Will Simpson Jury Believe Abuse Is a Prelude to Murder?

The prosecutors who painted a devastating picture of O.J. Simpson abusing his former wife now must persuade jurors to accept a controversial theory that the battering led directly to her murder.

Prosecutors Lydia Bodin and Scott Gordon, the district attorney’s domestic violence specialists, told the court a clear and chilling story of the 17-year relationship of Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson. It was a story of escalating abuse, culminating in the killing of Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman last June.

“This murder took 17 years to commit,” Gordon said. “Those punches, slaps and pushing were a prelude to homicide.” Pointing to Simpson at one point, he referred to the former football star as “a batterer who took this woman’s life.”

Simpson killed her, Bodin said, when Nicole returned a bracelet Simpson had given her and told him their relationship was over. This, said Bodin, “provides a motive.” Murder, she said, was “the final act of control.”

Establishing motive is an important part of convincing the jury that Simpson is guilty. So when Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito ruled that the jury could hear evidence of Simpson’s abuse, it was considered a huge victory for the prosecution.

Victory, yes. But certainly not a decisive one.

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That thought occurred to me when I talked to Santa Monica attorney Paul Mones, a domestic violence specialist, and read the writings of one of Simpson’s attorneys, Alan M. Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor and author of the book “The Abuse Excuse and Other Cop-Outs, Sob Stories and Evasions of Responsibilities.”

As Mones noted, there are two pillars to the district attorney’s case--domestic violence and the matching of DNA. They’re equally important. DNA matching would place Simpson at the murder scene. The domestic violence evidence would provide a motive.

“We are a long, long way from saying this (abuse) evidence is going to point one way or another,” Mones said. “Just having allegations of abuse is one thing, but there are a variety of ways it can be challenged.”

Another complication for the prosecution is that jurors will view the evidence through their own lives and those of family and friends. The jurors, like the rest of America, have seen, heard and read about the issue in the papers, magazines and books and on radio talk shows, the TV news and Oprah, Sally and Phil.

“With family violence, everyone filters the evidence through their own life experiences,” Mones said. “Screaming at someone may be traumatic to one juror but may not be a big deal with another. . . . A lot of people will say Uncle John pushes Aunt Mary every once in a while and they love each other.”

The book on abuse by Simpson lawyer Dershowitz doesn’t comment on the prosecution’s theory of the crime. But you can glean from it a hint of the defense’s philosophy toward the abuse issue.

Dershowitz appears critical of the prosecution idea that Simpson was entirely to blame for abuse in his family. Spousal murder, Dershowitz said, “is primarily a psychological issue of pervasive familial violence on all sides, generated by the passions of family interaction.”

Dershowitz referred specifically to the Simpson case in an article in last Sunday’s Times Op-Ed section. He attacked the prosecution contention that Simpson’s abusive behavior led to murder.

He cited a U.S. Justice Department study that showed there are 1,430 murders of females each year by their current or former mates. With the number of spousal violence assaults roughly estimated at 2 million to 4 million a year, this means “that more than 99.9% of men who assault their wives or girlfriends do not go on to kill them.”

“The issue is whether a history of abuse is necessarily a prelude to murder. The evidence on that is clear: It is not,” Dershowitz said.

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The presentation of all this to the jury may take weeks. “Each of these incidents will require a mini-trial,” defense attorney Gerald F. Uelmen said in court. “There are two sides to each of these incidents.”

Uelmen said the prosecution’s attacks on the family violence issue have already damaged Simpson with the public. Simpson’s standing in public opinion polls dropped after the release of the 911 tapes of Nicole Simpson calling police to protect her from what she says was an angry Simpson, Uelmen said.

Uelmen and his colleagues will do all they can to prevent the jury from having the same reaction.