Quote:Are you thinking the cops did a bit of cooking especially because they wanted to make sure they got OJ?
Or might planted evidence be routine for LAPD, do you think?
I attended a couple of forensic analyses (post -game kinda stuff) that went over some of the more blatant errors, omissions, and outright fraudulent acts that LAPD Crime investigation teams pulled. There wasnt a clearcut evidence of a systemic "cooking", but there were enough items that showed that someone or a group of someones had tampered with the evidence and actualy had planted some evidence.
Mark Furman was a lightning rod because of his unfortunate use of the n word sometime during his career. from what Ive been shown as evidence tampering, he wasnt even around when evidence could have been messed with.
I think that most people are convinced that OJ did it but the dirfference is that many people , black and white (including me) are even more suspicious of the cops in this one. OJ got off because the system didnt value accuracy and integrity. The system had a relatively good case on OJ but someone decided to really manufacture some more evidence that just threw the really good stuff into question.
WWhat the cops didnt relize was that the same science that makes forensics work, can also detect the errors in the very forensics chain . We know that about 25% of the evidence didnt fit the timelines, wasnt properly custodied, and was even totally out of sequence(as if it were added in sometime later)
The defense team did exactly what it was supposed to do, they capitolized on the bogus and got a murderer (probable murderer) off.
Placing some system of higher accountability on the cops should go without question, however, because they are composed of the same diverse mess of people as are waiters, doctors, used car salesmen, and nuclear scientists, they can sometimes stray from the proper path.
Many states now have "OJ influence rules" that require double chains of custody on evidence, and a number of other boring but necessary requirements in rules of evidence.