OJ Simpson's Attorney Tampered With Glove

[megalicious]

That slimy dirtbag...

www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/08/oj-simpson-tampered-with-glove_n_1866945.html

Nearly seventeen years after O.J. Simpson walked away from his murder trial a free man, a prosecutor at the center of the case has alleged that the lead defense lawyer tampered with a crucial piece of evidence.

Former Los Angeles deputy district attorney Christopher Darden on Thursday accused Simpson defense lawyer, the late Johnnie Cochran, of "manipulating" one of the infamous gloves that the prosecution said linked Simpson to the grisly double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

After Simpson struggled to fit the gloves on his hands -- in one of the defining moments of the racially charged trial that captivated the nation - Cochran famously admonished the jury, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."

On Thursday, during a panel discussion about the trial at Pace Law School in New York City, Darden, a member of the prosecution team, declared: "I think Johnnie tore the lining. There were some additional tears in the lining so that O.J.'s fingers couldn't go all the way up into the glove."

Darden said in a follow-up interview on Friday that he noticed that when Simpson was trying on a glove for the jury its structure appeared to have changed. "A bailiff told me the defense had it during the lunch hour." He said he wasn't specifically accusing anyone, adding: "It's been my suspicion for a long time that the lining has been manipulated."

He said he had previously voiced similar concerns in TV interviews, but could not recall the details.

Darden's incendiary charge surprised key participants in the trial and related legal action. Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, who was a member of Simpson's defense team, and Paul Callan, who represented Nicole Brown Simpson's estate in a successful civil trial against Simpson, said it was the first time they had ever heard the allegation.

On Friday, Dershowitz called the claim that the defense had an opportunity to tamper with the gloves "a total fabrication" and said "the defense doesn't get access to evidence except under controlled circumstances."

"Having made the greatest legal blunder of the 20th Century," Dershowitz said of Darden, "he's trying to blame it on the dead man."

Darden's remarks came after Dershowitz, a fellow panelist, called Darden's decision to have Simpson try on the glove for the first time before the jury "the most stupid thing" a prosecutor could have done.

Dershowitz said that if Darden had evidence that there had been tampering, he would have had an ethical obligation to report the alleged misconduct. He also questioned why Darden hadn't filed a grievance with the state bar association. Darden responded by saying that this would have been a "whiny-little-snitch approach to life" and that was not what he believed in because it didn't change anything.

The event was part of a "Trials and Errors" series, co-sponsored by Pace Law School and the Forum on Law, Culture & Society at Fordham Law, that examines America's most controversial cases. Also on the panel were Goldman's father, Fred Goldman, and his sister, Kim Goldman.

Derek Sells, the managing partner of Cochran's old law firm, The Cochran Firm, did not respond to requests for comment. A call to Cochran's daughter, Tiffany Cochran Edwards, who is a communications director for the firm, was not immediately returned. Cochran died in 2005 from a brain tumor at age 67.

Simpson was acquitted in the double murder case despite what prosecutors described as a "mountain of evidence" against him. The evidence included a blood-soaked glove found on Simpson's estate and a matching one found at the scene of the murder.

Questions about the lining of the gloves emerged during the 1995 trial, but they did not involve allegations of tampering by defense lawyers.

Three other members of Simpson's defense team, Robert Shapiro, Barry Scheck and F. Lee Bailey, did not immediately return requests for comment. Robert Kardashian, who also represented Simpson, is deceased.

A civil jury in 1997 found Simpson liable for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages to the murder victims' families. Simpson is currently serving up to 33 years in prison for a 2007 armed robbery in which he claimed he was trying to recover his own sports memorabilia.

[emisi]

He's bringing this up NOW, 17 years later? Does he have a book coming out or something? Because if this is something he suspected during the trial, maybe he should have mentioned it.

Also, I'm unclear on how tearing the lining would make it tighter? Wouldn't it have made the glove looser?

[Deleted]

oh, ffs. it was their fault for trying to make him try it on in the first place. the glove had been bloody (liquid can make leather shrink), in storage (my leather shoes are tighter when i haven't worn them in awhile) and was being tried on by an actor. think what you will about johnnie cochran, but if darden really thought this at the time, during the trial, he should've raised hell, asked for a mistrial, sought to have cochran disbarred, etc. SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO.

and i'm LOLing in the extreme at comparing bringing ethical charges, which are investigated by an independent body charged with keeping the profession free of louses and liars, to being a "snitch." you aren't fellow drug dealers and the state bar isn't a cop on the take.

[Deleted]

Sept 9, 2012 12:41:22 GMT -5 cville said:

oh, ffs. it was their fault for trying to make him try it on in the first place. the glove had been bloody (liquid can make leather shrink), in storage (my leather shoes are tighter when i haven't worn them in awhile) and was being tried on by an actor. think what you will about johnnie cochran, but if darden really thought this at the time, during the trial, he should've raised hell, asked for a mistrial, sought to have cochran disbarred, etc. SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO.

and i'm LOLing in the extreme at comparing bringing ethical charges, which are investigated by an independent body charged with keeping the profession free of louses and liars, to being a "snitch." you aren't fellow drug dealers and the state bar isn't a cop on the take.

:Y: LIKE :Y:

Own your loss, jackass.

[Deleted]

The whole trial was a joke. Darden already wrote a book. He probably made an off-hand comment and the media is running with it because it is a slow news week.

[brit1017]

I have a hard time believing that the glove was given to the defense team without any supervision for an hour. It was evidence that had been admitted into the court, it's not like you can just play with it for funsies whenever you want.

