After hundreds of pieces of physical evidence and hours of technical testimony, prosecutors in the O.J. Simpson trial will wrap up their case by putting a human face on the killings.
Juditha Brown, the mother of stabbing victim Nicole Brown Simpson, is the last witness on the prosecution's list for its five-month main presentation.She could take the stand as early as Thursday and is expected to talk about her final phone call to her daughter, less than an hour before the murders.
She isn't expected to reveal any startling new information - but will inject some emotion into a presentation that often has been clinical and tedious.
Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson said prosecutors made the right decision in calling Mrs. Brown to the stand now.
"It makes sense because it provides an emotional impact. It reminds jurors what the trial is all about: a mother losing her child in a brutal murder," Levenson said.
Actually, this isn't the prosecutors' last chance to put on witnesses, There is still the rebuttal case following the defense presentation, which the defense has said should take about six weeks.
Mrs. Brown is in a position to back up a number of contentions the prosecution made in opening statements, including the suggestion that Simpson exerted financial and psychological control over Nicole.
In March 1994, just a few months before the killings, Simpson allegedly told Mrs. Brown: "The only woman I want in my life - and I can't have - is your daughter."
And in an interview last September with ABC's "PrimeTime Live," Mrs. Brown described Simpson as a "very exhausting man" who wanted full control of her daughter.
"He's demanding," she said. "Wear the right clothes. Have her hair right. And you know, everything has to be perfect. She tried and tried and tried . . . she just exhausted herself. She was 18 when she met him, and he was her Daddy all along telling her what to do."
Prosecutors, however, said they would keep her testimony focused on the task of establishing the time of death. Phone records show Mrs. Brown spoke with Nicole about 9:40 p.m. on June 12, 1994. Prosecutors believe Ms. Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were killed at about 10:15 p.m.
It was Mrs. Brown's prescription glasses that, prosecutors say, led Goldman to his doom. Mrs. Brown dropped her glasses outside the restaurant where Goldman worked and where the Browns dined the night of the killings.
Goldman died when he tried to return the glasses to Ms. Simpson, who lived near the restaurant.
The glasses were found near the bodies in a blood-stained envelope.
Mrs. Brown, born in Germany, has three other daughters - Denise, Dominique and Tanya. A nephew, Rolf Bauer, was raised as a son in the Brown family. All have been in the courtroom at different times.
Mrs. Brown will not be the first family member to testify. Goldman's stepmother and sister both took the stand, as did Ms. Simpson's sister, Denise, who wept as she recounted the Simpsons' stormy relationship.