chris and I ever had.
Darden, I think felt, "You know, I've been pushed around in this courtroom enough, I've been made to feel small.
" You could see the disaster coming.
There's a camera to our right.
Watching everything.
Johnnie comes back from sidebar, and says, "Okay guys, they're going to ask O.
J.
to try on the gloves.
I don't want anyone to react.
" We've been rejoined by all the members of our jury panel.
Mr.
Darden, do you have any further questions of Mr.
Rubin? Just a few, Your Honor.
Your Honor, at this time, the People would ask that Mr.
Simpson step forward and try on the glove recovered at Bundy, as well as the glove recovered at Rockingham.
He can do that seated there.
You could hear a pin drop.
O.
J.
was initially seated, putting on the first glove.
I'm handing Mr.
Simpson the left glove from Rockingham.
And right when it was clear it did not fit, O.
J.
goes into Naked Gun mode.
He stands up, and shows his hand, and that's when he's now, "Okay.
" The guy's an actor, for God sakes.
He's playing to 50 million people.
Alright, records reflect Mr.
Simpson has both gloves.
What was he going to do? Make a good faith effort with plastic over his hands? Alright, will you show that to the jury, Mr.
Simpson, and the (inaudible) The whole thing was so wildly inconceived, so totally inappropriate, so doomed to failure.
The idea that Chris Darden would do this.
Mr.
Darden, would you wrap it up, please? I looked at him like, "I can't believe you did it.
You let him play you.
You are the weaker one.
" And you didn't have to be.
You just take the gloves, you take both attorneys, and the deputy, and the suspect, and you go into chambers.
And you do it on the record in chambers.
You don't do it with latex underneath.
My grandson couldn't have gotten into those gloves with latex underneath.
Did you observe the manner in which Mr.
Simpson put the gloves on today? Yes, I did.
You've seen people put gloves on in the past.
Yes, I have.
Did he put the gloves on in a manner consistent with what you've seen other people Objection, your honor Sustained.
The jury observed what happened.
It made the prosecution look silly.
Anything unusual about the way Mr.
Simpson put the gloves on, based on your experience? Object, Your Honor.
Sustained.
I felt sorry for him.
Because he looked weak.
I have nothing further.
This was the definition of the trial lawyer's mistake.
Don't ask a question to which you don't know the answer.
He didn't know whether that glove fit.
Chris honestly felt that he would have a dramatic courtroom moment by demonstrating the gloves fit.
It was an intuitive move on his part, and it was a mistake.
Had O.
J.
never put that glove on, I would have assumed that it fit.
I saw how big it was.
And that's when I just knew that, you know, why is this guy here? He's ruining this case.
Outside of Perry Mason, what could be more dramatic than O.
J.
Simpson showing the jury that the killer's gloves don't fit.
Prosecutorial attempts at damage control might not be able to undermine the power of that image.
The funny thing about the glove, he didn't want to put them on.
I said, "Look, if you're worried about the gloves fitting or not fitting, just don't take your arthritis medicine, no big deal.
" And he said, "Mike, my hands would hurt like hell.
" And I said, "Why would they hurt like hell?" And he, and you could just see the light click, you know, just, ah, hands would get swollen, and couldn't bend his knuckles.
So, he didn't take arthritis medicine for like two weeks.
Do you think that made a difference? Well, he couldn't bend his hands.
You tell me.
One day a friend of O.
J.
's, Alan Austin, came up to me, and he said, "Answer a question for me.
What would Mark Fuhrman have to know before he placed the glove there?" Well, I don't know.
He said, "He would have to know that Orenthal James Simpson, a six foot two and a half black guy living in a white world had no alibi.
He was in no woman's bed, he was in no restaurant, he was on no airplane, he had no alibi.
So how could Mark Fuhrman place that glove if he didn't know that?" And I said, "Are you telling me he's guilty?" And Alan just nodded.
And the tears were streaming down my face.
And suddenly, I felt cuckolded.
Because I'm telling you if O.
J.
had put his face up to the glass to me, and said, "Something happened, and I just snapped, and I went crazy.
" I would've defended and forgiven him.
When he put his face next to the glass, and said, "I swear to God I didn't do this," and then it suddenly looked like he did, I got angry, I felt wounded, I felt betrayed.
I know it sounds naive, I know it sounds stupid, it just didn't occur to me that he could do that.
Dr.
Golden dictating autopsy case 94-05136, autopsy on Nicole Brown Simpson.
