The evidence in the O.J. Simpson case included DNA from five separate locations tying Simpson to the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, a pair of matching leather gloves connecting the Bundy Drive crime scene to Simpson’s Rockingham estate, rare Italian shoe prints in size 12, blood inside his Ford Bronco, an unaccounted 80-minute gap on the night of June 12, 1994, and a documented history of domestic violence. Prosecutors called it a “mountain of evidence.” The jury acquitted Simpson on October 3, 1995, after less than four hours of deliberation, persuaded by the defense that police mishandling and possible misconduct had corrupted the collection at its source.
DNA at Bundy, Rockingham, and Inside the Bronco
Blood drops at the Bundy Drive crime scene formed a trail running to the left of the killer’s bloody footprints. Investigators collected at least five drops along the walkway and tested them using two techniques: Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism, which needs a larger sample but yields highly precise results, and Polymerase Chain Reaction, which amplifies smaller or degraded samples. Multiple drops matched Simpson’s DNA profile through both methods. Three separate blood samples from the rear gate at the Bundy property also matched Simpson. Blood on Ronald Goldman’s boot contained a mixture consistent with both Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.
The trail continued at Simpson’s home. Blood droplets ran along the Rockingham driveway from where his vehicle was parked to the front door, and those samples matched his DNA. In the master bedroom, a pair of dark blue dress socks lay on the carpet at the foot of the bed. Laboratory testing found blood on the socks matching both O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson. Her blood inside his bedroom was, for prosecutors, the single piece of evidence hardest to explain innocently.
Simpson’s white Ford Bronco, owned by Hertz for whom he served as a spokesperson, held blood on the driver’s side door handle, the steering wheel, the instrument panel, and the center console. DNA testing on the console smear revealed a mixture consistent with Simpson, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman. The pattern on high-touch surfaces was consistent with someone driving while bleeding from an active wound. When police interviewed Simpson the day after the murders, he had a deep cut on his left middle finger, and the Bundy blood drops trailed to the left of the shoe prints, consistent with a killer bleeding from the left hand.
The Two Gloves
A left-hand leather glove was found near the victims’ bodies at Bundy. Its right-hand match was recovered behind the guest house at Rockingham, along the narrow pathway where houseguest Kato Kaelin had heard loud thumps against the wall shortly before Simpson was seen re-entering his home. Both were identified through trial testimony by former Aris Isotoner executive Richard Rubin as style 70263, an “Aris Lights” glove made with leather roughly 30 percent lighter than standard men’s weight.1Famous Trials. Testimony of Richard Rubin Both were extra-large. Forensic examination of the Rockingham glove found blood consistent with both victims and Simpson, along with hair and fiber evidence. A dark knit cap at the Bundy scene contained hairs consistent with Simpson’s, and additional matching hairs were found on Goldman’s shirt.
“If It Doesn’t Fit, You Must Acquit”
On June 15, 1995, prosecutor Christopher Darden asked Simpson to try on the bloody gloves in front of the jury. Simpson pulled latex gloves on first to avoid contaminating the evidence, then appeared to struggle as he tugged the leather over his hands. He held up his fingers, grimaced, and said, “Too tight.” Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran turned that moment into the trial’s refrain: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
Prosecutors argued the gloves had shrunk after being soaked in blood and repeatedly handled during laboratory testing. Darden later wrote in his memoir that he should have accounted for shrinkage. Whatever the scientific explanation, the demonstration shifted momentum toward the defense.
The Bruno Magli Shoe Prints
FBI footwear expert William Bodziak identified the bloody footprints at Bundy as Bruno Magli shoes in the Lorenzo style, a rare Italian-made model with a distinctive Silga sole pattern. The prints were size 12, matching Simpson’s shoe size.2Famous Trials. The Trial of O.J. Simpson: The Incriminating Evidence Only about 200 pairs of size 12 Bruno Magli Lorenzos had been imported into the United States. The trail led away from the victims toward the rear alley.
During the criminal trial Simpson denied ever owning Bruno Maglis, calling them “ugly.” That denial became a problem in the civil case. Plaintiffs produced photographs taken by freelance photographer Harry Scull Jr. at a Buffalo Bills game on September 26, 1993, nine months before the murders, showing Simpson wearing what shoe experts identified as Bruno Maglis. A second photographer, E.J. Flammer, produced additional photos from the same game. Simpson called the Scull photograph “a fraud,” but plaintiffs showed copies had been distributed to media outlets long before anyone knew the shoes would matter.
The 80-Minute Gap
The victims were last seen alive around 9:45 p.m. on June 12, 1994. Limousine driver Allan Park, hired to take Simpson to the airport for a Chicago flight, testified he arrived at Rockingham at approximately 10:22 p.m. and parked on the street.3Famous Trials. Testimony of Allan Park He drove to the Ashford gate at 10:40 and buzzed the intercom repeatedly. No answer. He called his boss at 10:43, his mother at 10:46, his boss again at 10:49 and 10:52. Still nothing from the house.
