O.J. Simpson Crime Scene Evidence Research Paper

O.J. Simpson Crime Scene Evidence - Research Paper Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 A. Accusations of Evidence Tampering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 - 6 B. Police Inexperience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 C. Cross-contamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 D. Bloody Fingerprint on the Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 IV. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 V. Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Abstract A celebrity case like that of the O. J. Simpson twin murders case draws a lot of media attention. The issue of race had also been injected into the case trial because of claims of racist behavior from some police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and one of them was Mark Fuhrman who happened to be also the first among the police offic ers to arrive on the crime scene. When racism becomes an issue, there is the motivation and the suspicion that an investigator like Fuhrman could not be above planting or tampering with evidence especially if it concerns on his behavior towards blacks and inter-racial unions. If the prosecution lost the case, then they have only themselves to blame for it. There were a lot of mistakes made when they did the initial investigation and even during the trial proper; some officers were found to be perjured. In addition to accusations of racial biases and evidence tampering, inexperienced police officers were assigned to the case; from the collection of samples up to the examination of blood samples which kept turning up as evidence even days and weeks into the investigation. There were many instances of cross-contamination also between the crime scene and the residence of Simpson that was initially not considered as possible crime scene. The failure to get the proper search warrant also invalidated much of the evidence that was gathered. A very crucial piece of evidence like a bloody fingerprint, containing the fingerprint of the probable killer and the DNA itself, were not utilized by the prosecution to the fullest extent as a strong corroborative and direct evidence. Keywords: blood, DNA, Fuhrman, fingerprint, glove, samples, Simpson LAW: O. J. Simpson Crime Scene Evidence Introduction Today's societies are often engulfed in a wave of crimes, both property and index crimes that people are rightly afraid for their safety and security. There comes sometimes a crime that is quite unique because of the circumstances and personalities involved. This specially if the crime involves famous personalities such that the public is enthralled and mesmerized by sort of media circus and details of the crime are often obscured. The media can turn crime reporting into a kind of entertainment in the pursuit of a good story. The story then becomes a good fodder for society gossip and diverts the true objective of a crime scene investigation which is to catch the criminal. There is also a long-accepted principle in jurisprudence that flight is indicative of guilt. This is certainly true in most cases where the suspected criminal becomes a fugitive in trying to stay ahead of the arm of law. However, it is also not entirely impossible that a person who can be initially considered innocent takes to flight out of confusion, fear or simply panic on not knowing what proper courses of action to take. A good crime investigation takes not only the