
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 1, 1995                   TAG: 9509010079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

JURY WILL HEAR JUST 2 RACIAL SLURS

In a major blow to O.J. Simpson's defense in the final days of its case, Judge Lance Ito ruled Thursday that jurors can hear just two of 41 instances in which Detective Mark Fuhrman uses a racial epithet for blacks.

Superior Court Judge Ito ruled the defense can play two excerpts for jurors in which Fuhrman says the word ``nigger.'' Fuhrman testified earlier at Simpson's murder trial that he hadn't used the word in the past decade. The tapes were made from 1985 to 1994.

But the judge barred the defense from offering any statements Fuhrman made about police misconduct, mostly on grounds the statements are too inflammatory and the defense had failed to prove the incidents actually happened.

Ito also refused to let the defense play statements in which Fuhrman describes himself as a ``key witness in the biggest case of the century'' or in which he uses an expletive to refer to defense attorney Robert Shapiro.

Ito ruled that North Carolina screenwriting professor Laura Hart McKinny, who recorded the tapes for a screenplay project, can testify that Fuhrman used the word ``nigger'' in a disparaging manner 41 times during the interviews.

But he said only two excerpts from the tapes can be played for the jurors. In one of them, Fuhrman says, ``We have no niggers where I grew up.''

In the second, McKinny asks: ``Why do they live in that area?'' Fuhrman responds: ``That's where niggers live.''

Ito rejected the 39 other examples offered by the defense.

``The court finds the probative value of the remaining examples to be substantially and overwhelmingly outweighed by the danger of undue prejudice,'' Ito said.

In explaining his ruling, the judge said the jury should hear evidence that relates to Fuhrman's credibility as a witness.

``Just as a defendant with prior felony convictions testifying before a jury is not entitled to a false aura of credibility, neither is Fuhrman,'' Ito wrote in a 10-page ruling.

A Fuhrman spokesman has said he exaggerated his comments to make a better story for the screenplay and that he suffered a ``mental block'' when he denied using the epithet.

In many instances, the judge declared that Fuhrman's statements were irrelevant, would be a waste of time or were so inflammatory that the jury could be blinded by emotion.

The trial has been at a virtual standstill while lawyers awaited the judge's ruling.

by CNB