Western Laws are designed to protect criminals, not victims. Double jeopardy protects criminals and their lawyers line their pockets. I find it shameful how people treat criminal defense lawyers like celebrities when they are the accomplices of the killers. No one is safe in a society where so many criminals walk free. Remember that gimmick with the leather glove that didn't fit? Anyone with common sense knows that leather shrinks as the blood dries.
Phyllis Carter
Police investigating knife found on OJ Simpson's former LA property
The knife was in the possession of a retired LAPD officer, who was given it a number of years ago by a construction worker and kept it as a memento
Los Angeles police are examining a knife that may have been found in a now-demolished house once owned by OJ Simpson, the former football player who was acquitted of the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, in 1995.
In a bizarre twist to a decades-old case that has long captivated the US, the LAPD confirmed on Friday that it was investigating the knife, which is said to have been discovered by a construction worker and handed to a police officer working on a movie set in the late 1990s.
Could OJ Simpson be charged over the knife found at his former LA home?
Remarkably, the police officer, who is now retired, appears to have kept the knife ever since as a memento.
Appearing at a press conference, LAPD captain Andrew Neiman said the retired police officer claims he working off duty for a film crew across the road from Simpson's former Rockingham property when he was given the knife by the construction worker.
Nieman would not specify precisely when the knife was handed in, however Simpson's estate was demolished in 1998.
Police obsessed for years over finding the knife used to kill Simpson's ex-wife and Goldman. Detectives are now testing this knife to see where it may have come from, Neiman said, and the inquiry is still in its early stages.
Neiman said the knife had been sent to the LAPD's laboratory, where it will now be tested for forensic evidence including bodily fluids, hair samples, and DNA.
He stressed investigators were still looking into the evidence and the "story" to determine whether it was accurate.
Simpson is currently serving a 33-year prison sentence at the Lovelock Correctional Centre in Nevada for a 2007 armed robbery in Las Vegas. He was granted limited parole in July 2013, and is currently set to be released in 2017.
The existence of the knife was first reported by celebrity news website TMZ, which reported that it came to light after the retired officer wanted to get it framed. Neiman declined to describe the knife, saying that its description would be part of efforts to verify its veracity, though he said that it was "not a machete."
The 1995 OJ Simpson trial became a national sensation and brought racial tensions bubbling to the surface. It was estimated that 100 million people tuned in when jurors reached their "not guilty" verdict.
Although he was acquitted in the criminal trial, Simpson was later found liable for the deaths in a civil suit.
Neiman told reporters that the police officer who took possession of the knife was either retired at the time or retired soon thereafter. This means he will not face administrative charges, but Neiman told reporters that there would be an investigation as to whether criminal charges would be appropriate. "I would think an LAPD officer would know that any time you come into contact with evidence you should submit that to investigators," Neiman said.
Neiman said the officer who took possession of the knife "believed the case was closed ... [but] any case where we don't have a conviction on all of the charges, or we are not able to prove to our satisfaction, remains an open case, and that's the case here."
"It was brought to our attention that this retired officer had an item," Neiman also said, that "was possibly recovered from or taken from the Rockingham estate in the 90s ... we discovered it and our investigators immediately followed up on it."
He did, however, say that even if the knife is proven to be the murder weapon and could link Simpson to the two killings, it was his understanding that "double jeopardy would be in place here", meaning the former football player and movie star could not be indicted on charges for which he has already been acquitted.
"We could not charge Mr Simpson," Neiman said.
Norman Pardo, Simpson's longtime publicist and friend, said that Simpson "watches the news in prison, so I'm sure he is [aware of the discovery] now." However, Pardo said that Simpson "to be blunt, probably wouldn't care, because he's already in prison ... I'm sure he takes it with a grain of salt."
Pardo added that "it's all going to depend on where the knife came from, what area of the house they found it in ... if it's relevant."
Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor and member of Simpson's original defense team, said that he viewed the discovery "with great skepticism."
"There is no chain of custody; [the knife] was held on to for a long period of time, wasn't handed over, wasn't announced," Dershowitz said. "Then it was announced in the middle of the OJ series on television, so one has to have a little bit of skepticism."
Dershowitz said that even if both Simpson's and the victims' DNA was found on the knife, "that would be pretty powerful evidence" against Simpson, but still, he said, not enough to re-open the criminal case because of constitutional protections against double jeopardy. However, he said it could change the "verdict of history".
The discovery of the knife came just as the FX series American Crime Story: The People vs OJ Simpson has put the trial back into the forefront of public consciousness. The critically-acclaimed show, which stars Cuba Gooding Jr as Simpson, is now halfway through its 10-episode run.
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