Witness Credibility
- Introduction to the case
The case of People of the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson was criminal trial held in California Superior Court, Los Angeles County. A former American footballer and actor, Orenthal James Simpson, was charged with two counts of murder following the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman. The prosecution argued that Simpson committed the murders in a jealous rage on ground that he had a history of physically abusing his ex-wife. Prosecutor Christopher Aden opened the prosecution’s case by playing a 9-1-1 call made by Nicole Brown, expressing her fear that O.J. Simpson might cause her physical harm. In the background of the call, Simpson could be heard yelling at Nicole Brown. The prosecution also relied on dozens of expert witnesses, on subjects ranging from shoeprint to blood and DNA fingerprinting analysis, to link Simpson to the scene of crime. Simpson’s defense team argued that LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman had planted evidence at the scene of crime due to his racist biases. Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck presented evidence to discredit the DNA evidence of the prosecution and they argued that Simpson had been subjected to police fraud and sloppy internal procedures which led to contamination of DNA evidence. After three hours deliberation, the jury found Simpson not guilty of the crime and he was acquitted.
• A brief overview of the people involved
This case introduced a parade of colorful characters. The trial judge was Lance Ito. He chose 12 jurors with 12 alternates. The prosecution comprised of Marcia Clark and Christopher A. Darden. Simpson’s defense team included Robert Shapiro, Gerald Uelmen, Robert Kardashian, Alan Dershowitz, F. Lee Bailey, Carl E. and Johnie Cochran. There were also two defense attorneys, Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck who specialized in DNA evidence. The case also involved 150 witnesses, including LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman.
• Article summary
A CNN article pointed out that the defense launched an attack on Fuhrman’s credibility by presenting witnesses whose testimony supported their portrayal of Fuhrman as a racist who lied under oath. The article highlighted the attorney’s argument that Fuhrman planted the blood-stained glove which he found in the estate of Simpson the morning after the murder of Nicole Brown and Ronal Goldman. The witnesses were Kathleen Bell and Natalie Singer. Kathleen Bell testified that Fuhrman had told her that he would pull over a black man riding with a white man, or gather all niggers and burn them if he had his way. Natalie Singer testified that Fuhrman had told her that “The only good nigger is a dead nigger”. Fuhrman said nothing beyond citing the Fifth Amendment.
• A firm example of how a witness’s credibility was attacked
LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman is the one who found a bloody glove in Simpson’s estate which was one of the evidence used to place Simpson to the scene of crime. Though F. Lee Bailey engaged Fuhrman in an aggressive cross-examination, the detective denied before the court that he was a racist or had he used the word “nigger” in describing blacks in the 10 years before his testimony. To discredit Fuhrman’s evidence, Simpson’s defense team played audio tapes of the detective repeatedly using the word “nigger”, 41 times in total. These tapes had been made in 1986 by Laura Mckinny, a North Carolina screenwriter who had interviewed Fuhrman for a screenplay she was developing about police office. The tapes formed one of the cornerstones of the defense case that there was lack of credibility in Fuhrman’s testimony.
References
Defense Launches Attack on Fuhrman’s Credibility. (1995, September 5). CNN. Retrieved on July 31, 2013 from: http://edition.cnn.com/US/OJ/daily/9-05/index.html
People of the State of California v Orenthal James Simpson, Case No. BA 097 211.
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