Mark Fuhrman
Encyclopedia
Mark Fuhrman is a former detective
of the Los Angeles Police Department
(LAPD), known for his part in the investigation of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson
and Ronald Goldman
and his subsequent felony
conviction for perjury
. He has subsequently written books and hosted talk radio.
and in 1970 he enlisted with the U.S. Marine Corps. He was discharged honorably during 1975, having attained the rank of sergeant
. Later that year, he joined the LAPD as a police officer and became a police detective. He served on the force for 20 years, earning more than 55 commendations before his retirement in 1995.
due to exigent circumstances -– specifically, concern that Simpson himself might have been harmed.
Soon after the preliminary hearing in the O. J. Simpson murder case
, Simpson's defense team alleged that Fuhrman planted the glove found at Simpson's Brentwood estate as part of a racially motivated effort to frame Simpson for the murders.
As part of their defense, Simpson's attorneys questioned Fuhrman about his alleged prior use of racist
terms. The prosecution tried to stop the defense from pursuing this line of questioning by arguing that it was too inflammatory and could prejudice the predominantly black jury against them. The California Evidence Code gives the trial judge the discretion to exclude evidence if its relevance to the case is substantially outweighed by the danger of undue prejudice to either the prosecution or the defense. Judge Lance Ito
initially ruled that there had to be some evidence that Fuhrman planted the glove before the defense could question Fuhrman on prior use of racial slurs, but eventually, Judge Ito changed his prior ruling and allowed the defense to cross-examine Fuhrman on the issue of his alleged racial animosity.
During cross-examination
, Fuhrman, when asked by defense attorney F. Lee Bailey whether he had used the word "nigger
", said he hadn't used the word in 10 years. The defense produced four witnesses to establish that Fuhrman had used the word "nigger" more recently, as well as an audiotape
contradicting his testimony. This testimony eventually resulted in a perjury conviction. In one 1985 recording, Fuhrman gave a taped interview to Laura Hart McKinny, a writer working on a screenplay about female police officers. In another interview, Fuhrman talked about gang members and was quoted as saying, "Yeah we work with niggers and gangs. You can take one of these niggers, drag 'em into the alley and beat the shit out of them and kick them. You can see them twitch. It really relieves your tension." He went on to say "we had them begging that they'd never be gang members again, begging us." He said that he would tell them, "You do what you're told, understand, nigger?"
Only limited excerpts of the tapes were admitted as evidence in the Simpson trial, but the content of the admitted portions were strong enough to cast doubt on Fuhrman's motives and credibility with the jury.
With the jury absent on September 6, 1995, the defense asked Fuhrman whether he had ever falsified police reports or if he had planted or manufactured evidence in the Simpson case. He invoked his Fifth Amendment
right against self-incrimination.
After the trial, there was widespread pressure on Los Angeles County district attorney
Gil Garcetti
to bring perjury charges against Fuhrman. Garcetti initially refused, saying that Fuhrman's use of racist language was "not material to the case", a major element of proving perjury. However, many members of Garcetti's office made public statements on the issue, and Garcetti, citing the high emotions in his office about the Simpson case, opted to tender the decision to prosecute to Attorney General Dan Lungren
to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
On July 5, 1996, Lungren announced that he would file perjury charges against Fuhrman and soon thereafter offered Fuhrman a plea bargain
. On October 2, Fuhrman accepted the deal and pleaded no contest
to the charges. He was sentenced to three years' probation and fined $200. As a result, Fuhrman is a convicted felon. Although he retired from the LAPD well before the plea, he is prohibited from ever serving as a police officer in most states again. He is the only person to have been convicted of criminal charges related to the Simpson case.
. During 1997, he wrote a book about the Simpson case, called Murder in Brentwood. It includes a foreword by Vincent Bugliosi
, the prosecutor of the Charles Manson
case.
In the book, Fuhrman apologized for making racist remarks, terming them "immature, irresponsible ramblings" made because of a desire to make money. He also contended that Lungren had charged him in order to garner black support for his planned campaign for governor of California
in 1998.