Having studied the crime scene, I believe that Nicole had come out of the house expecting Ron Goldman.
She encountered O.
J.
, then she was quickly subdued.
There was evidence of blunt force trauma near the crown of her head, possibly consistent, per the testimony of the coroner with having been struck by the butt end of the knife.
Scalp bruised, right parietal.
I believe she went down.
Four stab wounds, three deep, one shallow were inflicted upon the left side of her neck.
Her head was on the first step above the lower pavement level where the rest of her body was.
I believe that Ron Goldman came upon the scene after Nicole had been subdued.
As Ron came upon Nicole, as he moved forward, to the fallen Nicole, O.
J.
grabbed Ron from behind, and probably had the knife at his throat.
Simpson's left hand was perhaps around Ron's chest, and in the course of short exchange, which could have include some sort of taunting, Simpson poked Ron in the right cheek five times, and then drew the knife blade twice across his throat.
I suspect Ron, in an effort to free himself from Simpson's grasp, went to the hand that was controlling him, Simpson's left hand, grabbed it, pulled it and probably in the process wrenched the glove from Simpson's hand, hence the left hand glove being found in the foliage.
And then Ron turned with his back inside the security bars at the foot of the stairs, it was in effect a killing cage.
Ron had bars to his left, bars behind him, tree to his right, stairwell coming down, and he had a very strong, powerful figure with a very sharp knife slashing at him.
Ron suffered defense wounds to both of his hands, deep defensive wounds, so he's clearly trying to parry the knife.
He suffered a number of stab wounds, as he's twisting and turning in the scene.
At one point Simpson catches Ron, with a, it was kind of a sweeping stabbing motion to Ron's left flank.
And the knife blade penetrates Ron's abdomen, and almost completely severs his abdominal artery.
You've got about a minute to live because of the massive bleedout.
Blood is filling Ron's abdominal cavity, blood is pouring out of the wound of Ron's left flank, soaking the left pants leg of Ron.
And ultimately after a matter of some seconds, it's hard to determine how many, I believe Ron simply sank to the ground in a seated position with his back against the upright bars.
As we know from the evidence, there was movement between the two bodies.
I suspect Simpson went back to Nicole's body, lifted her head by grabbing her blonde head hair, and causing the massive incise wound across her neck, in the process severing just about everything in her neck and putting a quarter-inch nick in her C3 vertebrae.
This is a fatal sharp force injury.
Simpson moves back to Ron Goldman, grabs his shirt so it would be above Ron's right shoulder, transferring blood, head hairs, from Nicole to Ron's shirt, twists Ron's body to the side, and we know there were four deep intersecting knife wounds to the left side of Ron's neck.
In my opinion, overkill.
With regard to Ron, overkill.
With regard to Nicole.
Simpson at this point stepped back, stepped in the blood that's pumping from Nicole, and in what appears to be a very even stride, goes up the steps, and out of the crime scene, towards the back of the house, towards the alley, where the Bronco had to have been parked.
(barking dog) Listen.
I just flat out, categorically deny the fact that he could do that.
Period.
I came up from court one day, and Bill said, "I've got some bad news.
" More, again? He said, "There are some tapes.
" What if it could be proved that Detective Mark Fuhrman lied on the witness stand when he denied ever using the word nigger? Oh, no.
Both sides want to get their hands on the twelve hours of taped interviews Fuhrman gave screenwriter Laura Hart McKinny as background for her fictional script on L.
A.
police.
On the tapes, Fuhrman used racial epithets and talked of framing people.
What the fuck, dude? We were not aware of the tapes.
Should he have told you about them? We were not aware of the tapes.
It was pennies from heaven.
We'd been given a gift.
Miss Drummond.
Listening to that, I just felt like somebody opened up a drainpipe and just rolled it over my body.
Things that were said resonated with things I had heard for 30 years or more about the way that cops think, and act.
When you hear those things, some of the characters in that screenplay I wrapped around some of the people that I knew, on L.
A.
P.
D.
and other departments.
I can remember where I heard them, I can remember some who said them, and then there's a little exaggeration in it.
Fuhrman may say he was just fictionalizing, but his words rang true.
Does that mean that he planted the glove? No, it doesn't mean he planted a glove.
It doesn't even necessarily mean that he's an authentic racist.
But it means he's prepared to act like one.
Yeah, it was pretty bad.
And there's nothing that you can take back, there's not like a, "Oh, gee, gosh, I'm sorry.
