Pathologist Undermines Prosecution Expert Says Victims Fought Attacker, Took Longer To Die

O.J. Simpson’s most expensive expert witness disputed prosecution autopsy evidence Thursday, concluding that Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman fought fiercely for their lives and took longer to die than the coroner contends.

Dr. Michael Baden, a well-known forensic pathologist whose testimony was fiercely challenged by a prosecutor, also talked about cuts on Simpson’s left hand and for the first time gave jurors Simpson’s explanation of why his blood might have dripped on his property.

Baden said Simpson cut himself twice, at his estate the same night as the killings and again the next morning in Chicago.

In giving his opinions about the murders, Baden said Simpson’s ex-wife was probably not unconscious on the ground when her throat was slit and had injuries on her hands consistent with defensive wounds.

“When she received the final wound, she was 18 inches off the ground,” Baden said, citing the way blood spurted onto the steps of Ms. Simpson’s condominium.

The county coroner testified earlier that the murders happened quickly, and Ms. Simpson likely was hit on the head and incapacitated when her assailant pulled her head back by the hair and slit her throat.

As Baden testified about the wounds, Simpson appeared distressed, rocking in his seat, puffing air in and out and rubbing his eyes. He often averted his eyes from the witness and was comforted by his lead attorney.

“My opinion is she struggled with the assailant or assailants prior to succumbing when her neck was cut,” Baden told jurors, who took many notes during his testimony.

He said Goldman’s wounds also indicated a struggle, and it could have taken 10 to 20 minutes for him to die - an attack on the prosecution’s tight timeline for the June 12, 1994, murders. He also said Goldman’s knuckle bruises indicated he punched his killer.

The defense has displayed photos of Simpson’s nearly unscathed body in the days after the killings, saying they prove that he didn’t commit the murders because the attacker or attackers would have been wounded in the fight.

Prosecution experts, however, contend Goldman was quickly “caged” in a small area outside the condominium and likely hurt his hands while he was flailing about.

In another development Thursday, the judge received a carton of recently discovered tapes and transcripts from a North Carolina screenwriting professor who interviewed Detective Mark Fuhrman over a number of years.

The defense alleges the tapes show Fuhrman lied under oath when he said he had not uttered a specific racial epithet toward blacks in the last 10 years. The defense has accused Fuhrman of being a racist who planted a glove on Simpson’s property to frame him for the killings.

Although prosecutors say they had subpoenaed the tapes and wanted to examine them before they come up in court, Superior Court Judge Lance Ito ruled they belong to the defense, which subpoenaed them first.

He gave Simpson’s attorneys the right not to disclose them to prosecutors and placed a protective order on the tapes to prevent leaks. He still hasn’t ruled whether the tapes will be admissible.