Homicide Investigation Review: Summary Of The OJ Simpson Case (Essay Sample)

Homicide investigation review case
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Introduction
The success of any given case largely depends on the extent of the investigation carried out by the investigators. Inadequate investigations can lead to the failure of a strong suit. On the other hand, one can win a weak case because of carrying out a thorough investigation. The process of investigating a crime logically builds from one step to another and may as well sometimes require an investigator to retract to a step behind to come up with a well-convincing evidence. It aims at gathering evidence in a lawful and just manner while at the same time upholding the rights of the accused, the victims as well as the society as a whole. My essay, to a great extent, focuses on the investigative process while drawing illustrations from the Orenthal James Simpson case. That notwithstanding, my study will also assess the media’s responsibility in this homicide case as well as the role it played in influencing the case’s outcome. It is an excellent idea to give a brief of the whole case.
Summary of the OJ Simpson Case
The accusation against Orenthal James Simpson was taking the life of both his ex-wife and her friend, Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, respectively. The two killings took place in 1994, and the case’s conclusion happened in the following year. The jury found OJ Simpson not guilty of the two murders because the evidence presented by the prosecution team against him held no water. Nonetheless, the Nicole and Ron’s families later filed a subsequent civil lawsuit against him, which found him liable for the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. The Brown and Goldman families got punitive damages and compensatory award totaling around $33.5 million (Petersen, 2017).
The investigative process’ main elements
The two murders took place on the 12th day of June 1994 around thirty minutes to 2300hrs just in front of Nicole Brown’s Bundy Drive apartment located in Brentwood, Los Angeles (Toobin, 2015). One of the neighbors spotted the bodies of the victims in the middle of the night after noting Nicole Brown’s dog with smears of blood on both its paws and belly. He then made a call to the local police station from where an officer paid a visit to the scene of the crime to find out the credibility of the reports as well as to start the initial investigations. The police found one bloody glove in the Bundy Drive condominium.
The following morning, police detectives visited Orenthal James Simpson’s home but did not find him; he had traveled the previous night to Chicago (Toobin, 2015). Nonetheless, they found someone whom he was staying with, Kato Kaelin, and questioned him. They then took a walk around the home and found a second bloody glove as well as a bloody car. From that point, the police detectives made the compound a crime scene. They closed all the entrances to the home and utilized cardboard tags to put a marker to the stains of blood found along the drive way. The police detectives then decided to call James Simpson to tell him about the death of his wife on the same day (Toobin, 2015).
By this time, they had settled on him as the primary suspect in the two murders and calling him about the same was just a means of noting his reaction. The police later managed to catch up with him after arriving from Los Angeles and questioned him for approximately thirty minutes. The detectives then took all the collected evidence concerning the case for further analysis by the laboratory technicians (Gastwirth, 2012). The processes of the investigation conducted by the police gave rise to many flaws as highlighted below.
The weaknesses, failures and flows in the processes of investigation
A grave of errors characterized the investigative process in the Orenthal James Simpson’s case. The errors encompassed improper following of the procedures or not following them wholly. The investigators in the case started their investigations with the assumption that the accused was guilty of the crime, and with this in mind, they visited his home the following morning after receiving a call. That notwithstanding, they failed to secure the scene of the crime properly thus enabling the journalists to interfere with the most significant evidence pieces. In fact, by them not following the typical paths, they altered the scene of the crime. Proper management of the crime scene is significant and demands not only organization but also adequate planning. Making the scene secure is necessary as it helps the detectives obtain enough information concerning scene that will enable them trace and find the criminals (Fuhrman, 2014).
The police detectives managed to come up with evidence during their investigations. Such obtained evidence entailed proof of shoe prints, DNA evidence obtained from the crime and murder scene as well as OJ Simpson’s car, domestic violence reports, cuts on his hand, and Kato Kaelin’s report. Although they appear to be many, these just represent a section of all the evidence pieces the detectives had gathered against him. Nonetheless, the concerned parties made an error in the way in which they linked together and analyzed the evidence. For instance, poor handling of the proof led to the contamination of the DNA evidence (White, Borrego & Schroeder, 2014). Further, it also emerged that some of the investigators involved in the case were unqualified thus enabling the defense team to raise strong suspicion on the adequacy of the presented evidence.
Similarly, one of the detectives, while at the crime scene, carried samples of blood obtained from the accused in his pocket for several hours. Other members of the team of investigators got photographed while handling the evidence with their bare hands as most of them were not well preserved after collection thus leading to their contamination (Fuhrman, 2014). The defense team also took advantage of the fact that the investigative team carried evidence in and out of Simpson’s compound and successfully argued that the chances of the investigators planting evidence against the accused of racism reasons were very high (Rosenberg, 2015). They were also successful in arguing that that the stored evidence got cross contaminated or infected either at the laboratory or the crime scene.
That notwithstanding, the team of investigators did not also carry out proper coordination. A proper investigation requires the expertise of people from various departments thus making coordination very significant in the investigative process. Inadequate coordination between the different groups involved in the case led to misplacement of the vital evidence (Babcock, 2013). The event in mind is the bloody finger prints notes that got mishandled as it passed from the two detectives who had varying specialties, Tom Lange and Mark Fuhrman. The miscommunication that existed between the two detectives led to the loss of significant case evidence. The activity of sharing necessary information between different fields involved in a case is instrumental in making important links complete hence adding more strength to the case. Similarly, the investigation process lacked thoroughness as none of the investigators discovered blood stains on OJ Simpson’s socks obtained from his bedroom. The team came to realize it sixty days after its contamination in the crime laboratory.
How the police could have avoided the flaws in the investigative processes
The failures of investigations noted above could have been handled by the investigators in a variety of ways to ensure a successful prosecution. First, the police detectives could have made the scene of crime secure to prevent the destruction of the evidence by taking control of the people entering the scene and making sure that they follow a common path while still within where the crime took place. The detectives’ failure to efficiently manage the scene made them lose some evidence. Similarly, proper evidence recording could have helped avoid the mentioned flaws by contributing to avert the cases of unexplained evidence. Recording should take place at the early stages of an investigative process to promote later analysis and follow up. It is also suitable that documentation and recording be held in the laboratories and at the crime scene.
That notwithstanding, had the investigative process been thorough, the team would have noticed the blood on socks just after the occ...