Criminal Evidence

Evidence is the key element in determining the guilt or innocence of those accused of crimes against society in a criminal court of law. Evidence can come in the form of weapons, documents, pictures, tape recordings and DNA. According to the American Heritage College dictionary, evidence is the documentary or oral statements and the material objects admissible as testimony in a court of law (476). It is shown in court as an item of proof, to impeach or rehabilitate a witness, and to determine a sentence. This paper will examine two murder cases, O.J. Simpson and Daniel Taylor.

Perhaps the most famous case in the 20th century was the O. J. Simpson double murder trial. On June 12, 1994, two people were brutally killed. Those two people were Nicole Brown Simpson, O.J. Simpson's ex-wife, and Ronald Goldman. O.J. was arrested the next day and charged with their murder. O.J. pleaded innocent to murder and went to trial in criminal court. There was a load of evidences at the residence of Nicole's to charge him with two counts of first degree murder and it seemed almost impossible for O.J. to be found innocent.

There were loads of evidences found at the scene and O.J.'s home. The bodies of both Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, blood of the victims, shoe prints and other evidences. But, one of the main evidence was the questionable bloody glove found behind the guesthouse, which was proven by DNA testing to have O.J.'s, Nicole's and Ron's blood and hair on it. Fibers were also found on the glove that came from O.J.'s shirt and his Bronco (CNN). In addition, a bloody footprint which matched O.J.'s shoes, blood on O.J.'s Bronco door, on the console, on the interior side of the door, a bloody footprint in the Bronco, bloody socks in O.J.'s house, O.J.'s injured finger, blood found at Nicole's condo that matched O.J.'s, and so on (CNN). But, the defense claimed that the evidence had been planted.

Eyewitnesses are also an important piece of evidence. Allen Wattenberg, a knife storeowner, testified during the preliminary hearing that O.J. bought a 14-inch Stiletto knife from his store. O.J.'s limo driver arrived to drive O.J. to the airport and saw a black man, with the same build as O.J. sprinting across the lawn towards O.J.'s house. When O.J. answered the door, he said he'd been napping (CNN). Simpson's houseguest stated that he saw Simpson pulled up in the white bronco shortly after the time of the murders. All the times given by these witnesses were around the alleged time of the murders. The police investigations uncovered more evidences to link Simpson to the murders. Their testimonies showed that Simpson had actually planned the crime. He had an alibi but it was shaky. Simpson's history of spousal abuse gave the prosecutors was a blow to his case too. All the evidences pointed unfavorably toward O. J. Simpson

Despite all this evidence, the jury found O.J. not guilty. The LAPD made some mistakes, which allowed the defense to attack the creditability of the police. O.J.'s defense, called "The Dream Team," took advantage of the prosecutions and the officers incompetence and created reasonable doubt in the jurors minds (CNN). The officers' duties included making sure that no unauthorized people may enter the scene. They had allowed unauthorized officers the go through the scene, thus causing some contamination to the crime scene. By all accounts, the prosecution did a poor job presenting the evidence and the officers did not do a very good job at securing the scene

On the other hand, the case of Daniel Taylor, who was convicted of murdering two people also, had a solid Alibi with paperwork and witnesses to support his alibi it seemed almost impossible for the jury to find him guilty. But on "December morning in 1992, 17 year old gang member, Daniel, confessed to a double murder committed two weeks earlier in the Uptown neighborhood. (Chicago Tribune)". The case was built upon Taylor's confession.

Taylor claimed that they broke down the door and demanded money from the victims. When the victims refused to give him and his accomplishers the money, they killed Jeffrey Lassiter and Sharon Hagabook. The murders took place approximately 8:43pm (Chicago Tribune). After he was picked out of a lineup, Daniel Taylor started thinking where he was on the day in question. He remembered a court date he had and realized he was in jail doing the double homicides

There were solid evidences to support Taylor alibi. "Within days, police found an arrest report that showed Taylor was locked up for disorderly conduct at 6:45pm on November 16th, the night of the murders. A copy a bond slip showed he had not released from the Town Hall District lockup until 10:00 p.m.(Chicago Tribune). Instead of releasing Taylor and "questioning