Despite being assured by several of his friends that Lungren's case was "flimsy at best," Fuhrman said he pleaded no contest because the odds were so greatly against him that it wasn't worth having his family being hassled by the press. Fuhrman claimed he could not afford to defend himself effectively; he already owed thousands of dollars in legal bills, and the area's Police Protective League would not help him pay them. He also claimed he could not afford living expenses for a trial that would take several months (or years, in case of an appeal
). He also said he did not think that he could get a fair trial in the racially charged climate of the time, and thought that an acquittal would cause a riot similar to the events of 1992
.
Fuhrman has said he believes that the LAPD could have arrested Simpson on the afternoon of June 13, based on the blood evidence and his apparently contradictory statements during questioning. However, he believes that senior LAPD officials didn't want to take a chance of being wrong about Simpson, and wanted to wait until the preliminary gene
tic evidence came in.
Fuhrman argues that several errors made by his LAPD colleagues permitted the defense to allege that there was suspicious police conduct at Nicole Brown Simpson's house. For instance, Fuhrman claims that the initial search warrant
submitted by one of the detectives on the case, Phillip Vannatter, was too short and didn't include enough details of the probable cause
and evidence on hand at the time. He also argues that major pieces of evidence were mishandled. Fuhrman believes that his colleagues didn't realize that their every move would be scrutinized in court due to the nature of the case.
Fuhrman also argues that the police and the prosecution made other errors that reduced the chances of a guilty verdict. For example, Mark and his partner, Brad Roberts, found a bloody fingerprint
on the north walkway gate of Nicole Brown Simpson's house. According to Fuhrman, at least some of it belonged to the suspect, as there was enough blood at the scene to suggest the suspect was bleeding. This was potentially critical evidence; Simpson claimed that he'd cut himself on the night of the murders, but hadn't been to his ex-wife's house in a week. Had the fingerprint been tied to Simpson in any fashion (i.e., if it had been Simpson's fingerprint in his blood or his fingerprint in Nicole Brown Simpson's blood) it would have been a crippling, and possibly fatal, blow to his defense. It also could have contradicted the defense's allegations that Fuhrman planted the glove, since he did not know or have reason to know that it was Simpson's blood.
However, the fingerprint was destroyed at some point, and was only mentioned superficially at trial. In fact, Fuhrman later discovered that Vanatter and his partner, Tom Lange, didn't even know the fingerprint was there because they never read Fuhrman's notes. Roberts could have offered testimony to corroborate that the fingerprint was there, but was never called to testify– something that rankled Fuhrman almost as much as the fact that Vanatter and Lange never read his notes. Fuhrman also claimed that Roberts could have corroborated many of his other observations, but Marcia Clark
didn't call him to avoid embarrassing Vanatter on the stand.
Fuhrman has said that he feels the prosecution abandoned him once the tapes were made public. He said that he pleaded the Fifth Amendment after he couldn't get the prosecution to call him to the stand for a redirect prior to the tapes being played for the jury. Once the tapes came out, Fuhrman said, he would have been nearly beyond rehabilitation.
Like many critics of the prosecution, Fuhrman felt that Judge Lance Ito
allowed the defense to control the trial. For instance, like Bugliosi, he insists that relevant case law demanded that Ito foreclose the defense from asking him about racial slurs because of the possibility of prejudice to the prosecution's case. However, Fuhrman also says that Ito should have never been assigned to the case in the first place. Ito was married to Margaret York, an LAPD captain who had worked with Fuhrman in the past, and Fuhrman felt that Ito should have been challenged by the prosecution or voluntarily recused
himself from the case on that basis.
The defense introduced what they described compelling evidence, supported by physical proof, of such a conspiracy. Some of it may be summarized as follows:
The above-listed evidence alone, the defense argued, cast strong doubt upon the value of the DNA match evidence presented by the prosecution, and strongly suggested that some degree of conspiratorial deliberateness was involved.
