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In 2000, Simpson left California for Florida, one of the few states where personal assets such as homes and pensions cannot be seized to cover liabilities that were incurred in other states. The Goldman family was awarded compensatory and punitive damages totaling $33.5 million ($56.5 million in 2021 dollars), but have received only a small portion of that monetary figure. On February 4, 1997, the jury unanimously found Simpson responsible for the deaths of both Goldman and Brown. Īfter the trial, Goldman's father filed a civil suit against Simpson. More recent polling shows the "gap" has narrowed since the trial, with over half of polled black respondents in 2013 stating they believed Simpson was guilty. A poll of Los Angeles County residents showed that most African-Americans thought that justice had been served by the "not guilty" verdict, while the majority of Whites thought it was a racially motivated jury nullification by a mostly African-American jury. Although the nation observed the same evidence presented at trial, a division along racial lines emerged in observers' opinions of the verdict, which the media dubbed the "racial gap".
Dog knapsack trial#
The trial became historically significant because of the reaction to the verdict. Cochran and the defense team also alleged other misconduct by the LAPD related to racism and incompetence, in particular actions and comments of Detective Mark Fuhrman. The reasonable doubt theory included evidence that the blood sample had allegedly been mishandled by lab scientists and technicians, and there were questionable circumstances that surrounded other court exhibits. While Deputy District Attorneys Marcia Clark, William Hodgman, and Christopher Darden believed they had a strong case against Simpson, Cochran was able to convince the jury that there was reasonable doubt concerning the DNA evidence in this case, which was a relatively new form of evidence in trials at that time. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld were two additional attorneys who specialized in DNA evidence. Lee Bailey, Alan Dershowitz, Robert Kardashian, Shawn Holley, Carl E. Simpson was represented by a high-profile defense team, referred to as the " Dream Team", which was initially led by Robert Shapiro and subsequently directed by Johnnie Cochran. The pursuit and Simpson's arrest later on the same day were among the most widely publicized events in American history.
Dog knapsack tv#
TV stations interrupted coverage of the 1994 NBA Finals to broadcast live coverage of the pursuit, which was watched by an estimated 95 million people.
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After he did not turn himself in at the agreed time, he became the object of a low-speed pursuit in a white 1993 Ford Bronco SUV owned and driven by his friend Al Cowlings.
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įollowing perfunctory questioning by police detectives, Simpson was formally charged with the murders on June 17 after investigators found a blood-stained glove on his property. The trial is often characterized as the trial of the century because of its international publicity and has been described as the "most publicized" criminal trial in history. Opening statements were made on January 24, 1995, and Simpson was acquitted of both counts of murder on October 3 of the same year. The trial spanned eleven months, from the jury's swearing-in on November 9, 1994. The pair were stabbed to death outside Brown's condominium in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on the night of June 12, 1994.
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Simpson was tried and acquitted for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Orenthal James Simpson was a criminal trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court in which former National Football League (NFL) player, broadcaster and actor O. Kathleen Kennedy-Powell (Preliminary Hearing).
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