The People V. . . . The Glove Demonstration

Let me begin by offering a disclaimer and an observation on memory.

My disclaimer is that I read the books about OJ's case ten years ago.  While I have scanned most of and read a little of KILLING TIME since watching the AMERICAN CRIME STORY series, I have largely gone on the basis of memory and lack thereof in my preparing this blog.  I have already stated that my focus was on evidence and timelines in order to sort out this particular crime and paid little attention to the dynamics that have largely occupied the writers of this series.  The writers have played up or even made up elements for the story to make it more interesting.  But I have usually had no recollection about just how far the writers wandered from what actually happened in and around the trial.

My observation on memory is that I discovered in reviewing the details that my memory has been a little off.  I used to think there were four different knife shapes involved in the autopsies.  But in studying them for the blog a couple weeks ago, I saw there were only three different shaped blades identified by Dr. Golden.  I must then point out that this kind of slight discrepancy happens all the time, and not just with me.  The two main books covering the narrative of the whole event, Jeffery Toobin's THE RUN OF HIS LIFE and Lawrence Schiller's AMERICAN TRAGEDY that I now have in my personal library are second editions and are actually different than the first editions I read ten years ago.  So details that may not have been in the earlier editions have slipped into the second.  Which details differ is hard to know because I do not have either first edition available as I write this.  Let me just say that because memories change over time for a wide range of reasons, we run into some questions that are hard to clear up.

I bring up the disclaimer and observation because the trailer for Episode Eight indicated there would be a lot about the "jury rebellion" that occurred not long after the glove demonstration.  I remembered so little about that I decided to read Toobin's take on the jury's behavior and how suddenly several members were removed.  I happened upon his telling of the glove demonstration.  He seemed to be remembering things I did not recall seeing in his first edition, mainly about the latex gloves OJ wore when he put on the bloody gloves in the court room.

In the second edition, he said he saw that the latex gloves themselves were not all the way on and that OJ ignored Chris Darden's request that he straighten his fingers in order to get the gloves on properly.

There are two reasons I think that Toobin may have unintentionally enhanced his memory.  One, Schiller made no such claims about the demonstration even though he, like Toobin, went from being impartial in the first edition of his book to believing OJ was guilty in the second edition.  Two, in Episodes Seven and Eight both Marcia Clark and DA Gil Garcetti responded to the demonstration that it was obvious to them the gloves did not fit.

Let me give a little more information on the gloves, based on the testimony of the executive of the glove company that made them.  The gloves were designed to fit snuggly and smoothly over the hands.  For OJ's purposes, such a glove was perfect for holding a microphone on the sidelines during TV broadcasts of football games on cold days.  

According to Toobin, all of the defense lawyers checked the gloves and tried them on one day and were convinced that they were too small to fit OJ.  They knew his hand size because when they left their visits with OJ, some put their hands on the glass window of the visitor's booth (all the visits were not in a spare room where they could be face to face) and OJ would put his hand up against theirs from the other side of the security glass.

If by chance those gloves were the ones purchased originally by Nicole at Bloomingdales in New York five years before, what other explanation could there be?  I suggest they were too small and OJ never wore them.  He could have gotten a larger size than XL that he could wear.  No one investigated that possibility but it could easily have happened.

If OJ had other gloves that were larger and did fit, how did these smaller ones get involved in the murders?  As came out in the trial, OJ's mansion had many guests and something as small as a pair of nice gloves could easily have been taken by almost anyone who came as a guest and no one would have noticed, particularly if they were unused.

Such forethought implies someone setting up OJ before the crimes.  The coincidence is too strong to be chance.  

We've already seen that the police, Fuhrman in particular, may have scrounged things like the gloves just in case.  As we'll see in one or both concluding episodes, Fuhrman could have conceived doing something like that or even actually would do it.

The other group mentioned in passing, the Colombian cartel, may already have had in the works for some weeks the prospect of a murder of Faye Resnick, the cocaine junkie who lived with Nicole at that time, or even Nicole herself.  

In the deep racist mindset of people like Fuhrman, OJ had stepped over the line by marrying a white woman.  To Fuhrman, OJ was uppity and not supposed to be rich and famous so he had to be brought down on few notches.  Gathering things that could be used as evidence in the future would be the smart thing to do.

And if you want back $25 K of cocaine that you think is stored at Bundy, you'd take advantage of gathering things that could be left at the scene if you thought you'd have any problems, things that would incriminate someone else.

Are either of these narratives more believable than the prosecution's story of an enraged 46 year old guy with bad knees who used three different knives to kill two younger and athletic people in that small space and come out with only a nick on the finger?

Reasonable doubt is what the defense needs.  When speculation provides a better explanation than the description provided by the prosecution, the jury has reasonable doubt.

On top of the demonstration that the gloves did not fit, most of the jury probably already had their minds made up.