Further information on that and on related matters is available in this article written by a member of the defense team "PROVING THE CASE: THE SCIENCE OF DNA: DNA EVIDENCE IN THE O.J. SIMPSON TRIAL, 67 U. Colo. L. Rev. 827
William C. Thompson, Professor, Department of Criminology, Law & Society, University of California, Irvine, California"
Bugliosi said that Clark should have opposed any conspiracy assertion in her closing argument. Bugliosi also said that had there been such a conspiracy, anyone involved would have been risking both their careers and their lives. At the time, California law stated that anyone who fabricated evidence in a death penalty case could be sentenced to death themselves.
For his next book, Murder in Greenwich, he investigated the then-unsolved 1975 murder of Martha Moxley
and presented his theory that the murderer was Michael Skakel
, nephew of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Senator Robert Kennedy. Skakel was subsequently convicted of Moxley's murder in June 2002. The book was adapted for a 2002 television movie starring Christopher Meloni
as Fuhrman.
Fuhrman wrote a book on the subject of capital punishment
. He wrote a book on the medical treatment and death of Terri Schiavo
, emphasizing gaps in the medical and legal records that might allow for the possibility that Schiavo was murdered.
Fuhrman wrote a book on the John F. Kennedy assassination
. In it he advances a theory debunking the Single Bullet Theory
while still maintaining that Lee Harvey Oswald
acted alone. He claims that the Warren Commission
was forced to adopt the Single Bullet Theory for political reasons. However, he says that a dent in the chrome above the windshield of the presidential limousine used that day vindicates the story told by John Connally
that a first shot at President John F. Kennedy
did not hit him. His latest book is called The Murder Business: How the Media Turns Crime Into Entertainment and Subverts Justice.
for Fox News. He was also the host of the Mark Fuhrman Show on KGA
in Spokane
between the hours of 8am-11am Pacific. The show covered local and national topics and included guest callers. The Mark Fuhrman Show on KGA-AM was a casualty of the sale of the station by Citadel Broadcasting Corp. of Las Vegas
to Mapleton Communications, LLC of Monterey, Calif.
.
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
of the Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
(LAPD), known for his part in the investigation of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson
Nicole Brown Simpson
Nicole Brown Simpson was a former wife of professional football player O. J. Simpson.- Relationship with O. J. Simpson :...
and Ronald Goldman
Ronald Goldman
Ronald Lyle "Ron" Goldman was an American waiter and an aspiring model. He was murdered along with Nicole Brown Simpson, former wife of O. J. Simpson, an actor and retired American football player. The subsequent criminal investigation and trial against O. J...
and his subsequent felony
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
conviction for perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
. He has subsequently written books and hosted talk radio.
Biography
Fuhrman attended Peninsula High School in Gig Harbor, WashingtonGig Harbor, Washington
Gig Harbor is the name of both a bay on Puget Sound and a city on its shore in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 7,126 at the 2010 census....
and in 1970 he enlisted with the U.S. Marine Corps. He was discharged honorably during 1975, having attained the rank of sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
. Later that year, he joined the LAPD as a police officer and became a police detective. He served on the force for 20 years, earning more than 55 commendations before his retirement in 1995.
Role in O.J. Simpson murder trial
Fuhrman stated he found a blood-stained glove at Aaron Turner's condo (the scene of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman), and also found another at Simpson's home. He also claimed to have seen a number of blood drops at Simpson's home. He entered Simpson's estate without a search warrantSearch warrant
A search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....
due to exigent circumstances -– specifically, concern that Simpson himself might have been harmed.
Soon after the preliminary hearing in the O. J. Simpson murder case
O. J. Simpson murder case
The O. J. Simpson murder case was a criminal trial held in Los Angeles County, California Superior Court from January 29 to October 3, 1995. Former American football star and actor O. J...
, Simpson's defense team alleged that Fuhrman planted the glove found at Simpson's Brentwood estate as part of a racially motivated effort to frame Simpson for the murders.
