SANTA MONICA, Calif. - In his last closing arguments, O.J. Simpson's lawyer asked jurors yesterday to conclude that crooked police planted a bloody glove at Simpson's mansion and dribbled damning blood evidence from Simpson and two murder victims on the defendant's socks and his car, and at the murder scene.
This, said attorney Robert Baker, was part of an elaborate conspiracy to frame the only suspect police ever had in the brutal slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
"You can render a verdict, like was done before, and give him his life back, and give Justin and Sydney their dad back," Baker said as the Simpson team concluded its defense.
Ten minutes later, attorneys for the plaintiffs made their final rebuttal arguments in the civil lawsuit, heaping scorn on the Simpson defense lawyers and describing their theories of police corruption as "sheer fantasy."
John Kelly mocked, often bitterly, the Simpson defense's assertion that more than 30 photographs, showing Simpson wearing the same kind of shoes that experts say left bloody prints at the murder scene, were forgeries.
In closing arguments last week, Simpson lawyer Daniel Leonard asked jurors whether the new photographs of the shoes appeared "too late" in the trial and "cost too much."
Kelly retorted yesterday: The photographs "came in the nick of time and their value is priceless."
Simpson was acquitted of the murders in October 1995; the families of the victims are seeking unspecified damages in the civil case. If the jurors find Simpson responsible for the deaths, they will return to the courtroom to hear evidence about damages, which could run into millions of dollars.
The defense yesterday seemed to lay the groundwork for an argument about damages. Baker ridiculed the plaintiffs' contention that Goldman, a waiter, would now be running his own restaurant. "Ron Goldman wouldn't have a restaurant now," Baker said. "He would be lucky to have a credit card." Goldman had filed once for bankruptcy.
As for another plaintiff in the case, Goldman's mother, Sharon Rufo, Baker said: "She hasn't seen her son in 12 or 14 years."
Baker acknowledged that the death was hard on Goldman's father, Fred. "You can't give him his son back, but you can give back Mr. Simpson his life," he said.
Arguing that the police attempted to frame his client, Baker told jurors that it was former Los Angeles detective Mark Fuhrman, a convicted perjurer, who took a glove from the murder scene and dropped it behind the Simpson mansion. "That's planted evidence. There's no question about it," Baker said.
Baker pointedly asked why Fuhrman did not testify in the civil trial, drawing objections from the plaintiffs and an admonishment from Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki.
Baker said it was highly suspicious that no blood drops or insects appeared around the glove found by Fuhrman at the Simpson mansion. He suggested that Fuhrman simply took one of the gloves from the murder scene, drove it to Simpson's house and left it there.
"There was never any effort to find anyone other than O.J. Simpson as the murderer," Baker said.
Baker told jurors again that the cuts on Simpson's hands were harmless. He said Simpson was distraught after the murders and considering suicide, not flight.
Countering previous testimony that the murders took no more than a few minutes, Baker argued that they took 10 to 15 minutes of slashing, fighting and killing. He said Simpson did not have enough time to commit the murders, return home, change and go to the airport for his scheduled flight to Chicago.
AP PHOTO
O.J. Simpson reads as he arrives at Los Angeles County Superior Court, where final arguments are taking place in the wrongful-death civil case against him.