Sunday, September 9, 2012

Prosecutor: O.J.'s gloves did fit, can't un-acquit

"Having made the greatest legal blunder of the 20th century, Darden's trying to blame it on the dead man"

Last week, during a panel discussion about the O.J. Simpson trial at Pace Law School in New York City, one of the prosecutors, Christopher Darden, made the following statement, "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," reported the Los Angeles Times.

During a pivotal moment in the trial, Simspon tried on a pair of gloves, one found at the crime scene and the other at his home, and they did not fit.  Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran would later argue, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." Several jurors cited the too-tight gloves as a key reason for voting to acquit Simpson.

Darden said in a follow-up interview he noticed that when Simpson was trying on a glove for the jury its structure appeared to have changed, reported The Times. "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."

Not everyone buys Darden's assertion. "Having made the greatest legal blunder of the 20th century," Harvard Law School's Alan Dershowitz told Reuters, "[Darden's] trying to blame it on the dead man."

"As members of the defense team, Carl Douglas and I were present in court on the day that Chris Darden asked O.J. Simpson to try on the glove,” attorney Shawn Holley said in a statement to The Times. “Mr. Darden's self-serving assertion that Johnnie Cochran tampered with the glove--or any piece of evidence--is false, malicious and slanderous.

“Almost 20 years later, it seems Mr. Darden is still trying to exculpate himself from one of the biggest blunders in the history of jurisprudence."

To read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/09/defense-lawyer-refutes-charge-that-simpsons-bloody-glove-was-tampered-with.html









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