As part of their defense, Simpson's attorneys questioned Fuhrman about his alleged prior use of racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
terms. The prosecution tried to stop the defense from pursuing this line of questioning by arguing that it was too inflammatory and could prejudice the predominantly black jury against them. The California Evidence Code gives the trial judge the discretion to exclude evidence if its relevance to the case is substantially outweighed by the danger of undue prejudice to either the prosecution or the defense. Judge Lance Ito
Lance Ito
Lance Allan Ito is an American Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, best known for his presiding decision during the O. J. Simpson murder trial. He currently hears felony criminal cases at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.-Early life and career:Ito was born to Jim and Toshi Ito...
initially ruled that there had to be some evidence that Fuhrman planted the glove before the defense could question Fuhrman on prior use of racial slurs, but eventually, Judge Ito changed his prior ruling and allowed the defense to cross-examine Fuhrman on the issue of his alleged racial animosity.
During cross-examination
Cross-examination
In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness called by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination and may be followed by a redirect .- Variations by Jurisdiction :In...
, Fuhrman, when asked by defense attorney F. Lee Bailey whether he had used the word "nigger
Nigger
Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
", said he hadn't used the word in 10 years. The defense produced four witnesses to establish that Fuhrman had used the word "nigger" more recently, as well as an audiotape
Fuhrman tapes
The Fuhrman tapes are 13 hours of taped interviews given by Los Angeles police officer Mark Fuhrman to writer Laura McKinny between 1985 and 1994. The tapes include many racist slurs and remarks made by Fuhrman, and portions of the tapes were admitted into evidence during the O. J...
contradicting his testimony. This testimony eventually resulted in a perjury conviction. In one 1985 recording, Fuhrman gave a taped interview to Laura Hart McKinny, a writer working on a screenplay about female police officers. In another interview, Fuhrman talked about gang members and was quoted as saying, "Yeah we work with niggers and gangs. You can take one of these niggers, drag 'em into the alley and beat the shit out of them and kick them. You can see them twitch. It really relieves your tension." He went on to say "we had them begging that they'd never be gang members again, begging us." He said that he would tell them, "You do what you're told, understand, nigger?"
Only limited excerpts of the tapes were admitted as evidence in the Simpson trial, but the content of the admitted portions were strong enough to cast doubt on Fuhrman's motives and credibility with the jury.
With the jury absent on September 6, 1995, the defense asked Fuhrman whether he had ever falsified police reports or if he had planted or manufactured evidence in the Simpson case. He invoked his Fifth Amendment
Taking the Fifth
The Self-Incrimination Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "no person . . . shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself."...
right against self-incrimination.
After the trial, there was widespread pressure on Los Angeles County district attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
Gil Garcetti
Gil Garcetti
Gilbert Salvadore Iberri "Gil" Garcetti is an American politician. He served as Los Angeles County's 40th District Attorney for two terms, from 1992 until November 7, 2000.-Background:...
to bring perjury charges against Fuhrman. Garcetti initially refused, saying that Fuhrman's use of racist language was "not material to the case", a major element of proving perjury. However, many members of Garcetti's office made public statements on the issue, and Garcetti, citing the high emotions in his office about the Simpson case, opted to tender the decision to prosecute to Attorney General Dan Lungren
Dan Lungren
Daniel Edward "Dan" Lungren is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. The district covers most of Sacramento County and part of Solano County, as well as all of Alpine, Amador and Calaveras counties...
to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
On July 5, 1996, Lungren announced that he would file perjury charges against Fuhrman and soon thereafter offered Fuhrman a plea bargain
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
. On October 2, Fuhrman accepted the deal and pleaded no contest
Nolo contendere
is a legal term that comes from the Latin for "I do not wish to contend." It is also referred to as a plea of no contest.In criminal trials, and in some common law jurisdictions, it is a plea where the defendant neither admits nor disputes a charge, serving as an alternative to a pleading of...
to the charges. He was sentenced to three years' probation and fined $200. As a result, Fuhrman is a convicted felon. Although he retired from the LAPD well before the plea, he is prohibited from ever serving as a police officer in most states again. He is the only person to have been convicted of criminal charges related to the Simpson case.
