THE SIMPSON VERDICTS : Simpson Case Timeline

Some of the key events in the murder trial of O.J. Simpson:

JUNE, 1994

13--The bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and Ronald Lyle Goldman, 25, are found shortly after midnight, outside Nicole Simpson’s Brentwood townhouse.

17--After failing to surrender and then leading police on an internationally televised, O.J. Simpson is arrested, charged in the murders.

20--Simpson enters a plea of not guilty at arraignment.

JULY

22--Simpson is ordered held without bail. Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito is assigned to the case. Attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. joins defense team.

SEPTEMBER

9--Prosecutors announce that they will not seek the death penalty and instead will ask that he be sentenced to life in prison without parole if convicted.

26--Jury selection begins.

NOVEMBER

3--A predominantly black panel of eight women and four men are sworn in as the jury.

JANUARY, 1995

11--Jurors begin their sequestration.

24--The prosecution delivers its opening statements.

27--Simpson’s book “I Want to Tell You” goes on sale.

30--Cochran completes the defense opening statements.

31--First of nearly a dozen domestic violence witnesses is called.

FEBRUARY

9--Officer Robert Riske, the first LAPD officer at the crime scene, describes the bodies and the efforts made to keep evidence from being contaminated but concedes that certain property was not photographed.

12--Ito, jurors and attorneys tour Simpson’s Rockingham estate, the crime scene and other key locations.

MARCH

13--F. Lee Bailey unveils for the jury a crucial defense argument--that former Detective Mark Fuhrman is a racist who may have planted evidence to implicate Simpson. Fuhrman denies all allegations when he takes the stand.

21--Brian (Kato) Kaelin bolsters the prosecution’s murder timeline by confirming that he can’t account for Simpson’s whereabouts during the crucial hour.

APRIL

3--Over nine days of testimony, Dennis Fung, an LAPD criminalist, describes the process of analyzing blood evidence. He concedes that errors were made at the crime scene.

MAY

8--The DNA phase begins. Cellmark Diagnostics lab director Robin Cotton testifies that lab test results indicate that a blood spot on Simpson’s sock matches Nicole Brown’s DNA.

JUNE

15--Simpson struggles to put on the bloody leather gloves.

JULY

6--Prosecution rests.

10--Defense begins to present its case.

25--Testimony by several defense expert witnesses begins. They describe contamination in the LAPD lab. The defense suggests the possibility that evidence was planted.

AUGUST

29--Sixty-one excerpts from the Fuhrman tapes are played for the first time in open court without the jury present. Ito later rules that the defense can only present two excerpts to the jury.

SEPTEMBER

6--Fuhrman refuses to answer defense questions, invoking his 5th Amendment privilege.

12--Ito orders the prosecution to begin its rebuttal case even though the defense has not yet rested.

21--The defense rests.

22--Ito reads 55 instructions to the jury, allowing them to find Simpson guilty of second-degree murder if they can’t agree to convict him of first-degree charges.

26-27--Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden deliver the prosecution’s closing argument.

27-28--Cochran and Barry Scheck deliver the closing argument.

29--Clark completes the prosecution’s rebuttal with 911 tapes of Nicole Simpson’s calling for help in 1989 and 1993 and a photo montage of the victims.

OCTOBER

2--Jury reaches verdict in less than a day.

3--Verdicts read. Simpson acquitted.

Compiled by JACQUELYN CENACVEIRA / Los Angeles Times