During the investigation into the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman the investigation team had reached the conclusion that both of these murders had been committed by OJ Simpson. The investigation team concluded that OJ Simpson had gone round to the house of Nicole Brown Simpson and what they called a 'jealous rage' had killed both Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, they then concluded that he had then fled the scene and returned to his home.
The investigation team thought that their conclusion was justified due to the large amount of incriminating evidence found at both the crime scene and also OJ Simpson's home. This evidence then pointed to OJ Simpson being guilty of the murders and also allowed the investigation team to build a case against him, in order to present this case in court, to prove to the jury that OJ Simpson was guilty of the murders. With the case the investigation team where presenting they were hoping to secure a prosecution, meaning that OJ Simpson would be sentenced to prison.
As this blog has mentioned in previous sections, the evidence that was found during this investigation which was found, collected, analysed and then later presented in the court trial allowed the investigation team to conclude that OJ Simpson had committed both of the murders. The evidence that lead to this conclusion included lots of blood evidence, collected at the crime scene at OJ Simpson's house and in OJ Simpson's white Ford bronco. Other evidence also included witness testimonies and the preliminary statement that was given by OJ Simpson's limousine driver, Alan Park.
The first major pieces of evidence which allowed the investigation team to conclude that OJ Simpson was guilty of the murders came in the form of a biological piece of evidence and also a set of DNA results, the blood evidence came from the crime scene of the murders. This DNA evidence was then used by the investigation team to link OJ Simpson to the crime scene, the accuracy of the DNA test which could be seen an an extremely indication to OJ Simpson's guilt. The DNA results recorded that the blood found could only come from approximately one out of 170 million sources of blood and that the sample was a match to OJ Simpson's blood. The biological evidence of blood that was found on a pair of socks found and collected in OJ Simpson's bedroom were also DNA tested, DNA analysis indicated that the blood matched Nicole Brown Simpson and that only one out of approximately 6.8 billion sources would have been a match. As OJ Simpson's blood was found at the crime scene allowed the investigation team to also conclude that OJ Simpson must have been present at the crime scene and injured himself in order for him to bleed at the crime scene. Also the blood on OJ Simpson's socks which matched Nicole Brown Simpson's blood allowed the investigation team to conclude that he must have been the murderer, as the attacker would have gotten covered in blood, meaning this would be why Nicole Brown Simpson's blood was on the socks.
The limousine driver, Alan Park's statement was able to allow the investigation team to make links indicating that OJ Simpson was guilty of committing the murders, Alan Park was able to provide testament stating that whilst he was waiting outside OJ Simpson's home to take him to the airport, he observed a person matching OJ Simpson's description, sneaking into OJ Simpson's home shortly after the two murders had happened. Alan Park's witness testimony was able to provide the investigation team with a strong probability that OJ Simpson was out of his home and without an alibi for the time of the murders, as OJ Simpson had claimed that he was at home for the entire time that the murders were occurring. If OJ Simpson was seen outside his home this would provide the investigation team, reason to doubt OJ Simpson's innocence as he was hiding something from them and also lying about her whereabouts at the time of the murders. The doubts about OJ Simpson's alibi that this witness testimony provided as well as the evidence that was collected at the crime scene and also OJ Simpson's home, gave the investigation team justified reasons to conclude that OJ Simpson was guilty of the two murders.
Another piece of major piece of evidence that was able to link OJ Simpson to the murders and also lead the investigation team to further believe he was guilty was the leather gloves, one found at the crime scene and the other found located on the pathway behind OJ Simpson's home. The gloves found gave the investigation team the conclusion that OJ Simpson was guilty as firstly they were soaked with blood which later DNA results proved to be Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman's blood. As only the murderer would have worn these gloves and one was located behind OJ Simpson's home it gave strong evidence that OJ Simpson was the murderer.
