O.J. Simpson's high-powered defense team is going high-tech. It wants to use an expensive computer program that could display colorful drawings of DNA strands or graphically re-create the double murder.
The information would be flashed on large and small monitors, part of an elaborate court-reporting and evidence presentation system Superior Court Judge Lance Ito is having installed for Simpson's trial."Graphics are always better than words when they're available," said attorney F. Lee Bailey, who was appointed to set up the system for the defense.
Computer animation and document presentation have been used to compare signatures in a Charles H. Keating Jr. civil fraud trial, to simulate the disastrous voyage of the Exxon Valdez and to recreate a slaying in northern California.
However, some legal scholars are concerned that a flashy, digital presentation could mislead jurors.
"Once the jury sees the picture, they stop questioning the assumptions," said Eleanor Swift, law professor and evidence expert at the University of California-Berkeley. "The picture has so much immediacy to them that they don't do the job of examining the underlying theory of why this simulation is supposed to be accurate."
Simpson, 47, is accused of killing his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, outside Ms. Simpson's Brentwood condominium June 12. Trial is set for Sept. 26.
If his attorneys seek to show there wasn't enough time for Simpson to commit the murders before taking a limousine to the airport, they could recreate the crime for jurors, complete with a clock in the corner timing the action.
They also could attempt to enliven the presentation of complicated DNA evidence by depicting some microscopic parts of it in bright blue or yellow.
Paper charts of Simpson's estate, like those displayed and marked by witnesses in the preliminary hearing, would be replaced with digital maps.
Witnesses could make marks on an evidence screen in different colors, just as sportscasters on television explain key plays.
Bailey said jurors and viewers in the Simpson case will see "computer-generated images," but they shouldn't expect to see "little characters running around stabbing each other."
"Essentially, it's no more than a glorified chalkboard that has been used in courtrooms forever," said Howard Harris, systems information trial consultant for the defense. "It just gives them (lawyers) a little more ability to be a bit more creative in their display."
Although Ito has said he will use a system that will allow for instantaneous transcription of testimony and electronic display of graphics and evidence on screens around the courtroom, the defense must seek permission to use its software.
Prosecutors are considering using a computerized presentation system but haven't made a decision yet, a spokeswoman said.
Gary Hilton, a consultant for inVzn, the defense team's software company, declined to say how much the defense will pay. The typical rate is $1,000 a day. The judge has estimated the trial could last several months.
The bulk of the cost likely won't be for the presentation, but for the preparation: the costs of making digital images of legal documents, scanning photographs and creating animated sequences. Animation alone can cost in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, depending on how sophisticated the image and action are.
But the courtroom payoff can be large.
A lawyer who used the inVzn system to win a $300 million award against Keating in Arizona said the computer tools gave him an edge in managing the civil case, which involved 35 defendants and 52 million pages of documents.
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Additional Information
Contents of O.J. hotel room auctioned
CHICAGO (AP)
An anonymous $10,000 bid was withdrawn Saturday for the contents of the hotel room where O.J. Simpson stayed for a few hours the day after his ex-wife and her friend were killed.
That meant some Simpson collectors at the auction ended up with what they believe could be pieces of history. Others, however, still walked away empty-handed.
"Someone will pay $100,000 for this room someday," said Rose Simone, who unsuccessfully bid $65 for lamps Simpson may never have switched on.
Auction organizer John Klesch described the person who offered the $10,000 as an eccentric millionaire who changed his mind.
Wasfi Tolaymat spent more than $1,000 on the room, including $200 for the bed, $45 for a wastebasket, $42.50 for an ashtray and $70 for a set of drapes.
The bedroom was just part of an auction of all furnishings from the former O'Hare Plaza Hotel, which is now owned by Wyndham Garden Hotels.