[ESF]

I think it's sad that people think the only reason OJ could have been found not guilty was because his lawyer cheated and/or did something illegal. There are real discussions that can be had over that trial about the impact of celebrity status on a jury, on our system of evidence and what's admissible and what isn't, and the way a wealthy criminal defendant can afford an entire legal team of top notch attorneys instead an overworked, grossly underpaid pubic defender. Instead, this dipshit, who is clearly desperate for attention is belatedly smearing the reputation of a dead man by accusing him of evidence tampering. Pathetic.

[ttt]

Sept 9, 2012 14:52:21 GMT -5 ESF said:

I think it's sad that people think the only reason OJ could have been found not guilty was because his lawyer cheated and/or did something illegal. There are real discussions that can be had over that trial about the impact of celebrity status on a jury, on our system of evidence and what's admissible and what isn't, and the way a wealthy criminal defendant can afford an entire legal team of top notch attorneys instead an overworked, grossly underpaid pubic defender. Instead, this dipshit, who is clearly desperate for attention is belatedly smearing the reputation of a dead man by accusing him of evidence tampering. Pathetic.

I think the biggest thing that the OJ Simpson verdict proved is that justice in this country is, indeed, all about color, but that color is green, not black and white.

[Deleted]

I am not saying $ didn't play a role but the DA's office had several attorneys and investigators on the case AND they had truth on their side. They should have been able to get a conviction, regardless of the team Simpson bought. There was an element of gross incompetence compounded by a nasty history of racism at work there too.

[2vermont]

OK, now *this* is worthy.

[Deleted]

I've never understood how the jury could judge anything by the sight of OJ trying on the gloves. First of all, they'd been outdoors in the elements for a long time. Second, who knows if the glove ever fit him in the first place? But most of all, how do you judge whether a leather glove fits someone from across a room? OF COURSE he would make it look like they didn't fit and that he was having a hard time pulling them on. Could be true, could be acting, but there's no way to tell without feeling for his fingertips in the gloves...

[bronxgirl]

Not only was this trial a total joke, but it is also what first introduced the first famous Kardashian to the American public...it's been all downhill since then.

[Deleted]

Sept 9, 2012 20:26:34 GMT -5 sandsonik said:

I've never understood how the jury could judge anything by the sight of OJ trying on the gloves. First of all, they'd been outdoors in the elements for a long time. Second, who knows if the glove ever fit him in the first place? But most of all, how do you judge whether a leather glove fits someone from across a room? OF COURSE he would make it look like they didn't fit and that he was having a hard time pulling them on. Could be true, could be acting, but there's no way to tell without feeling for his fingertips in the gloves...

I think it is because it was the DA who insisted he try on the gloves. If his own attorneys had asked then I wouldn't believe it (as a juror). But if the DA is insisting, then (when it goes bad) it is impossible for the DA to credibly say it wasn't a good test anyway.

[ESF]

Sept 10, 2012 0:13:48 GMT -5 elle said:

Sept 9, 2012 20:26:34 GMT -5 sandsonik said:

I've never understood how the jury could judge anything by the sight of OJ trying on the gloves. First of all, they'd been outdoors in the elements for a long time. Second, who knows if the glove ever fit him in the first place? But most of all, how do you judge whether a leather glove fits someone from across a room? OF COURSE he would make it look like they didn't fit and that he was having a hard time pulling them on. Could be true, could be acting, but there's no way to tell without feeling for his fingertips in the gloves...

I think it is because it was the DA who insisted he try on the gloves. If his own attorneys had asked then I wouldn't believe it (as a juror). But if the DA is insisting, then (when it goes bad) it is impossible for the DA to credibly say it wasn't a good test anyway.

:Y:

Do you remember the Seinfeld episode that parodied this? The one with the heir to the Baby Ruth fortune trying on the bra in the courtroom? Jackie Chiles yells at the end "you never give the other side control over the key piece of evidence!" It's classic.

[lyssbobiss, Command, B613]

To this DAY, thinking about that trial pisses me right the fuck off. It was a goddamn circus.

[meshaliuknits]

Sept 9, 2012 12:41:22 GMT -5 cville said:

oh, ffs. it was their fault for trying to make him try it on in the first place. the glove had been bloody (liquid can make leather shrink), in storage (my leather shoes are tighter when i haven't worn them in awhile) and was being tried on by an actor. think what you will about johnnie cochran, but if darden really thought this at the time, during the trial, he should've raised hell, asked for a mistrial, sought to have cochran disbarred, etc. SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO.

I've seen Naked Gun. Actor is pretty generous.

[starlily]

Sept 10, 2012 9:09:42 GMT -5 ESF said:

Sept 10, 2012 0:13:48 GMT -5 elle said:

I think it is because it was the DA who insisted he try on the gloves. If his own attorneys had asked then I wouldn't believe it (as a juror). But if the DA is insisting, then (when it goes bad) it is impossible for the DA to credibly say it wasn't a good test anyway.

Do you remember the Seinfeld episode that parodied this? The one with the heir to the Baby Ruth fortune trying on the bra in the courtroom? Jackie Chiles yells at the end "you never give the other side control over the key piece of evidence!" It's classic.

I went to an evidence seminar for persecutors several years ago. The main instructors were from the LADA's office. They totally ripped on Darden's incompetence for having OJ try on the glove & had equally critical words about Clark. Apparently the combination of ego, favoritism, a high profile case, and politics doomed the prosecution's handling of the case from the start.