Statistics And Evaluation Of Evidence In The O.J. Simpson Case

Discussion

Discuss about the Statistics and the Evaluation of Evidence.

Nicole and O.J. Brown got married on 2^nd February in the year 1985 after he retired from his professional football for about five years. They had two children, S.B. Simpson and J.R. Simpson.

The marriage life of the couple lasted for three years where Nichole Brown complained about domestic violence, and the police were found investigating on that matter. Lastly, Mrs Brown filed a divorce against her husband on the ground of “irreconcilable differences” on 25^th February 1992. The term of citing irreconcilable differences is a rule in Australia providing possible grounds for divorce for quantity of jurisdictions. According to the Australian family law, the couple can file a divorce because they have been estranged couple and stayed separated or nearly or more than twelve months. So, to sum up, it is observed that every irrevocable condition or the conditions that cannot get reconciled, then the irreconcilable differences take place that requires waiting period or mutual consent.

The matter of Nichole Brown and O.J. Simpson came in the limelight because of the murder case that took place on June 13, 1994, where Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found murdered. The incident took place in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Nicole Brown was found dead with multiple wounds on her head and neck resulting from multiple stabbing and even had some defensive wounds on her hands.

Keeping the records of the incident, the investigators took up some of the elements that would help them to bring a conclusion to the investigation.

The investigation focus on the Simpson case included the questioning to Simpson by the Los Angeles Police for about more than half an hour on 2^nd June 1994. The Department put emphasizes on the deep cut on his right hand and asked him numerous questions about the cut. In the initial stage, he repeatedly claimed about his being unaware of the cut but later he admitted the cause of the wound (Hunt, 1999). In the later stage, he explained that the cut happened due to the breaking of the glass of his Bronco at the night when he was informed about the murder of Nichole Brown.

The investigators found out some physical evidence from the case near the victim’s body. The contents of the physical evidence are located in the grounds of Simpson’s estate and also near victim’s body. The findings included two leather gloves one of which remained beside the body and other within the estate. The main area of investigation included that whether they are the same pair of gloves which means are the glove related with the other pair or is identical; but a different pair.

Crucial elements for investigating process relevant to trial proceedings

The DNA evidence was another important fact of evidence (Aitken & Taroni, 2004). The investigators collected the samples of the footprints that lead away from the body. The team also took evidence from the condominium so as to see if anything matches between the two samples. The samples were brought in to undergo some Initial polymerase chain reaction which did not suspect Simpson in the first place. But there were some matching composites found from the bloody shoe prints and the samples in front of the gate.

Apart from what is found in front of the victim’s body, the investigators also found out some more evidence that was submitted to the jurists. So on one of the hearing, Ross Cutlery showed some store receipt that indicated Simpson buying of the 12-inch (305 mm) stiletto knife six weeks before the occurrence of the murder.

The investigators also found the strands of hair on Goldman’s shirt that were consistent with Simpson.

The investigators also focused on the gathering of several coins covered with fresh blood drops behind the Brown’s condo, where they parked the car.

The investigators also found gloves containing the particles of the hair and the cap contained carpet fibres similar to the fibres of Simpson’s Bronco. One of the black knit knife caps contained the strands of African-American hair. Some dark blue strands of the cloth fibre were found on the body of Brownman, which the witness confirmed that Simpson wore something similar on that night.

The OJ Simpson case taught the police not to carry on certain activities while going on with the research. During the trial, the defense attorney for the Simpson case found out some gaps in the prosecution case after observing some problems by the Los Angeles Police Department while handling with the evidence. The officers did not even ask him the general follow-up questions required to ask at that time to extract the truth. The officers were only concerned about the deep red cut and got convinced with the reply by Simpson. They did not even ask the reason why he denied of being unknown to the source of the cut in the initial stage of questioning.

The timing of the incident that took place is paramount while making an investigation. One of the weak points the case of Simpson is that the jurists were easily convinced with the mentioned time. The contents were not even gone for the autopsy so that the organic contents could be examined which would help to define the exact time of the murder.

Major errors/ flaws/ weakness of the case

The investigators only focused on the questioning of the accused. The possible things which are required while examining a witness are their mental capacity and how much reliable their memory was. The Spanish speaking witness told the investigators that she heard some sounds in the backyard of the Simpson’s family. Later she confirmed that the investigators took note of it but never came back for further questioning or giving any feedback. The facts of less concentration to what the witnesses explained led Simpson out of the trial (Thagard, 2003).

On 13^th June 1994, one of the LAPD evidence file photos shows that Mark Fuhrman a member of Los Angeles Police Dept. shows some pieces of evidence near the body of Nicole Brown Simpson. The evidence showed some bloodstained footprints or the walkway of the condominium.

