Evidence of O.J. Simpson's innocence was held back in the 1995 trial
in which he was acquitted in the murder of his ex-wife and her friend
in Los Angeles, one of his former lawyers says in a new document.
Pat Wellenbach, The Associated PressF. Lee Bailey answers questions during an interview at his office in Yarmouth, Maine, on Monday.
In
the 20,000-word document, F. Lee Bailey tells of four people who could
have bolstered Simpson's case but never testified. He also gives an
overview of the sensational trial from his own perspective.
Simpson
was found not guilty. Most Americans are convinced that he is guilty,
Bailey said, but the document might persuade some doubters that he is
innocent.
Bailey wrote the document, "The Simpson Verdict," in
2007 as a proposal for a book that never materialized. He published it
on his website Sunday.
"It's time somebody put out the real facts of the case," he told The Associated Press.
In
the document, Bailey said the defense team was prepared to call four
people who never testified -- a forensic scientist, an expert on
battered women, a blood expert and the person whose possible testimony
he says is the most important of the four: a man who might have seen
the killers.
That witness, he wrote, saw a woman the night of the
murders matching Nicole Brown Simpson's description in an apparent
confrontation with two men, neither of whom was O.J. Simpson. Upon
hearing of the murders the next day, the witness recalled what he saw
on a tape recording and wrote a detailed description and sketch of his
observations.
But the defense team decided not to call any of the
four to the witness stand out of fear that additional jurors would be
dismissed and a mistrial declared if the eight-month trial didn't soon
end, Bailey wrote. Bailey said Monday he thinks the real killers were
out to collect a drug debt and killed Nicole Brown Simpson and her
friend Ron Goldman after mistaking them for their targets.
The
document might sway a sector of the public into believing in Simpson's
innocence in the 1995 case, Bailey said. But he knows there's another
group whose minds couldn't be changed "with a sledgehammer," and thinks
the trial damaged his reputation among that group.
"Among the
rednecks of America, which there are many more than people seem to
realize, it was terribly damaging," he said. "I got blamed for O.J.'s
acquittal."
Bailey was part of Simpson's defense team when the
former NFL star was acquitted in the June 1994 deaths of Nicole Simpson
and Goldman.
Bailey, who now lives and works as a consultant in
Yarmouth, Maine, 10 miles north of Portland, said his agent asked him
to write an overview of the Simpson case for a publisher who was
interested in a book. But the idea was shelved following the turmoil
and eventual cancellation of Simpson's book, "If I Did It," in which
Simpson put forth a hypothetical description of the murders.
But
Bailey has shared his document with several dozen people over the
years, and a number of them have urged him to release it. His website
developer suggested he put it online, and it first appeared on both his
website and that of the Portland Press Herald newspaper.
Although
Simpson was found not guilty in a court of law, Bailey said it's
important to prove him innocent in the court of public opinion.
"O.J. has what I call the damnation of an acquittal," Bailey said.
Los
Angeles attorney Gloria Allred, who represented Nicole Brown Simpson's
family during Simpson's trial, said she doesn't see any "smoking gun"
in Bailey's document that might persuade people who think he was guilty
to think otherwise.
If Bailey's evidence were that strong, she
said, it would have been brought into the later civil trial in which
Simpson was found liable for the deaths and ordered to pay a $33.5
million judgment.
"If Mr. Bailey can't think of anything better
than trying to help the public reputation of O.J. Simpson, that's
really sad," Allred said.
The last time Bailey talked to Simpson
was in 2008, the night before Simpson he was found guilty of
kidnapping, armed robbery and other charges for his role in the
gunpoint robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas
hotel. He is serving a nine- to 33-year sentence.
Bailey said he
isn't shopping his document in hopes of a book deal -- although he
wouldn't turn down the right offer -- but still hopes to get it into
the public arena.
He's not surprised that the document got more than 20,000 hits its first day online.
"I can get a firestorm going anywhere in the United States by saying 'O.J.,'" he said.
Besides
Simpson, Bailey has represented clients including Dr. Sam Sheppard,
Patricia Hearst and Albert DeSalvo, the man who confessed to being the
Boston Strangler, over the course of a storied legal career. He has
also been a controversial figure, and has been barred from practicing
law in Florida and Massachusetts.
Bailey was disbarred in Florida
in 2001 for mishandling $6 million worth of stock for a client. After
reviewing the Florida case, Massachusetts disbarred him two years later.
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Online: http://baileyandelliott.com
Clarke Canfield of The Associated Press wrote this report.
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with situations that call for immediate action. An important example of
exigent circumstances is the destruction of evidence. If the police had
to get a warrant before entering a home in which they believe evidence
is being destroyed, the evidence would be probably gone by the time
that they return with the warrant.