SIMPSON MURDER CASE : STORIES FOR DOLLARS
Question: Much has been made about some key witnesses selling their stories to tabloid television shows and publications. Are there any circumstances under which the selling of this potential evidence is illegal?
Answer: Not in California. However, on Thursday, State Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco) introduced a bill that would prohibit potential witnesses from giving interviews in exchange for money before or during a trial. Thus far, in the Simpson case, several witnesses or potential witnesses have sold their stories, including a clerk at a Downtown cutlery shop who testified that he sold a 15-inch knife to Simpson in May. In another instance, the district attorney’s office decided not to present a witness after she appeared on the tabloid television show “Hard Copy,” which promised to pay her $5,000.
EXCHANGE OF TESTIMONY
“By my math, we may fairly say that 99.57% of the population is excluded as a possible source of the blood drop found on the trail at 875 South Bundy?”
Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia Clark
“That is correct.”
Police criminalist Gregory Matheson
“So any attempt to analyze this (for) fingerprints or precise identification of a person would be inaccurate?”
Defense attorney Gerald Uelmen
“That is correct.”
Police criminalist Gregory Matheson
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