That famous look of relief on O.J. Simpson's face when the jury acquitted him of murder was an acting performance, says an author who claims a jail guard tipped Simpson to the verdict the night before.
Jeffrey Toobin, who covered the trial for The New Yorker magazine, also said defense attorneys Johnnie Cochran and Robert Shapiro thought Simpson was guilty and told others so.Shapiro did not immediately return phone calls. Cochran, in a statement issued Friday, denied he ever said or felt Simpson was responsible for the stabbing deaths of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Cochran called Toobin's assertion an "unmitigated, bold-faced lie."
"During the Simpson trial, I had to constantly chastise Mr. Toobin for his biased misrepresentation of facts, always in favor of the prosecution," Cochran said. "My experience has taught me that you cannot trust much of what Jeffrey Toobin writes or reports."
Toobin spoke about the trial and his book, "The Run of His Life," on NBC's "Dateline," which will air Sunday. He declined to comment Friday.
"One of the things I've learned since the trial is that one of the most famous moments in television history, which is that shot of O.J., is fundamentally a fraud," Toobin told the news program. "Because he looked surprised, but he wasn't."
After jurors reached their verdict and placed it in an envelope on Oct. 2, Toobin said, they went back to their hotel and had a party. The two alternate jurors, who didn't know the verdict, were told by another juror that Simpson was innocent.
A deputy guarding the jurors asked, " `Come on, what happened?' (They) said the same thing: `N' - not guilty," the author said. A deputy then called a friend who was guarding Simpson in jail, and the guard told Simpson, Toobin said.
"One of the sheriffs came up to him and said, `I want your autograph tonight because you're going home tomorrow,' " Toobin said.
"Obviously, you don't know for sure until you hear it," the author said. But "these weren't people who were out to play with his head the night before the verdict. These were his buddies, and they were right."
Simpson was acquitted the next day as millions watched on television.
Prosecutor Christopher Darden said the prosecution had suspected Simpson knew the verdict before it was read.