Judge to let Simpson argue that bloody glove was planted
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California (CNN) — O.J. Simpson won another victory in court Friday when the judge in his wrongful-death civil suit ruled that defense lawyers can argue in their opening statement that the bloody glove that Mark Fuhrman testified he found on the Simpson estate was planted. The theory played a major role in Simpson’s criminal trial, which ended a year ago with Simpson’s acquittal for the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki ruled Friday that Simpson’s lawyers can argue that four key pieces of evidence used in the criminal trial were planted. “The evidence is very slim to support a planting theory argument” involving the glove, the judge said. “But inasmuch as a principal witness has pleaded nolo contendere to perjury … that is sufficient for the court to allow reference to that matter.” Fuhrman, the detective who found the bloody glove, got three years’ probation for denying he had uttered the word “nigger” in the previous decade — a statement disproved by tapes played at the criminal trial. The defense claimed that his racist comments showed a motive to frame Simpson. Allowing the planting theory into evidence “certainly is a big boost for the defense,” said Laurie Levenson, dean of Loyola University Law School. “The defense is going to try to link everything to Fuhrman and his motive and opportunity to plant evidence,” she said. “The best thing they have is that Mark Fuhrman is now a convicted perjurer. They always said he was a bad guy. Now he’s a court-certified bad guy.” The judge also gave the defense a victory by letting Simpson’s lawyers argue that a pair of bloody socks in Simpson’s bedroom might be part of a frame-up. The socks taken by police from Simpson’s bedroom the day after the deaths were later found to contain blood from Nicole Brown Simpson, according to testimony from forensic experts. Fujisaki also said the defense could argue that blood belatedly collected from a back gate at Nicole Brown Simpson’s condominium was planted. Some rulings favored the plaintiffs in the wrongful-death case, the families of the victims who are suing for unspecified damages. The judge barred an argument that a knit cap found at the crime scene might have been planted, and he found that blood collected from Simpson’s Ford Bronco the morning after the slayings could not be cited as part of a police frame-up. But he said the defense could argue that blood collected from the Bronco two weeks later was part of a frame-up. |