O.J. Simpson: Guilty Or Not Guilty? Essay, Research Paper

He was the Heisman Trophy winner as the Nation’s top collegiate football player in 1968, while attending the University of Southern California. The Buffalo Bills made him the first pick in the 1969 NFL Draft. He rushed for over 1,000 yards seven times in his eleven year career, winning the NFL rushing title in four of those seasons. He rushed for a then NFL record 2,003 yards in 1973, becoming the first player to top the 2,000 yard mark in a single season (Stevenson 1). During his career, he rushed for 11,236 yards and had 14,368 combined net yards. He went to five NFL Pro Bowls, winning the games Most Valuable Player award in 1973. In 1985, this man received the honor of being inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame (Stevenson 1). Finally, in 1994, he committed two murders. Yes, the same man that accomplished all this in his National Football League career was accused of murdering two people in 1994. The man referred to is Orenthal James Simpson, better known as O.J. On June 12, 1994, Simpson’s former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a friend named Ronald Goldman were found murdered in cold blood just outside Nicole’s home. Only five days later, O.J. was named as the number one suspect in the case. For the next year and a half, the O.J. Simpson saga was the talk of almost everyone in the country. They say that you are innocent until proven guilty. Obviously, it was not proven to the jury that Simpson was guilty, because on September 3, 1995, they found him not guilty on two counts of murder (Linder 1). Even though the jury was not convinced, the fact still remains that O.J. did indeed kill Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. O.J. Simpson is guilty of murder. I still remember June 17, 1994. I turned my television on and saw a white Bronco driving down a freeway. Not thinking much of it, I changed the channel, only to find the same thing. I was witnessing, just as millions of other Americans were, the infamous O.J. Simpson White Ford Bronco chase. When O.J. Learned that he would be arrested for the double murder, he and his long-time friend, Al Cowlings, fled. During the chase, O.J. was in the back with a gun, apparently ready to take his own life. The only logical reason that he would run for the police would be because he knew that he was guilty. Police followed the Bronco seemingly for hours before they arrived at Simpson’s Rockingham residence, where he was then taken into custody. Later, a transcript of Simpson talking by car phone to detective Tom Lange during the Bronco chase was released (Gleick 45). During the conversation, Lange pleaded with Simpson to get rid of the gun, to think of his children, and to go back to his Rockingham home. But, during the entire conversation, at no point did O.J. claim his innocence or expres fear that the police were framing him for a crime he did not commit (Gleick 45). This is not te only evidence that points toward O.J. Simpson. For example, when O.J. was called in Chicago to be informed of his ex-wife’s death, his reply was, “Nicole’s been murdered?” (World Press Review 33). O.J. has two ex-wives. How did he know they were talking about Nicole? And why did he ask if she had been murdered? He was only informed that she was dead, not murdered. She could have been dead from a car crash, a heart attack, of numerous other things. Another key piece of evidence is a pair of gloves that were found, one at the murder scene and one in Simpson’s driveway. While it has been widely speculated that the glove was planted on O.J.’s property in an attempt to frame him, the fact still remains that he did, in fact, own a pair of gloves exactly like the ones in question (Linder 1). The gloves, which were Aris Light gloves, were bought by Nicole a few years earlier for O.J.

On the other hand, there are those people that argue that O.J. Simpson was at home preparing to leave for Chicago during the time of the murders. This, however, is not true. The double murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman is believed to have taken place at 10:30 (Trilling 21). Between 10:22 and 10:30, Allan Park arrived to O.J.’s Rockingham home driving the limousine that is scheduled to take him to the airport. Park does not see the Bronco at the residence. Park buzzes Simpson’s intercom three times between 1);40 and 10:49, but never gets a response. O.J. Simpson was not at his home. That is why Allan Park did not see his Bronco, and that is also why O.J. never answered the intercom. There is also further evidence that Simpson was at the murder scene. Shoe prints found at the scene were from a size 12 Bruno Magli shoe (Linder 1). Bloody shoe impressions on the carpet of the Bronco matched a Magli shoe. Previous photographs of Simpson showed him wearing a pair of Bruno Magli shoes. O.J. Simpson wears a size 12, just as the shoe prints at the crime scene were. Also, many people believe that the jury made the correct choice in finding Simpson not guilty. Many of them do not necessarily agree that he is innocent, but they do not think that the prosecution presented sufficient evidence to prove otherwise. They are also incorrect. The prosecution presented plenty of evidence to convict O.J. Simpson, but their decison was altered by defense attorney, Johnnie Cochran, when he played the “race card.” The detective who did most of the police work, Mark Fuhrman, proved to be both a racist and a perjurer (World Press Review 33). It was believed that he attempted to frame Simpson. Also, of the twelve jurors, nine were black, two were white, and one was Hispanic (Loury 13). These factors, along with the speed of the verdict, suggested that the case had been decided more on the basis of race than on testimony. Other evidence that clearly points the finger at O.J. is blood found at the murder scene, inside his Bronco, and inside his home. Blood matching that of O.J. Simpson was found at the scene. Only 0.5% of the population would match this blood (Stuttaford 75). The day after the murders, Simpson had fresh cuts on his left hand. There was blood found in the Bronco’s floorboard and on the steering wheel. Of the blood in the Bronco, some was found to match the blood of Goldman, and some matched Nicole. Inside Simpson’s home, blood was found in the master bedroom. A pair of socks that were covered in blood were also found. Blood on the socks matched that of both Goldman and Nicole as well. The evidence presented here clearly shows that Orenthal James Simpson is, indeed, guilty of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Since the trial, Simpson has devoted no effort to finding the “real” killer, probably because he knows it would be a waste of time. No evidence has even surfaced that would suggest someone other than Simpson committed this crime. To state it clearly and in the simplest terms, Orenthal James “O.J.” Simpson got a way with murder