At roughly 10:55, Park saw a tall figure in dark clothing, about six feet and 200 pounds, cross the driveway and enter the front of the house. Within seconds, Simpson answered the intercom and said he had overslept and just gotten out of the shower. They left for the airport at approximately 11:15. The prosecution argued the roughly 80-minute window between 9:35 and 10:55, when no one could reach Simpson and he was not seen at home, was enough to drive to Bundy, commit the murders, and return.
Kato Kaelin corroborated the return. He told the jury he heard three loud thumps against the wall of the guest house at approximately 10:40 to 10:45, strong enough to shake a picture on the wall.4Famous Trials. Testimony of Brian “Kato” Kaelin The right-hand glove was found on the narrow pathway directly behind that wall.
A Documented History of Domestic Violence
Prosecutors used prior violence to establish motive. On January 1, 1989, police responded to Rockingham and found Nicole Brown Simpson running from bushes, bruised and scratched, shouting that Simpson was going to kill her. Simpson pleaded no contest to spousal battery and was sentenced to 120 hours of community service, two years of probation, and a $200 fine.
On October 25, 1993, Nicole made two 911 calls from her townhouse reporting that Simpson was at her door, that she was frightened, and that he had a history of violence toward her. The calls were played for the jury. Prosecutors also introduced Nicole’s personal writings describing ongoing abuse, and letters from Simpson expressing regret for past behavior. The material came in not as direct proof of the murders but to show a pattern of escalating conflict.
How the Defense Attacked the Evidence
The defense did not seriously argue Simpson was somewhere else that night. It went after the reliability of the evidence itself. Johnnie Cochran, DNA specialist Barry Scheck, and the rest of the team argued the evidence had been “compromised, contaminated, corrupted,” and that if police misconduct tainted any of it, the jury should distrust all of it.
Detective Mark Fuhrman
Detective Mark Fuhrman was the officer who found the right-hand glove behind the Rockingham guest house. The defense alleged he had planted it. The theory gained force when audio recordings surfaced in which Fuhrman used racial slurs repeatedly, contradicting his earlier testimony that he had not used such language in the prior ten years. Recalled to the stand, Fuhrman invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to every question, including whether he had planted or manufactured any evidence.5Famous Trials. Testimony of Detective Mark Fuhrman The jury never heard him deny the planting allegation under oath.
Chain of Custody
Barry Scheck’s cross-examination of LAPD criminalist Dennis Fung stretched over eight days and exposed procedural failures. Fung admitted he had not always worn rubber gloves when handling evidence and that a dog at the crime scene had been allowed near blood stains before collection. Detective Tom Vannatter personally transported a vial of Simpson’s reference blood from the collection site back to the Rockingham estate rather than booking it immediately into evidence, a departure from standard protocol. The evidence envelope was not properly sealed, and a pre-printed date on the envelope predated the actual blood draw. Under California law these problems went to weight rather than admissibility, but in a case that depended on public trust in the police, they gave the defense a concrete story of institutional sloppiness shading into potential misconduct.
The EDTA Argument
The defense’s most technical claim was that blood on the bedroom socks and the Bundy back gate had been brushed on from police reference vials. Those vials contain the preservative EDTA. If EDTA appeared in crime scene stains at levels above what occurs naturally in blood, it would suggest a vial source.
Defense toxicologist Fredric Rieders testified the levels on the socks and back gate were “higher than that which is normally found in blood.” On cross-examination he admitted a “typo” in his reading of a key EPA study and conceded the levels were actually consistent with unpreserved blood. He also acknowledged that EDTA is a common food additive. FBI agent Roger Martz tested his own unpreserved blood and found EDTA levels matching the evidence samples. The claim did not hold up scientifically, but it added another thread to the contamination narrative.
The Criminal Verdict
The trial ran nearly nine months. The jury deliberated for under four hours on October 2, 1995, and delivered its verdict the following morning: not guilty on both counts of murder under California Penal Code Section 187.6California Legislative Information. California Code – Penal Code 187 – Murder Jurors later indicated that doubts about police conduct and evidence handling, driven by the Fuhrman tapes and the chain of custody problems, outweighed the DNA results in their assessment. The prosecution’s burden was proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and the defense had created enough doubt to clear that bar.
The Civil Trial and a Different Outcome
The families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman filed a wrongful death lawsuit. In February 1997, a civil jury found Simpson liable for both deaths and awarded $8.5 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages. The standard of proof was preponderance of the evidence, roughly more likely than not, rather than beyond a reasonable doubt.
Other conditions changed too. Simpson was required to testify and was cross-examined at length, something the Fifth Amendment had spared him from in the criminal trial. The Bruno Magli photographs from the 1993 Buffalo Bills game came in, directly contradicting his sworn denial that he had ever owned the shoes. The case was tried before a different jury in a different courthouse, without the Fuhrman tapes and the racial dynamics that had pervaded the criminal proceedings. The civil verdict carried no criminal penalty and no jail time, but it produced the finding of responsibility the criminal jury had declined to reach.