" We came to this court seven months ago, expecting a fair trial.
My son had a right to it, we as a family had a right to it, Nicole and her family had a right to it.
Instead we get this crap spewed in front of the cameras for two hours.
For what purpose? I'd love to know what the judge had in mind.
This is now the Fuhrman trial.
It's not the trial of O.
J.
Simpson, who is accused of murdering my son and Nicole.
(crowd chanting) We want justice! In all their ugliness, the tapes have now been made public, but Judge Lance Ito has yet to decide if the jury will hear what others already have.
The tapes shall be released.
We want them now.
We want justice now.
The judge was on the fence as to whether or not he was going to let certain stuff come in.
That required people speaking out to say, "This is not something you should be hiding from they jury.
" We know that if you can railroad O.
J.
Simpson with his millions of dollars and his Dream of legal experts, we know what you can do to the average African-American and other decent citizens in this country.
It was bigger than O.
J.
Simpson.
Something larger than him is at stake.
Release the tapes, release the tapes.
O.
J.
Simpson became a symbol of that decade, of that time, of that response to has the mentality of America changed in the civil rights struggle.
Or is it business as usual? (chanting) For me, as a progressive Christian, Democrat, I'm going like, "When are we going to go back to the evidence?" You would find yourself in a room of ministers and community leaders, and the conversation inevitably would go back to O.
J.
and how O.
J.
was being mistreated.
Justice be done in the courtroom, we pray, "Yes!" We are talking about justice! Instead of getting in and saying, "Free O.
J.
", as if he was a political prisoner, it for me was, "Let me just get quiet.
" Let me sit there and say nothing.
Free O.
J.
, free O.
J.
I really do believe privately a lot of African-American leaders felt the same.
If this case gets covered up under the rug, you will never trust the criminal justice system again.
You turned O.
J.
Simpson into a civil rights cause.
Do you at all regret that? Absolutely not.
O.
J.
Simpson was a vessel.
He was merely a tool that allowed something to come out and be exposed.
So you were using O.
J.
Simpson for your own cause? I was using O.
J.
Simpson for our cause.
For black people's cause.
There was a realness to the people who were responding to the Fuhrman tapes outside the courtroom.
What was going on inside the courtroom was manipulation to the extreme.
This is a blockbuster.
This is a bombshell.
This is perhaps the biggest thing that's happened in any case in this country in this decade, and they know it.
They've got to face up to it! No one planted any evidence at any time.
There has been no false statement made about where that evidence was found, the analysis of the evidence or its results.
And the defense wants to squirm away from that fact by playing the race card.
This isn't about any race card.
This is about credibility card.
This is about perjury.
The whole case got forgotten.
It was all about Fuhrman now, it was all about racial injustice.
Occasionally these cartoonists come up with something that's edifying.
It's a little child, speaking to his mother, watching television, who says, "What's the forbidden 'N' word they keep talking about, Mommy?" She said, "Nicole.
" O.
J.
Simpson's defense team, stunned by Judge Ito's ruling last night, that only two excerpts of the inflammatory Fuhrman tapes, filled with racial slurs, may be presented to the jury.
We think this jury is much smarter than this judge gives them credit for.
What they let in was enough.
Then we have two excerpts Your Honor, we would like to play at this point, if we could.
It's a slap.
It's a slap.
Every time you hear it.
We have no niggers where I grew up.
Do you recall him saying that? Yes.
To hear anybody speak on race like that, is not okay with me.
When Officer Fuhrman used the word nigger, it was not lighthearted, it was something that he would use in normal conversation.
Devastating.
I believe those tapes never should have been allowed in.
What is the nexus between the tapes and the murder? What does it have to do with the evidence? What proof is there that any evidence was planted? Well, it definitely became believable that he was capable.
And I didn't have trust in him anymore.
He was using it in a demeaning, derogatory fashion.
You're saying what's on those tapes is not reflective of your attitudes, or your experiences? I don't know how you feel, or see me, but I can tell you this.
You would be shocked if you saw me in the field.
I was so fair beyond, beyond all scope of what you had to be.
Fighting? I didn't use tasers.
I didn't use sticks.
When I fought a suspect, I fought straight up.
I was fair on the street.
There was a time that I was pretty violent.
But that was long before I was on the police force.
Alright, Mr.
Uelmen, I take it at this point you wish to recall Detective Fuhrman? Yes, Your Honor.
I didn't want to look at him, he made me sick.
You have been a liar throughout.
