OJ Murder Prosecutor Claims Cochran Tampered With Glove

[Flagg]

NBCNews

Ex-prosecutor claims O.J. Simpson attorney tampered with glove


By Reuters

Nearly 17 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."

'Total fabrication'
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.

Why didn't he report misconduct?
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.

Two other members of Simpson's defense team, Robert Shapiro and Barry Scheck, did not return calls for comment. Robert Kardashian and F. Lee Bailey, who also represented Simpson, are both 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.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

What an astounding piece of shit this guy is. He's never brought this up before, but now when the guy is long dead and can't defend himself he accuses him of a fucking felony?

[Grumman]

Why didn't he report misconduct?
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.

So a murderer got away with it because of his insecurities? And this is his idea of making himself look better?

[Flagg]

He's lying his ass of IMO. I'm glad OJ got off, if this is the type of integrity one of his prosecutors has.

[Block]

He's lying his ass of IMO. I'm glad OJ got off, if this is the type of integrity one of his prosecutors has.

Oh sure, so because the prosecutor is an asshole you're glad someone got away with double murder, nice logic. So if it were your mother and father or sister and her boyfriend, if the prosecutor was an asshole you'd want their killer to walk free?

[Sea Skimmer]

The article does in fact say he has in fact claimed tampering before in interviews. Maybe you should try reading what you post.

[Grumman]

He's lying his ass of IMO. I'm glad OJ got off, if this is the type of integrity one of his prosecutors has.

Oh sure, so because the prosecutor is an asshole you're glad someone got away with double murder, nice logic. So if it were your mother and father or sister and her boyfriend, if the prosecutor was an asshole you'd want their killer to walk free?

I assume he means that in the sense of "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."

The article does in fact say he has in fact claimed tampering before in interviews. Maybe you should try reading what you post.

No, it says he claims he has claimed tampering before in interviews, but also that "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."

[Flagg]

He's lying his ass of IMO. I'm glad OJ got off, if this is the type of integrity one of his prosecutors has.

Oh sure, so because the prosecutor is an asshole you're glad someone got away with double murder, nice logic. So if it were your mother and father or sister and her boyfriend, if the prosecutor was an asshole you'd want their killer to walk free?

I assume he means that in the sense of "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."

Exactly. If the prosecuting lawyer is a lying sack of shit then you cannot trust their integrity at all. That's how innocents end up in prison.

[Simon_Jester]

I still have the same opinion I did before I heard about this:

I have a sneaking suspicion OJ did it, but have no desire to revisit the issue after what a fucking media circus the original trial became.

[Block]

I still have the same opinion I did before I heard about this:

I have a sneaking suspicion OJ did it, but have no desire to revisit the issue after what a fucking media circus the original trial became.

I feel this way too except I'm pretty certain he did it, but I think the prosecution used a bunch of stupid tactics it didn't need to and fucked it up.

[Korvan]

OJ and his defense team didn't even need to tamper with the glove. All OJ had to do is position his thumb so it is in the plane of his hand, and it becomes impossible to fit the hand even into a properly sized glove. I remember seeing the footage and it looks like OJ was doing just that, but unless you are looking for it, it just looks like the glove is too small.

[Scrib]

OJ and his defense team didn't even need to tamper with the glove. All OJ had to do is position his thumb so it is in the plane of his hand, and it becomes impossible to fit the hand even into a properly sized glove. I remember seeing the footage and it looks like OJ was doing just that, but unless you are looking for it, it just looks like the glove is too small.

Yeah, I was pretty sure it was something like this that happened.

As for the "whiny snitch approach to life" just wow. Motherfucking wow.

[Tsyroc]

OJ and his defense team didn't even need to tamper with the glove. All OJ had to do is position his thumb so it is in the plane of his hand, and it becomes impossible to fit the hand even into a properly sized glove. I remember seeing the footage and it looks like OJ was doing just that, but unless you are looking for it, it just looks like the glove is too small.

Plus they had him wearing gloves so he wouldn't contaminate the evidence. So he was trying to put on a (presumably) snug pair of gloves over another pair of gloves. As the article says, a pretty stupid move by the prosecution. I'm guessing they thought they had a slam dunk and got cocky and shot themselves in the foot.

OJ Simpson Gloves & Murder Trial Footage


Has anyone else seen the video or read the book by the investigator that makes a pretty strong case for O.J.'s son being the killer? It makes the discrepancies in the case against OJ make a bit more sense if he was actually scrambling to cover for his son.

[Simon_Jester]

The 'another pair of gloves' are latex or something, they really shouldn't make much difference to a pair that would fit anyway.

Whether he did something to deliberately make the gloves not fit is another question.


Speaking for myself, though- I also have my doubts about the prosecution's side. Hence why I don't say "he did it, he got away with it," and instead say something more like "I have my suspicions, but I don't know."