Murder in Brentwood
After the trial, Fuhrman retired to Sandpoint, IdahoSandpoint, Idaho
Sandpoint is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Bonner County, Idaho, United States. Its population was 7,365 at the 2010 census.Sandpoint's major economic contributors include forest products and light manufacturing, tourism and recreation and government services...
. During 1997, he wrote a book about the Simpson case, called Murder in Brentwood. It includes a foreword by Vincent Bugliosi
Vincent Bugliosi
Vincent Bugliosi is an American attorney and author, best known for prosecuting Charles Manson and other defendants accused of the Tate-LaBianca murders. His most recent books are Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy , The Prosecution of George W...
, the prosecutor of the Charles Manson
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
case.
In the book, Fuhrman apologized for making racist remarks, terming them "immature, irresponsible ramblings" made because of a desire to make money. He also contended that Lungren had charged him in order to garner black support for his planned campaign for governor of California
Governor of California
The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...
in 1998.
Despite being assured by several of his friends that Lungren's case was "flimsy at best," Fuhrman said he pleaded no contest because the odds were so greatly against him that it wasn't worth having his family being hassled by the press. Fuhrman claimed he could not afford to defend himself effectively; he already owed thousands of dollars in legal bills, and the area's Police Protective League would not help him pay them. He also claimed he could not afford living expenses for a trial that would take several months (or years, in case of an appeal
Appeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....
). He also said he did not think that he could get a fair trial in the racially charged climate of the time, and thought that an acquittal would cause a riot similar to the events of 1992
1992 Los Angeles riots
The 1992 Los Angeles Riots or South Central Riots, also known as the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest were sparked on April 29, 1992, when a jury acquitted three white and one hispanic Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King following a...
.
Fuhrman has said he believes that the LAPD could have arrested Simpson on the afternoon of June 13, based on the blood evidence and his apparently contradictory statements during questioning. However, he believes that senior LAPD officials didn't want to take a chance of being wrong about Simpson, and wanted to wait until the preliminary gene
Gene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
tic evidence came in.
Fuhrman argues that several errors made by his LAPD colleagues permitted the defense to allege that there was suspicious police conduct at Nicole Brown Simpson's house. For instance, Fuhrman claims that the initial search warrant
Search warrant
A search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....
submitted by one of the detectives on the case, Phillip Vannatter, was too short and didn't include enough details of the probable cause
Probable cause
In United States criminal law, probable cause is the standard by which an officer or agent of the law has the grounds to make an arrest, to conduct a personal or property search, or to obtain a warrant for arrest, etc. when criminal charges are being considered. It is also used to refer to the...
and evidence on hand at the time. He also argues that major pieces of evidence were mishandled. Fuhrman believes that his colleagues didn't realize that their every move would be scrutinized in court due to the nature of the case.
Fuhrman also argues that the police and the prosecution made other errors that reduced the chances of a guilty verdict. For example, Mark and his partner, Brad Roberts, found a bloody fingerprint
Fingerprint
A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
on the north walkway gate of Nicole Brown Simpson's house. According to Fuhrman, at least some of it belonged to the suspect, as there was enough blood at the scene to suggest the suspect was bleeding. This was potentially critical evidence; Simpson claimed that he'd cut himself on the night of the murders, but hadn't been to his ex-wife's house in a week. Had the fingerprint been tied to Simpson in any fashion (i.e., if it had been Simpson's fingerprint in his blood or his fingerprint in Nicole Brown Simpson's blood) it would have been a crippling, and possibly fatal, blow to his defense. It also could have contradicted the defense's allegations that Fuhrman planted the glove, since he did not know or have reason to know that it was Simpson's blood.
However, the fingerprint was destroyed at some point, and was only mentioned superficially at trial. In fact, Fuhrman later discovered that Vanatter and his partner, Tom Lange, didn't even know the fingerprint was there because they never read Fuhrman's notes. Roberts could have offered testimony to corroborate that the fingerprint was there, but was never called to testify– something that rankled Fuhrman almost as much as the fact that Vanatter and Lange never read his notes. Fuhrman also claimed that Roberts could have corroborated many of his other observations, but Marcia Clark
Marcia Clark
Marcia Rachel Clark is an American prosecutor, author, and television correspondent who gained fame as the head prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson murder case.-Early life:...
didn't call him to avoid embarrassing Vanatter on the stand.
