Jury To Get O.J. Case Next Week Defense Attacks Credibility Of Blood Evidence, Shoe Photos

The judge in the O.J. Simpson wrongful-death suit delayed jury deliberations Thursday until Monday after granting a defense request for more time to complete closing arguments.

The schedule calls for Simpson’s lead lawyer, Robert Baker, to complete his summation Monday morning, followed by rebuttal argument by lawyers for the families of the murder victims, Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

The jury then will be instructed on the law by Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki and begin deliberations.

Baker began Wednesday afternoon with an attack on the credibility of the plaintiffs’ case, which he said lacks motive and common sense.

Thursday, he passed the baton to lawyer Robert Blasier, a DNA expert who also served on Simpson’s criminal defense team, and attorney Daniel Leonard, who dealt with the hotly contested photographs of Simpson wearing what are purported to be the Bruno Magli shoes that experts say left bloody footprints at the crime scene.

Blasier attacked the credibility of the forensic evidence, arguing the same “garbage in, garbage out” theme presented at the criminal trial in which Simpson was acquitted in 1995.

Blasier tried to convince jurors that blood evidence had been compromised by shoddy police work and inept methods of collecting and handling evidence.

“There was plenty of his (Simpson’s) blood available to make those swatches for anyone who wanted to do so,” Blasier said.

He also implored jurors to disregard the bloody socks police said were found in Simpson’s bedroom. “Those socks were put there,” he said, displaying a police videotape of the bedroom that doesn’t include the socks.

After Blasier had finished, Leonard blasted the Bruno Magli shoe photographs and reminded jurors that police had conducted a nationwide search to determine if Simpson ever had owned such shoes.

“Nothing was found,” he said. “Where’s the salesperson? Where’s the person who sold these shoes to Mr. Simpson? Why didn’t this person come forward? I’ll tell you why: Because he never bought a pair; he never owned a pair.”

The plaintiffs introduced 31 photographs that appear to show Simpson wearing Bruno Maglis at a 1993 football game. Simpson has denied ever owning such shoes.