Juror Says Simpson 'Probably Did Do It'

LOS ANGELES -- A juror in the O.J. Simpson case has told her daughter she thinks Simpson probably is guilty, but voted to acquit because the fiasco over a racist investigator torpedoed the prosecution's case, according to ABC Television.


Juror Anise Aschenbach made the comments in a telephone conversation Tuesday with her daughter, the network reported, identifying the daughter only as Denise.


"She said, 'I think he probably did do it, Denise,'" the daughter said. "I said something like, 'Gosh, you're kidding me.' And she said, 'No,' and she's crying. So I said: 'Why? What happened?'"


"She said it was because there wasn't enough evidence. And I said, 'Why?' She said, 'Because of Mark Fuhrman.'"


Fuhrman was a police detective who had found key evidence used against Simpson but was revealed to have lied on the witness stand about using racial epithets.


Another juror, Lionel "Lon" Cryer, said that he and others on the panel kept finding holes in the prosecution case, and concluded there were many opportunities for contamination of evidence.


"It was garbage in, garbage out," he told the Los Angeles Times. "There was a problem sic pathologist Dr. Henry Lee, whom he said the jury viewed as "the most credible witness" of all, had a particularly strong influence on the panel.


Lee, Cryer recounted, said, "There is something wrong here."


"He had a lot of impact on a lot of people. A lot of people were in agreement that there was something wrong" with the prosecution's case, he said.


But while jurors' comments appeared to demonstrate the effectiveness of defense tactics, Simpson attorney Robert Shapiro traded barbs with co-counsels Johnnie Cochran Jr. and F. Lee Bailey over the handling of the case in separate televised interviews Tuesday.


Saying he disagreed strongly with Cochran's decision to "play a race card" in the Simpson murder trial, Shapiro said he will never work with Cochran again.


"Not only did we play the race card, we dealt it from the bottom of the deck," Shapiro told ABC.


Shapiro also said he was "deeply offended" by Cochran's comparison of former detective Mark Fuhrman of the Los Angeles Police Department to Adolf Hitler, and by Cochran's contention that Fuhrman's racism was comparable to the Holocaust.


"To me, the Holocaust stands alone as the most horrible human event in modern civilization," Shapiro said. "And with the Holocaust came Adolf Hitler, and to compare this man in any way to a rogue cop, in my opinion was wrong."


Responding to Shapiro's statements, Cochran said Shapiro is possessed by "demons that need to be exorcised.


"He's somewhere at home, sulking and feeling bad," Cochran said during an interview with a local television station. "We did not realize the damage it would do to his ego not to be lead attorney."


While the defense bickered in the wake of the verdict, the prosecution came to terms with the outcome in emotional scenes.In the prosecutors' offices an hour after the jury's announcement, lead prosecutor Marcia Clark talked not of the trial's evidence, or of her future or disappointment, but about the families of the murdered Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.


"Their strength and dignity have been a source of inspiration," she said quietly, her hands trembling. "My sympathy and love go out to them."


Deputy District Attorney Chris Darden stood at the lectern, barely audible, and whispered that he never imagined being here, "never imagined having to turn to the Goldmans when he was acquitted."


Darden said he was not bitter, not angry. Turning toward the family of Ron Goldman, Darden began, "I am honored to have ..."


But he could not continue. Darden began to weep and he turned quickly away from the cameras, almost falling onto a group of his fellow prosecutors, who huddled around him, wrapping him in their arms as he cried. Darden left the room, followed by his partner, Clark.


(AP, LAT, WP)