Fuhrman has said that he feels the prosecution abandoned him once the tapes were made public. He said that he pleaded the Fifth Amendment after he couldn't get the prosecution to call him to the stand for a redirect prior to the tapes being played for the jury. Once the tapes came out, Fuhrman said, he would have been nearly beyond rehabilitation.
Like many critics of the prosecution, Fuhrman felt that Judge Lance Ito
Lance Ito
Lance Allan Ito is an American Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, best known for his presiding decision during the O. J. Simpson murder trial. He currently hears felony criminal cases at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.-Early life and career:Ito was born to Jim and Toshi Ito...
allowed the defense to control the trial. For instance, like Bugliosi, he insists that relevant case law demanded that Ito foreclose the defense from asking him about racial slurs because of the possibility of prejudice to the prosecution's case. However, Fuhrman also says that Ito should have never been assigned to the case in the first place. Ito was married to Margaret York, an LAPD captain who had worked with Fuhrman in the past, and Fuhrman felt that Ito should have been challenged by the prosecution or voluntarily recused
Recusal
Judicial disqualification, also referred to as recusal, refers to the act of abstaining from participation in an official action such as a legal proceeding due to a conflict of interest of the presiding court official or administrative officer. Applicable statutes or canons of ethics may provide...
himself from the case on that basis.
Bugliosi and 'Outrage'
In his own book on the Simpson murder case, Outrage, Bugliosi argued that in order to prove Fuhrman had planted the glove, the defense would have had to prove that there was a far-reaching criminal conspiracy between Fuhrman and other officers.The defense introduced what they described compelling evidence, supported by physical proof, of such a conspiracy. Some of it may be summarized as follows:
- establishment of the presence of EDTAEDTAEthylenediaminetetraacetic acid, widely abbreviated as EDTA , is a polyamino carboxylic acid and a colourless, water-soluble solid. Its conjugate base is named ethylenediaminetetraacetate. It is widely used to dissolve limescale. Its usefulness arises because of its role as a hexadentate ligand...
, a preservative, in parts per thousand amounts, in all the blood drops collected from the primary crime location that were later established by DNA typing to be from Simpson. Presence of EDTA in parts per thousand amounts is consistent with amounts that would have been introduced to blood drawn for DNA comparison purposes from Simpson. The blood was drawn into a tube. The tube was then sealed by pressing a cap onto it that contained EDTA inside. That released the EDTA and the tube was then shaken to distribute the EDTA throughout the blood. Normal human blood contains EDTA in no more than parts per million amounts. - establishment of the fact that a police evidence technician had carried the sample to the crime scene.
- establishment of the fact there was blood missing from the tube, in an amount greater than that of the entirety of the blood presented by the prosecution as inculpatory of Simpson.
The above-listed evidence alone, the defense argued, cast strong doubt upon the value of the DNA match evidence presented by the prosecution, and strongly suggested that some degree of conspiratorial deliberateness was involved.
Further information on that and on related matters is available in this article written by a member of the defense team "PROVING THE CASE: THE SCIENCE OF DNA: DNA EVIDENCE IN THE O.J. SIMPSON TRIAL, 67 U. Colo. L. Rev. 827
William C. Thompson, Professor, Department of Criminology, Law & Society, University of California, Irvine, California"
Bugliosi said that Clark should have opposed any conspiracy assertion in her closing argument. Bugliosi also said that had there been such a conspiracy, anyone involved would have been risking both their careers and their lives. At the time, California law stated that anyone who fabricated evidence in a death penalty case could be sentenced to death themselves.
