O J Simpson Murder Case Study

Business Law Essay by Victoria Pecherska

“O. J. Simpson murder case”

The trial of American football star O.J. Simpson for the murder of his wife and friend is known as one of the most controversial trials in the United States. It was also called “a trial of the century” for being so televised all around America and the whole world. The football star had to go through a criminal trial for murder and a civil trial for wrongful death. Simpson`s case demonstrates how the burden of proof in civil and criminal law can lead to absolutely different verdicts.

The evidence

After O.J. Simpson`s wife Nichole Brown and their friend Roland Goldman were found stabbed to death at Brown's condominium in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, O.J. Simpson became the main suspect. Some physical evidences indicated him as a possible murder of both victims. There are some of the evidences:

1) Several days after being handcuffed, Simpson failed miserably the lie-detector test.

2) Bloody footprints found near the victims` bodies match a pair of shoes owned by O.J. Simpson. There were 31 pictures of the football player wearing exactly those shoes.

3) Simpson denied he had ever hit his wife, despite he had received a suspended sentence for spousal abuse in 1989.

4) It was testified that a glove found at Simpson's house had tested positive for a DNA match of Goldman's blood.

Selection of the juries and their verdicts

 For the criminal trial

There were 9 Blacks, 2 Whites and 1 Hispanic selected to be juries at O.J. Simpson criminal trial. Final jury was composed by sex of 10 women and 2 men. The racial composition of the jury was based on place where Simpson`s case was filed. The prosecution decided to open the file in downtown Los Angeles instead of the place where crime occurred (Santa Monica). As the result, the majority of juries was African-American, which played in favor of O.J. If the prosecution hadn’t made such a rude mistake, the composition of jury in Santa Monica would have been mostly white.

This fact was extremely important because more than 2/3 of black believed O.J. to be innocent, whereas 4/5 whites considered him 100% guilty. Thus, the jury has initially been on Simpson`s side, and eventually 9 of the jurors who acquitted him were African-American. Their verdict was “innocent”, that is to say that the evidence was not strong enough to announce Simpson guilty.

 For the civil trial

The civil