And the only reason I know that you didn't plant the evidence is because you couldn't have.
Otherwise, I'm with them.
Detective Fuhrman, was the testimony that you gave at the preliminary hearing in this case completely truthful? I wish to assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.
And one of the most shocking moments was when he took the Fifth.
You don't see police officers take the Fifth.
Have you ever falsified a police report? I wish to assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.
Any kind of questioning is going to help to convict him one way or another so he had to take the Fifth to avoid incriminating himself.
A lot of people don't understand about the Fifth.
If you answer one question, you answer them all.
I can't let the Defense attorney just run with me.
I had to plead the Fifth.
Is it your intention to assert your Fifth Amendment privilege with respect to all questions that I ask you? Yes.
Could I have a moment? Certainly.
That's the main question.
I mean, he didn't ask the main question.
Did you plant the glove? That was the most important.
It didn't matter, he wasn't going to answer.
Allow me one other question, Your Honor.
What was that, Mr.
Uelmen? Detective Fuhrman, did you plant or manufacture any evidence in this case? Hell, no, I don't plant evidence.
That's your response.
And you get incensed.
L.
A.
P.
D.
cops don't plant evidence.
I made a damn fool of myself by using a racial epithet, I never should have done that.
You lay it out, because you've got nothing else to lose.
I assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.
He didn't do that.
Why in the hell wouldn't you do that? For you, it's a documentary.
For me, it's the end of my life.
Now I'm going to tell you a story.
In 1989, I was married, I had a house, had a daughter that was born in '91, a son that was born in '93.
Had this group of friends, unbelievable friends.
Every one of them was different than me, though.
They all came from intact families, fathers, houses they still go back to, rooms that they still had, but they welcomed me into this group.
I thought I had it made.
I finally was really happy for the first time in my life.
Then I answered a phone.
I call upon the public to remember that Mark Fuhrman is not the L.
A.
P.
D.
The vast majority of men and women at L.
A.
P.
D.
are hardworking, honest people.
They're husbands, they're wives, they're sons, they're daughters.
They have mortgages.
They have kids they want to get through school.
They work two and three jobs just like I did as a young officer in the sixties and seventies.
And they want to divorce themselves from what they've heard these past few weeks.
I believe the police force did their job, and did it correctly, and I cannot see any way that the framing of O.
J.
is something that is valid.
All the evidence points back to the police department, and it looks like a major setup to me.
I think he's innocent.
And not just because I want him to be, it's just based upon the facts that have been given.
I have found most people to be vehemently convinced that O.
J.
Simpson is guilty of this double murder.
Well, I believe that he was set up.
And he's a black man in America, and black men in America have a hard time getting justice.
O.
J.
was known as a very good Black man who had appeal across the board, racially.
Whether O.
J.
's guilty or not, is maybe why you're here.
But my theory's that people who live out in Iowa, or out in farmland, who've never intereacted with us, will suddenly have a negative opinion of us.
The Black man's image, and the beating that it's taken after we've worked so hard to show that we're not all criminals.
The long awaited closing arguments in the O.
J.
Simpson trial.
This is the last great hurdle for the lawyers, as they try to convince the jury that their version of events is the right one.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Good morning.
Finally.
I feel like it's been forever since I've talked to you.
It kind of has.
I got up, and I spoke to them.
I gave my argument.
In the course of presenting all of this evidence, some evidence has been presented to you that really is not relevant to answer the question of who murdered Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown.
And it's up to you, the jury, to weed out the distractions, weed out the sideshows and determine what evidence is it that really helps me answer this question.
I thought, "They're listening with half an ear.
" From 9:36 until 10:54, the defendant's whereabouts were unaccounted for.
At 10:43, Allan Park, the limo driver, saw a person approximately six feet tall, two hundred pounds, African-American, wearing all dark clothing walking up the driveway.
Stone faced.
Marcia Clark.
You are truly a marvelous jury.
Perhaps the most patient, and healthy jury we've ever seen.
When Johnnie was up there, they were, "Oh, we're there, we are there.
" Like the defining moment in this trial, the day Mr.
Darden asked Mr.
Simpson to try on those gloves and the gloves didn't fit, remember these words.
It was the weekend after the glove demonstration, and we were talking, and you know, Jerry was on the speaker phone.
He says, "Hey guys, hey, hey hey.
I've got, I've got a phrase.
" If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.
The room then erupted.
High fiving, hey, hey, hey.