Although most of the evidence strongly indicated the OJ Simpson was the perpetrator of the murders that had occurred, after the trial had begun it became apparent that the investigation team and the prosecution's case was not as straight forward as the evidence indicated. The trail of the OJ Simpson investigation was highly televised and at the end of the trial OJ Simpson was acquitted by the jury, he was acquitted even though the evidence strongly indicated his guilt. Despite evidence being highly incriminating OJ Simpson was acquitted due to a various number of errors that occurred due to the investigation team.
When investigating a crime it is key that a number of procedures which have to be followed by the investigation team in order to make sure that the case is strong and there is no contamination of the evidence at the crime scenes. Throughout the OJ Simpson investigation errors can be identified during each stage of the investigation process, meaning that these can be identified as weaknesses of this investigation. The first weakness that was made by the investigation team, is that the Scenes of crime officers used both the same gloves and tweezers when collecting various pieces of blood and other types of evidence. This is a weakness as this evidence would then have been contaminated between the collection of each piece of collected evidence.
Another weakness of the investigation was that blood evidence that belonged to Nicole Brown Simpson, Ronald Goldman and what was analysed to be OJ Simpson's blood, were all collected and put into the same evidence bags. This then lead to all of this blood evidence becoming cross contaminated and later lead to this evidence being criticised and thrown out of court and finally later leading to the aquittal of OJ Simpson.
Weaknesses that also regarded the evidence trail were that firstly the items of evidence were not correctly checked into the exhibits officers who where in charge of the chain of custody. This can be seen as very few blood swabs were down in the chain of evidence as being submitted for testing, however a larger sample of blood swabs arrived to the laboratory for testing. As a result of this it means that the majority of this evidence had not gone through the correct chain of custody. This can also be seen as a weakness as due to the items of evidence not being logged into the chain of custody, evidence could then have been taken or gone missing and nor the detectives or the scenes of crime officers would have known that they were not present.
A number of the evidence which included the sample of blood taken from OJ Simpson, was carried around by officers for a considerable amount of time before then finally being passed into the chain of custody, even though the correct procedure is to log the evidence immediately after being handed this evidence. Due to this error the defence were able to argue that the evidence that lined OJ Simpson to the murders, could have been planted or contaminated in order to then frame him for the murders.
Due to the many errors and weaknesses made by the investigation team which then compromised the case there are no strengths that can be found as part of the procedures that were carried out by the investigation team. Even though the evidence clearly indicated OJ Simpson was guilty, the errors made compromised the case and also lead the jury to doubt the validity of the evidence. As well as this the many errors made by the investigation team also lead the jury to believe that the evidence could have been planted by the officers in order to make OJ Simpson look guilty of the murders.
The investigation team came to the conclusion that OJ Simpson was guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman due to the amount of evidence linking OJ Simpson to the crime scene. The evidence linking OJ Simpson to the crime scene was found at the scene of the murders, at OJ Simpson's home and also within OJ Simpson's car, there were also witness statements which disproved OJ Simpson's alibi. Although the conclusion reached by the investigation team can be justified due to the amount of evidence, OJ Simpson was acquitted of both murders. OJ Simpson was acquitted of both murders due to the amount of errors and mistakes that had been made throughout the investigation process, this then lead the jury to doubt OJ Simpson's guilt.
If OJ Simpson was in fact guilty of these murders then the amount of errors and mistakes made throughout the investigation allowed him to get away with both of the murders and live his life as a free man. The conclusion to this investigation may have had a much different outcome if the investigation process was carried out in a way that followed all of the correct procedures and also more professionally. Following all of the correct guidelines would have ensured that all mistakes were kept to a minimum and would also mean that the validity of the evidence that had been collected would be in tact. Also if these guidelines were followed the jury would have more than likely came to the conclusion that OJ Simpson was in fact the murderer of both Nicole Brown Simpson and also Ronald Goldman, this would be due to the evidence being prevented from contamination and being prevented from possibly being taken in order to frame a suspect.
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