Abstract : Cochran returns to the prosecution's scenario that Simpson ran into the air conditioner behind Kaelin's wall, saying that there's no trace evidence on or around it. He says their story isn't good enough for TV.
Full Text:
JIM MORET, Anchor: I'm Jim Moret in Los Angeles. Court is once again in session in the O.J. Simpson trial. We're waiting for the jurors to enter the courtroom to continue with the final arguments as being presented by the defense through Johnnie Cochran.
Through a spokeswoman, civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks told CNN that Simpson defense attorney Johnnie Cochran invited her to sit in the courtroom during closing arguments this week. The spokeswoman, Mrs. Steele, said that, due to Parks' schedule, she could not come to California this week, but future appearances had not been decided yet.
Let's check in with our CNN legal analysts, Greta Van Susteren and Roger Cossack in Washington, just as we're coming down off the seal. Roger, any surprises so far, or is there a surprise in what you haven't seen so far?
ROGER COSSACK, Criminal Defense Attorney: Well, I'm only surprised that I haven't seen more fire from Johnnie Cochran, but I have a feeling that that's on its way.
JIM MORET: Let's now take you into the courtroom, and we'll get our comments from Greta Van Susteren a little bit later. Johnnie Cochran is delivering the defense portion of the final arguments.
JOHNNIE COCHRAN, Simpson Attorney: [in progress]
Thank you, Your Honor. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. [jury responds in kind] Thank you for patience thus far, and we'll start up again and see if we can make it to dinner.
When we left, just before we broke, I was sharing with you a knit hat or a knit cap that we've heard so much about in this case. And it reminded me that there was testimony early on, that Detective Lange had refused, basically, to pick up a knit cap inside the Brown residence, and it was shown to him, I think, by some of the lawyers and one of the investigators on that date, because these are fairly common. But they don't really disguise anybody who's noticeable, do they? And, although I was the guinea pig here this afternoon, if you were to put a knit cap on, how is that going to disguise you? We've been together. I'd know your face anywhere now, and you'd know mine. And the people in Brentwood, in West Los Angeles, would know O.J. Simpson. They know his car. They know him. That's where he lives. Even the prosecutors say he's so famous that he can't go anywhere that he wouldn't be recognized.
Now, one of the things about this People's timeline or whatever, is that you'll recall that O.J.'s- some of O.J.'s bags were already packed outside of the house on that bench when Kato came outside to investigate the thumps which he'd heard. And this is interesting, because the prosecutors have kind of talked at cross purposes on this. Kato, at some point, comes out because he hears these thumps, allegedly, and he has a little tiny flashlight - or I think the Court called it a pin light or a mag light or something like that, it was something small - because it's dark back down that walkway. Apparently, he went part way down that walkway and then he came back. It's interesting, isn't it? He came back, and at some point, he lets Park in.
I remember, and all of these questions about opening the gate and everything. Remember, there's a dog there. Isn't there a dog there, named Chachi? There's a lot of talk about these dogs, and you've heard a little bit about these dogs. But one thing that I think is, as the prosecutors make these kind of wild speculations, you now know that the Akita dog was bought by O.J., as was Chachi. Remember, one of the dogs died, and like a good dad, he let the dog stay at the other house sometime with his son, Justin, and they named the dog after Kato. Because I think the understanding of what we- you've heard from Arnelle. But, at any rate - I point that out, because we know there was another dog over there named Chachi, a black dog, black Chow.
But, while he- Kato is out looking for these thumps- what happens with these thumps, Mr. Simpson talks to him. In fact, they go in the house together, because Mr. Simpson is going to help him look or help him find a larger flashlight. And then someone says, or he's reminded, that Mr. Simpson is running late for his trip. So then, he then takes off. My understanding of the facts is, Mr. Simpson said, `I'll call you later and have you put the alarm on,' because he was getting out of there. Parks was already there. But I think the interesting thing to remember is that some of the bags were already down, including that golf bag, were already down there. This was not any unexpected trip. He'd started putting things down there.
If you look at everything in a cynical fashion, you heard this morning, `A-ha. There was a knapsack over,' or a knap bag or some little bag they were talking about, `over in the driveway.' Well, if you're a golfer, isn't it reasonable to assume there's golf balls in there? And you put that in your golf bag. What's the big deal? Because they've got to try to theorize and try to explain anything- explain everything, which they can't explain. They weren't there. They rushed to judgment, and it leads to this kind of wild speculation. You have to do that when you don't have a case, and that's all you've seen them do, time after time after time.
With regard to that walkway, lest I be totally clear to you, if O.J. Simpson had been the one, for whatever reason, to walk into that air conditioning, where is the hair and trace, where is the fiber, where is the blood? They want to tell you about his hands, his finger's bleeding one minute, then it stops bleeding. In Ms.- Ms. Clark's scenario, he bleeds, it coagulates, stops bleeding, then it starts bleeding again, because that's convenient for her theory. You know, as I listened to both of them, I wanted to call them doctor. `Dr. Clark,' because Dr. Clark told you, `Well, gee, look at that blood drop. That cut wasn't big enough for that blood drop.' She's not any doctor. How does she know that? Dr. Darden for the love and the forlorn, he knows everything about relationships. He just speculates on and on and on. He's got this great, vivid imagination.
The only thing is, this is real life. This isn't anything from Murder She Wrote. If they tried to sell this story to Murder She Wrote, they'd sent it back and say, `That's unbelievable.' You're going to see that as we tie it together. It's nice to have vivid imaginations, but not in this courtroom, because here, you are searching for truth on this journey for justice.