Other books
Martha Moxley
Martha Elizabeth Moxley was a 15-year-old murder victim in a case that attracted worldwide publicity owing to a "Kennedy connection"....
and presented his theory that the murderer was Michael Skakel
Michael Skakel
Michael C. Skakel was convicted in 2002 of the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley, his 15-year-old neighbor in Greenwich, Connecticut. He was sentenced to 20 years to life and remains incarcerated. Skakel is the nephew of Ethel Skakel Kennedy, the widow of Senator Robert F...
, nephew of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Senator Robert Kennedy. Skakel was subsequently convicted of Moxley's murder in June 2002. The book was adapted for a 2002 television movie starring Christopher Meloni
Christopher Meloni
Christopher Peter Meloni is an American actor. He is best known for his television roles as NYPD Detective Elliot Stabler on the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and as inmate Chris Keller on the HBO prison drama Oz.-Early life:Meloni was born the youngest of three children in...
as Fuhrman.
Fuhrman wrote a book on the subject of capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
. He wrote a book on the medical treatment and death of Terri Schiavo
Terri Schiavo
The Terri Schiavo case was a legal battle in the United States between the legal guardians and the parents of Teresa Marie "Terri" Schiavo that lasted from 1998 to 2005...
, emphasizing gaps in the medical and legal records that might allow for the possibility that Schiavo was murdered.
Fuhrman wrote a book on the John F. Kennedy assassination
John F. Kennedy assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
. In it he advances a theory debunking the Single Bullet Theory
Single bullet theory
The single bullet theory was introduced by the Warren Commission in its investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to explain what happened to the bullet which struck Kennedy in the back and exited through his throat...
while still maintaining that Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
acted alone. He claims that the Warren Commission
Warren Commission
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 27, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963...
was forced to adopt the Single Bullet Theory for political reasons. However, he says that a dent in the chrome above the windshield of the presidential limousine used that day vindicates the story told by John Connally
John Connally
John Bowden Connally, Jr. , was an influential American politician, serving as the 39th governor of Texas, Secretary of the Navy under President John F. Kennedy, and as Secretary of the Treasury under President Richard M. Nixon. While he was Governor in 1963, Connally was a passenger in the car in...
that a first shot at President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
did not hit him. His latest book is called The Murder Business: How the Media Turns Crime Into Entertainment and Subverts Justice.
Radio commentary
Fuhrman is a frequent guest of commentator Sean HannitySean Hannity
Sean Hannity is an American radio and television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Hannity also hosts a cable news show, Hannity,...
for Fox News. He was also the host of the Mark Fuhrman Show on KGA
KGA
KGA is a sports radio station based in Spokane, Washington.-History:Licensed on February 4, 1927, KGA was a successful country music outlet for most of its life until 1994, when it switched to a news/talk format. KGA's former owners also established a short lived, lower powered Country Music...
in Spokane
Spokane
Spokane is a city in the U.S. state of Washington.Spokane may also refer to:*Spokane *Spokane River*Spokane, Missouri*Spokane Valley, Washington*Spokane County, Washington*Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War*Spokane * USS Spokane...
between the hours of 8am-11am Pacific. The show covered local and national topics and included guest callers. The Mark Fuhrman Show on KGA-AM was a casualty of the sale of the station by Citadel Broadcasting Corp. of Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
to Mapleton Communications, LLC of Monterey, Calif.
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
.
Books
- Murder in Brentwood (February 1, 1997), ISBN
- Murder in Greenwich: Who Killed Martha Moxley? (June 1, 1998), ISBN 0-06-019141-4
- Murder in Spokane: Catching a Serial Killer (May 22, 2001), ISBN 0-06-019437-5
- Death and JusticeDeath and JusticeMark Fuhrman's fourth book, Death and Justice: An expose of Oklahoma's death row machine, was published in 2003 by Harper Collins . Fuhrman is a retired LAPD detective most notoriously known for his role in the OJ Simpson murder trial. Subsequent to that trial Fuhrman was convicted of perjury and...
: An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine (September 2, 2003), ISBN 0-06-000917-9 - Silent Witness: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo's Death (July 1, 2005), ISBN 0-06-085337-9
- A Simple Act of Murder: November 22, 1963 (May 2, 2006), ISBN 0-06-072154-5