What everybody remembers about Johnnie Cochran's summation is, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.
" Which was cute and fine, but it wasn't the heart of the summation.
The heart of the summation was, "Whose side are you on?" When you go back in the jury room, some of you may want to say that, "Well, gee, you know, boys will be boys, this is just like police talk, this is the way they talk.
" That's not acceptable.
That's the consciousness of this community.
If you adopt that attitude, that's why we have this.
There's no more powerful a narrative in American society than that of race.
A racist is somebody who has power over you who can do something to you.
A police officer, in the street, a patrol officer is the single most powerful figure in the criminal justice system.
He can take your life.
And that's why, that's why this has to be rooted out.
He was magical to watch in court.
Just magical.
Stop this cover-up.
Stop this cover-up.
If you don't stop it, then who? Do you think the police department's going to stop it? Do you think the D.
A.
's office is going to stop it? Do you think we can stop it by ourselves? It has to be stopped by you.
It offended me, because he was using a very serious, for real issue, racial injustice, in defense of a man who wanted nothing to do with the black community.
Van Atter, with his big lies, and then we have Fuhrman come right on the heels, and these two twin devils of deception, it's part of a culture of getting away with things.
It's part of a culture of looking the other way.
If we determine the rules as we go along, nobody's going to question us.
We're the L.
A.
P.
D.
He and that team were willing to go anywhere that they could to get the killer off.
It's just not honorable.
It's not right.
Officer Fuhrman went on to say that he would like nothing more than to see all niggers gathered together and killed.
He said something about burning them, or bombing them.
There was another man who had those same views.
People didn't care.
People said, "He's just crazy, he's just a half-baked painter.
" They didn't do anything about it.
This man, this scourge became one of the worst people in the history of this world, Adolf Hitler.
The word Hitler had not been in any of the prior drafts.
People didn't care and didn't try to stop him.
He had the power over his racism.
And his anti-religions.
And nobody wanted to stop him, and it ended up in World War II.
I found his closing arguments to be irresponsible.
Thank you, very, very much.
I appreciate your attention.
We have seen a man who perhaps is the worst kind of racist himself.
Someone who shoves racism in front of everything.
Someone who compares a person who speaks racist comments to Hitler.
This man is a disgrace to human beings.
(inaudible) No.
He is one of the most disgusting human beings I have ever had to listen to in my life.
He suggests because of racism, we should put aside all other thought, all other reason, and set his murdering client free.
He's a sick man and he ought to be put away.
Johnnie pushed.
I may have used a different analogy but I can't criticize what he did.
Did you go too far with the Hitler analogy? Some people are offended by that.
Excuse us, excuse us.
Could you answer it for us, Johnnie? Yes.
The playing of the race card as he did in all respects, insinuations that were made, impacted how I felt about Johnnie.
Do you owe an apology to Fred Goldman? He owes an apology to me.
I am so tired of the unfair suggestion that Johnnie Cochran played the race card.
We played the credibility card.
We played the evidence card, man.
You have to look at the evidence in a case.
And who in America can deny the fact that Mark Fuhrman is a genocidal racist? He's their witness, he's in the middle of this case, so race has to be an issue.
It would have been contrary to our oath as advocates to ignore race.
And to not exploit it, given the circumstances and the context of this case, in this city and in this time.
The attorneys are telling my brother's story.
And it's very shocking that once Johnnie gets up and starts telling what we feel happens, that this has rocked somebody's world.
I think it's time for everybody to wake up, and realize that we are in a for-real world, and we have dealt with racism all our lives.
Every single day.
It's hard, it's really hard.
This guy's on trial for his life.
Not one word that Johnnie Cochran said was objected to, by the prosecution.
Unlawful, under the rules of evidence.
So, what's the problem? On the other hand, really? O.
J.
Simpson as civil rights victim? Hero? It was disgusting.
It was appalling.
What was your feeling when Mr.
Cochran compared Mr.
Fuhrman to Adolf Hitler? Your personal feeling, Sir? I'll address that after the jury verdict.
(suspenseful music) One month after the murders, in July last year, 63% of whites thought Simpson was guilty.
65% of blacks thought he was innocent.
And now, more than a year later, with all of the evidence, having been laid out, 77% of whites think Simpson is guilty, and 72% of blacks believe he is innocent.
blacks and whites are actually farther apart.
It's not even the trial of the century anymore.
Suddenly, the case of The People Versus O.
J.
Simpson has become the trial of Los Angeles.