Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 16, 1995 TAG: 9506160069
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
The demonstration provided perhaps the most dramatic moment in Simpson's trial and appeared to backfire on the prosecutor who requested it.
Simpson grimaced and raised his eyebrows as he tried to pull the distinctive Aris Leather Light gloves over a pair of latex gloves he had to wear to protect the evidence. Even the stretchy latex gloves seemed to give the former football star problems.
Deputy District Attorney Christopher Darden tried to suggest to jurors that Simpson, an actor, was faking his struggle. Once Simpson had the gloves on as far as they could go, the prosecutor asked that he grip an object, a marking pen, to show he could bend his hand.
Simpson obliged over objections from defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, grasping the marker in his right fist and holding it up for jurors. That glove is stained with blood that matches his, his ex-wife's and her friend's, prosecution experts have testified.
Prosecutors tried to show that Nicole Brown Simpson unwittingly outfitted her ex-husband for her own murder by purchasing the gloves on a visit to New York.
When Darden won permission for Simpson to try on the gloves, jurors leaned forward as Simpson approached. They followed his hands with their eyes, and one juror appeared to breathe harder. When Simpson turned to return to his seat, several panelists began writing in their notebooks.
On his way across the courtroom, Simpson handed the leather gloves to Darden and shrugged to his sisters in the audience. They exchanged smiles.
He then peeled off the latex gloves with snaps that resounded in the quiet courtroom, waddem them up and tossed them on the table.
Loyola University law Professor Laurie Levenson said it was ``the worst night the prosecution has had in a long time. It should have been a golden moment and it backfired.''
She said the prosecution broke a cardinal rule of courtroom law: ``Don't do a demonstration in front of the jury unless you know how it's going to turn out.''
Cochran challenged identification of the bloody gloves by a Bloomingdale's buyer, suggesting that a credit-card receipt Nicole Simpson signed Dec. 18, 1990, had nothing to do with the gloves in evidence.
Brenda Vemich testified that the gloves placed before her on the witness stand were Aris Leather Lights and designed exclusively for the department store. Vemich said that of the overall purchase 12,000 pairs of Leather Lights from Aris Isotoner, 300 were brown, size extra-large. Of those, she estimated 200 likely were sold.
by CNB