Possible missed evidence is regarding the time of the death of the victim when any incident or accidents take place (Cotterill, 2002). The time of the death of the victim solves many problems, and a mere assumption can lead to the opposite. It is always advisable that to carry out an investigation; it is important to send the body for an autopsy that will examine the stomach contents. The examination can further lead to the appropriate and perfect timing which can open up different sides of the case that remained undisclosed.

The witness issue is the most critical issue of the case. When the Spanish-speaking lady confirmed about the happenings at that time, the police noted down the facts and without further questioning they went back. It is important to keep track of the witnesses and not just rely on one statement to strengthen a case (Fisher et al., 1997). The lady even said that the investigators never came back after one session with her, and that led her to confusion. It was even found out while going through the case that not all the pieces of evidence were handed to the jury, explaining the money power of some people. It is advisable to remain unbiased while making the decision.

Media is a mass form of communication and is likely to influence the views of the common people, and when the celebrity comes in that, they are portrayed either negatively or positively (Weston, 1995).

The extensive coverage by the media on stories that involves the court can highly alter the court decision which occurred in the matter of OJ Simpson as witnessed in the murder trial. After having a thorough look at the media’s part in the case, the primary fact that came up is, the media affected the trial issue by highlighting it as a race issue. The impact of the case is such that the media went on saying that can be black people get fair justice, hinting towards racialism (Williams, 2001). The comment of the media made the common people believe that Simpson is a victim of racialism and that he is innocent in a real sense. The people forecasted their concentration on the biased police and the jurists. The confusion of the views of the people had led a compulsory entry to the courtroom while the trial was going on. The ongoing trial faced a lot of difficulties to be carried on as the media published such stories before confirming the actual fact.

Recommendations for the errors to be avoided during a criminal investigation

It is an imperative issue here that the jurors are likely to get influenced by the media coverage since they were under continuous watch of the media. The jurors in the courtroom may decide a different order while after going home and watching the news can make them alter it since most of the public supported the issue. The jurors feel that the American’s public opinion plays an important and passing a different issue may give rise to some internal confusion. The extensive media coverage can influence the jurors in such a manner that they take decisions which goes sometimes against the American Court System. The impact leads to such a decision which is reached by wrong means, as in the case of OJ Simpson.

The media must be professional in the way of viewing a matter as when they do not allow the court to do their work, which leads to some unlawful judgment. The judges were quite concerned about the infamous Bronco car chase by the police in slow motion as well as the gloves scene in the court room.

Another controversy that came up regarding the media coverage and its impact on the case is that the court allowed entry of camera inside the trial room. Initially, that was a huge question, whether the allowing of the camera inside the courtroom can be permitted or not. Later, the media won the issue and the coverage through the camera could be warranted (Furno-Lamude, 1999). Although the jurists were criticized for allowing the entry of the camera within the courtroom, they admitted that they felt some pressure due to the presence of media and had to allow them. The media coverage, however, gave a massive amount of news feed to the common people that gave them the chance to go insight of the matter. The court is not supposed to allow any media or entertain them within the court room. The immense involvement of the media made the court to alter their decision about allowing the camera within the courtroom. The matter was as clear to decide OJ Simpson being a murderer. But the matter mostly ended with some bargaining in the compensation for the loss of the two victims that includes OJ Simpson’s ex-wife and her friend.

Conclusion:

While drawing a conclusion on the case of the Simpson, it is clear that the evidence placed in front of the jurists plays a major role in the decision of the matter. But the major acquittal of this case is that the defence was successfully neutralised the DNA evidence against him. The most important battle over the DNA was that how poorly it was placed for the trial to carry out. So, while making a study about the case of Simpson, it is important to put emphasise on the use of the evidence and the way it can get alternated. The problems that arose, in this case, conclude that it is a mere cautionary tale. The risks of using controversial methods sometimes outstate the value harming the defendant.

References:

Aitken, C. G., & Taroni, F. (2004). Statistics and the Evaluation of evidence for forensic scientists (Vol. 16). Chichester: Wiley.

Cotterill, J. (2002). ‘Just one more time…’: aspects of intertextuality in the trials of OJ Simpson. In Language in the legal process (pp. 147-161). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Fisher, G., Bugliosi, V., Cochran, J. L., Rutten, T., Cooley, A., Bess, C., … & Dershowitz, A. M. (1997). The OJ Simpson Corpus.

Furno-Lamude, D. (1999). The media spectacle and the OJ Simpson case.The OJ Simpson trials: Rhetoric, media and the law, 19-35.

Hunt, D. M. (1999). OJ Simpson facts and fictions: News rituals in the construction of reality. Cambridge University Press.

Thagard, P. (2003). Why wasn’t OJ convicted? Emotional coherence in legal inference. Cognition & Emotion, 17(3), 361-383.

Weston, C. H. (1995). Orenthal James Simpson and Gender, Class, and Race: In that Order. Hastings Women’s LJ, 6, 223.

Williams, L. (2001). Playing the race card: Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to OJ Simpson (Vol. 134). Princeton: Princeton University Press.