So, we know that Kato had some concerns, he was looking around. We know that at some point, Mr. Simpson comes down the stairs carrying the Louis Vuitton bag or whatever, and then Mr. Simpson leaves about eleven, 11:02, for the airport. That's pretty clear, based upon the evidence. And, you'll recall, that Ms. Clark again gives Mr. Simpson five minutes to rush in. According to her theory, he rushes in, changes clothes, disposes of all these clothes, showers, packs, does everything, and comes downstairs and says, composes himself. Now, can you imagine that? I mean, who do they think they're talking to? In five minutes, he does all these things, and then they tell you that, you know, `Under this post-homicidal way you act, you get yourself all composed and you just do this.' This is preposterous. They're not experts. They can't testify. Those are just their wildest, rankest theories. You use your common sense when they tell you things like that.
O.J. Simpson was O.J. Simpson, the way he always appeared, by the people who knew him and talked to him. We'll talk more about that when we talk about demeanor. But the reason they can't explain his demeanor and the way he acted like he'd always act, they then talk about, `Well, you can't tell who's a murderer.' And those are all real convenient words, aren't they? But they fly in the face of reasonable activity by a reasonable man on that particular night.
So, there's Alan Park. O.J. Simpson comes down within five minutes of the time that they believe he goes upstairs. No time to dispose of bloody clothes. What about blood on the carpet? What about dirt on this white carpet? How does he shower? How does he get dressed? I mean, does it make any sense at all? Does it?
Park himself says the golf bag was already packed and ready to go when he pulled into the driveway, and Ms. Clark went to great trouble to tell you how credible she thought Mr. Park was and how he tried to lay everything out. And, I think, by and large, we agree with that. But I think if you're going to quote Mr. Park, you ought to quote him accurately and not attempt to mislead, or whatever. And so what I did was, I went back to the transcript again, when Ms. Clark told you and showed you that photograph yesterday about whether or not Mr. Park saw, or was looking at, the Bronco, or looking for the Bronco on the night of June 12th. You remember that?
She told you yesterday - I spent a long time with it, and so I remembered, and I asked him questions, and his response. `I asked him at some point, I'm asking you if you looked to- made an effort to see if there was a car parked?' Answer, `No.' `Was that a correct answer at that time?' Answer, `Yes.'
All right. Question, `There might have been a car parked there and you didn't see it?' Answer, `Correct.' `And the reason why you don't know one way or the other is because you weren't focusing on any cars or paying any attention, isn't that right?'
And I went on to ask still another part of this question. `Basically, your goal was to get Mr. O.J. Simpson, try to get him to the airport on time, isn't it?' Answer, `That's correct.' Question, `That is what you ended up doing, isn't it, sir?' Answer, `Yes.'
And that's the testimony. So it's fine to come up here and tell you because they want to fit their theory, that, well, he never- he didn't see that Bronco out there, and do all this drama. But isn't it better to read the record if you want to be accurate, which I've just done for you?
Now, isn't it reasonable to ask Mr. Park also, `Well, Mr. Park, if you were around the premises there and you were up at Ashford and down at Rockingham, did you ever hear a Bronco come driving up? Did you ever hear a door slam? Did you ever hear an engine of a Bronco?' And, fortunately, we asked him some of those questions. I'd asked him about hearing a- seeing a Bronco in the past, and remember, he talked about seeing one back in '88 or something of that nature. And so, then, I asked him this question.
`And would I be correct in assuming that those engines can be loud on occasion, those cars?' Meaning the Broncos. Answer, `Could be.' Question, `You didn't hear the engines on any cars or anything that sounded like a Ford Bronco that night, did you?' Answer, `No.'
Now, again, I've read from the transcript for you. I previously read to you about where Mr. Park said he saw Mr. Simpson in the entranceway of the house, and we'll put that aside. So we know that Mr. O.J. Simpson was preparing to leave for this trip that had been long planned. And when we summarize, then, the two timelines, it seems to me that their timeline is not even reasonable. It doesn't make any sense. It's a much less credible version than the testimony you've heard from our witnesses. Their version does in no way disprove the defense timeline. We don't have to even put that forth, but we did. There, then, must be a reasonable doubt.
Consider everything that Mr. Simpson would have had to have done in a very short time by their timeline. He would have had to drive over to Bundy, as they've described, in this little, limited time frame, when there's not enough time, killed two athletic people in a struggle that takes five to 15 minutes. Walked slowly from the scene. Returned to the scene, supposedly looking for a missing hat and glove, and poking around. Go back to this alley a second time. Drive more than 5 minutes to Rockingham, where nobody hears him or sees him. Either stop along the way to hide these bloody clothes and knives, et cetera, or take them in the house with him, where they'll still hoisted by their own petard because there's no blood, there's no trace, there's no nothing.
So that's why the prosecution has had to try and push back their timeline. Even to today, they're still pushing it back, because it doesn't make any sense, it doesn't fit. That's why they abandoned Ellen Aaronson, why they abandoned Dan Mandel, why they didn't want to call Denise Pilnak, why they didn't want to call Robert Heidstra. That's why we're now hearing this preposterous add-on of time that the thumps may have occurred at 10:15. That's Ms. Clark's wish list, but that's not the evidence in this case.
Now, let's turn our attention for a moment, and let's look at some other things that don't fit in this case. So, I started to say before, perhaps the single most defining moment in this trial is the day they thought they would conduct this experiment on these gloves. They had this big build-up with Mr. Rubin [sp], who had been out of the business for five, six, seven, eight, years. He'd been in marketing even when he was there. But they were going to try to demonstrate to you that these were the killer's gloves and these gloves would fit Mr. Simpson.
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