OJ Simpson

How Cutting-Edge Science Hss Changed Homicide Investigations

Bill Thompson

Crime-solving in the 21st century is all about science.

Simply dusting for fingerprints and taking a few crime scene photos just isn’t enough anymore. Police and prosecutors today have a wide array of sophisticated technology.

Forensic pathologist Michael Baden has been around long enough to see that evolution, and to be an active participant in it.

Whether in official roles or as a private consultant, Baden has been involved in many high-profile homicide investigations, including very notably the OJ Simpson case.

In 2001 Baden wrote a book called Dead Reckoning, detailing his findings in some of those high-profile cases.

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When I met him to talk about that book, it was less than 2 months after the September 11th attacks, which you will hear referenced in this interview.

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So here now, from 2001, Michael Baden.

Marcia Clark’s Candid Account of the OJ Simpson Trial

Bill Thompson
Photo by Larry D. Moore

I can promise you, if you were alive 30 years ago today, June 17, 1994, you were glued to your television watching a white Ford Bronco driving down the 405 in Southern California. Inside was OJ Simpson, about to be arrested for the murders of his ex-wife Nicloe Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.

Get your copy of Marcia Clark’s book

In the L.A. County district attorney’s office, the case was assigned to a veteran 44-year-old prosecutor named Marcia Clark.

And by the time the Simpson trial was over, with its infamous “not guilty” verdict, Clark had unknowingly become a celebrity.

In 1997 Clark wrote a book about the trial, and the toll it took on her. she called the book Without A Doubt, and I met her that spring to talk about it.

So here now, from 1997, Marcia Clark.

Marcia Clark will be 71 in August. OJ Simpson died this past April at age 76.

Gerry Spence

Bill Thompson
Photo by Greg Westfall

Imagine practicing law for 60 years, both as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney- and never losing a single case before a jury.

That was the enviable record racked up by attorney Gerry Spence.

And his record in civil cases was nearly as perfect.

A brilliant legal mind, coupled with a charismatic personality and courtroom demeanor made him one of America’s most effective trial lawyers.

So it was with more than just passing interest that Spence sat in the courtroom every day as a spectator at the trial of the century, the murder trial of OJ Simpson.

Two years after the verdict in that case, Spence wrote a book called OJ: The Last Word. And that was when Spence and I had one of our many conversations.

So here now, from 1997, Gerry Spence.

Gerry Spence is 94 now, and still lives in his native Wyoming.

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