THE O.J. SIMPSON MURDER TRIAL : The Legal Pad

UCLA law professor Peter Arenella and Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson offer their take on the Simpson trial. Joining them is former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, who will rotate with other experts as the case moves forward. Today’s topic: further cross-examination of Ronald G. Shipp and playing of the 911 tape from 1993.

PETER ARENELLA

On the prosecution: “Another very good day. It began with Chris Darden effectively eliciting key details from Shipp to bolster his credibility: He had refused to sell his story because that would be taking ‘blood money,’ he had ensured that money from an O.J. book would go to Simpson’s children, and he had been invited to Nicole Brown’s funeral. And the day ended with the jury hearing Nicole pleading for help on a 1993 911 call, with O.J. ranting in the background.”

On the defense: “Shipp presented a major problem for the defense because of his obvious, if unstated, belief in Simpson’s guilt. This explains why they chose to attack his claim of having a close relationship with O.J. But the defense was unable to provide much support for its version of Shipp: a frustrated Simpson groupie interested in promoting his own acting career.”

LAURIE LEVENSON

On the prosecution: “The prosecution continued its theme that O.J. is a batterer, a manipulator and even callous to the death of his former wife. Through his questioning, Chris Darden clarified the purpose of Shipp’s dream testimony. It was offered, in part, to show that Simpson was laughing as he told Shipp that he had dreamed of killing Nicole and to remind jurors that O.J. made this statement right after he had watched the bodies being taken away from the murder scene on television.”

On the defense: “Carl Douglas’ tone in his cross-examination was better Thursday, but he still ran into problems because Shipp already had admitted many of his flaws. Often when Douglas attacked him, Shipp responded in a way that also injured O.J. For example, when Douglas confronted Shipp with being in a Jacuzzi with a blond woman at O.J.’s mansion, Shipp let the jury know that O.J. was interested in her, too.”

IRA REINER

On the prosecution: “The prosecution put forward a witness who was not particularly significant, someone to help set a tone that Simpson is capable of committing murder--he beats her up and then he dreams of killing her. Standing by itself that evidence would not amount to much, and the dream testimony could have been the subject of ridicule. But the defense came to their rescue and made him a powerful witness. It became two days of riveting testimony.”

On the defense: The defense’s decision to go after Shipp so hard has the ring of O.J. having too much influence on his lawyers. Strategically it is difficult to understand. But it is very difficult in a trial when someone gets on the stand and says your client is terrible and the client grabs you and says we have to go after this guy. Douglas’ style was better Thursday but by keeping Shipp on the stand so long his testimony was etched deeper into the jurors’ minds.

Compiled by HENRY WEINSTEIN / Los Angeles Times