OJ's Cut Finger: What Actually Happened?

 

One of the more contentious issues regarding the case is about the cut on O.J. Simpson's finger.  Some suggest that the cut happened in Chicago after the murder, and since it wasn't recognized by those who ran into Simpson the night of the crime, it must not have been there.  Brian Heiss' Youtube channel, Fact or Fiction, attempts to look closer at the issue to suggest that Simpson was not cut  the night of the murder.

First in the video, the testimonies of Michael Norris and Michael Gladden are shown.  Both met Simpson the night of the murder and did not see any cuts on his hands.  Then the testimony of Howard Bingham (a photographer and acquaintance of OJ's) is shown, in which he also claims that he did not see cuts on OJ's hand.  Stephen Valeries was looking at Simpson's hand for a championship ring and noticed no cuts.  Pilot Wayne Stansfield and Jim Merrill gave similar testimony regarding the lack of marks on his hand.  On its face, this might seem convincing, and the witnesses additionally suggested that Simpson was calm and collected that evening.

But I am not convinced, and for very good reason.  Now I could suggest that these witnesses simply did not see something very small that night that they weren't looking for in the first place, which IS reasonable.  But it's MUCH more than that: it's what Heiss omits in these videos that I believe should definitely be addressed (note: Heiss has disabled all comments on his Fact or Fiction series on Youtube). 

Consider these four reasons as to why Simpson likely had cut and bled prior to leaving for Chicago:

1) SIMPSON ADMITTED IT WAS CUT AND BLEEDING BEFORE GOING TO CHICAGO! On June 13th of 1994 in his interview with Vannatter and Lange, he said that "I recall bleeding at my house, and then I went to the Bronco.  The last thing I did before I left, when I was rushing, was went and got my phone out of the Bronco."   And later in the interview, when referring to the blood, he stated, "When I was leaving, he was saying something to me, an I was rushing to get my phone, and I put a little thing (referring to the Band-Aid) on it, and it stopped."  And then later in the interview, after Lange states, "Okay, so it's last night that you cut it," Simpson replied, "Yeah. Yeah."  Lange: "Somewhere after the recital?"  Simpson: "Somewhere when I was rushing to get out of my house."  

2) HE ALSO TOLD HIS OWN DOCTOR IT WAS CUT BEFORE GOING TO CHICAGO.  During Dr. Michael Baden's testimony during the criminal trial (8/10/95), the following exchange with Mr. Kelberg of his physical examination of Simpson on June 17th of 1994:

MR. KELBERG: And what was his response on the 17th of June with respect to when he received any of the injuries?
DR. BADEN: His response was that he received cuts on his hand on the third finger on the knuckle in Chicago the--the 14th I guess, on June 14th, just before he returned to New York and that he may have cut himself on his fingers before he came to--he got on the airplane while getting his stuff together, but he didn't really know because he cut himself very frequently. He has a lot--and he did have a lot of nicks and bruises that were old and healed up.
MR. KELBERG: Did he say to you, sir, that he received any of those cuts while he was still in Los Angeles on the 12th of June in preparation to go to the airport for a trip to Chicago?
DR. BADEN: Yes. That he had cut himself, wasn't quite sure how he cut himself and noticed he had been bleeding, but didn't know how it came about in his home, someplace in this home on Rockingham before he got onto the airplane going to Chicago.

3) THE WALKWAY BLOOD MATCHED OJ'S DNA.  The blood drops on the Bundy walkway were DNA matches (via PCR and RFLP testing) to OJ Simpson himself.  Where did it come from?  The main suspect had a fresh cut on his finger the very next day. Am I supposed to believe that this is just a coincidence?  As for the defense team claim that these drops were switched out at the lab or the result of contamination, I deal with that below in another section of the blog.

4) THERE WERE MULTIPLE CUTS AND SCRATCHES THE DAY AFTER THE MURDER.  During a medical examination three days after June 12, 1994, another physician for Simpson, Robert Huizenga, said he noted three to four cuts and seven small abrasions on Simpson's hands.  Did all of this come from a broken glass in a Chicago hotel room? Or from Simpson running around his house while getting ready to go to LAX?  I find both scenarios pretty unlikely.


So Simpson has admitted to both his own personal physician and the police shortly after the murder that he had cut his finger before going to Chicago.  Regardless of whether he actually re-opened the cut again in Chicago or cut it for the first time, this is quite damning.  After all, the cut was on his left hand and the Bundy walkway blood drops, which were identified as Simpson's via DNA testing, were on the left side of the bloody shoe prints leaving the crime scene.  Just a bad coincidence for the innocent man?  This is why I find the witness testimony not very compelling.