LOS ANGELES, July 17 -- O.J. Simpson smiled and laughed Monday as the jury in his murder trial watched a videotaped workout session that prosecutors say shows he was in good enough physical condition to kill two people shortly after the taping. As jurors intently looked on, prosecutors played a tape showing three camera angles from Simpson's workout session in late May. The tape, taken for Simpson's 'Minimum Maintenance Fitness for Men,' features the football legend stretching, lunging and doing pushups. Prosecutors contend the workout videotape contradicts the defense's claim that Simpson's actions were severely limited by a bout of rheumatoid arthritis so bad that he haddifficulty shuffling a deck of cards the day of the murders. Simpson, 48, is standing trial in Superior Court on two counts of first-degree murder for the June 12, 1994 stabbing and slashing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, 25, outside her Brentwood estate. Simpson has pleaded 'absolutely 100 percent not guilty' to the murders, and laughed, smiled and chatted with his attorneys as the tape was played for the jury. The workout session, filmed in late May and distributed by Playboy Entertainment Inc., features Simpson complaining several times about his 'bad knees' while exercising with a trainer and several other people. During opening statements to the jury in January, prosecutor Marcia Clark said the tapes would show that Simpson could lift his arms overhead and throw 'jabs and upper cuts,' the kinds of movements the killer made.
Superior Court Judge Lance Ito also said Monday that he will allow prosecutors to play a tape from a March 1994 seminar in which Simpson claims a product, Juice Plus, dramatically helped his arthritis. Prosecutor Brian Kelberg said Simpson claims in the tape that he 'had an arthritis problem before, but he changed his diet and he's on this Juice Plus and he's feeling great, (and) that is relevant to assess whether he's capable of less than two months later of murdering these two people. 'It may well be Mr. Simpson was lying to these people at that convention, that he did, in fact, maybe he did have intermittent episodes of arthritis,' Kelberg said outside the presence of the jury. 'But the fact he would lie is itself relevant, lie with respect to his condition when one is evaluating whether he played through pain and was willing to lie if necessary when it was to his advantage or whether he would be fully candid, in which case if he was, he wasn't having a problem less than two months earlier.' Also outside the jury's presence, defense lawyer Robert Shapiro said the tape showed a 'geriatric type of maintenance that Mr. Simpson endorsed and does not perform very well in.' He urged Ito to require the prosecution to show the whole tape -- a restriction Ito refused to order. The workout videotape was shown during the second day of testimony by Dr. Robert Huizenga, who first examined Simpson several days after the murders at the request of Shapiro. Huizenga had testified last week that Simpson suffered from two types of arthritis that would restrict him from strenuous activities, such as running and playing basketball. The Beverly Hills doctor acknowleged Monday that he believes Simpson was physically capable of pulling his ex-wife's head back by the hair and slitting her throat. 'If you have the hypothetical where things are stationary, the strength was there to...hold (Nicole Simpson's) hair, pull (her head back) and move his other extremities,' Huizenga said. Prosecutors contend that Simpson inflicted the last major blow on Nicole Simpson by pulling her head back by her hair and slitting her throat after killing Goldman. The doctor had earlier testified that Simpson had the strength to hold a knife, but was 'certainly not a world-class athlete.' 'He would be average. I wouldn't hire him to back me up in a bar fight,' Huizenga said. 'He isn't as powerful as he looks, but he certainly is as powerful as anyone his age.' Trying to dispute the doctor's characterization of Simpson as a man who 'looked like Tarzan, but was walking more like Tarzan's grandfather,' Kelberg noted that nearly all of the defense's witnesses so far did not notice Simpson limping within hours of the murders. Kelberg suggested that Simpson may have faked the limp as he walked into Huizenga's office a year ago. 'Do you consider yourself an advocate for Mr. Simpson?' the prosecutor asked. 'I consider myself Mr. Simpson's doctor,' Huizenga said. 'I would not in any way lie, but my job is to be his doctor and take care of his health. That's my duty.' The physician said he did not feel it was part of his responsibility to help Simpson's lawyers to try to prepare a defense or to ensure Simpson's acquittal. But Kelberg noted several letters in which the doctor spoke of using medical testimony to counteract prosecution witnesses, noting that the 'night sweats Mr. Simpson complained of may be pertinent to the testimony of the chauffeur who implied O.J. was quite warm when he got into the limo.' Showing apparent sympathy for Simpson, the doctor, who has written a book about his seven years as a team physician with the Los Angeles Raiders, said Simpson suffered from 'insomnia and difficulty handling this incredible stress that maybe no other human being short of (Biblical figure) Job has endured.' The prosecutor retorted, 'And if he had murdered two human beings... would that be the kind of thing that would cause a great weight to be on a man's shoulders?' 'If someone hypothetically killed someone, they certainly would have a great weight on their shoulders,' Huizenga responded. In other testimony, the doctor said Simpson learned to play through pain during his 11-year Hall of Fame professional football career, with Kelberg suggesting that Simpson might have been 'in the throes of an adrenaline rush' during the murders, much like the adrenalin rush experienced by football players during a game, but would be capable of behaving normally after the rush. Also under cross-examination, Huizenga said Simpson had three cuts and seven abrasions on his left hand, but that he could not determine exactly when the injuries occurred. Prosecutors contend that Simpson's left hand was cut and scratched as he struggled with Goldman and dropped a left-handed leather glove that was found at the murder scene -- a scenario the doctor said could be a possibility. Police have testified the glove's mate, which contained DNA consistent with Simpson and the two murder victims, was found near an air conditioning unit at Simpson's mansion, 2 miles from the crime scene. Simpson's defense team claims he broke a glass and cut his finger in a Chicago hotel room after a police officer telephoned him to notify him about his ex-wife's death. Simpson's chief defense attorney, Johnnie Cochran Jr., told the jury during opening statements that Simpson cut the tip of his finger while he was at his Brentwood mansion, but that no one saw any injuries to the knuckle area of his hand until he returned from Chicago. In another development Monday, Simpson's lawyers told the judge they want to introduce the preliminary hearing and grand jury testimony of police nurse Thano Peratis in lieu of calling him to the stand. Peratis took a sample of blood from Simpson the day after the murders, and the defense claims his estimate that he took 8 milliliters of blood could bolster their theory that nearly 2 milliliters is missing, and may have been sprinkled on critical evidence to frame the former football player- turned-actor. Peratis has since indicated he is not exactly sure of the amount of blood he withdrew, but believes it was about 6 1/2 milliliters, In court papers, Dr. Robert Chesne said Peratis had triple bypass surgery a month ago and that the 'tension, stress and anxiety' a court appearance 'would indeed by life-threatening.' Prosecutor Clark told the judge, however, that Peratis's testimony could be taken at the hospital, and that the sequestered jury could either go to the hospital to hear Peratis's testimony or hear it later on tape. An apparently annoyed Ito scheduled a hearing Friday on the matter.
her throat. 'If you have the hypothetical where things are stationary, the strength was there to...hold (Nicole Simpson's) hair, pull (her head back) and move his other extremities,' Huizenga said. Prosecutors contend that Simpson inflicted the last major blow on Nicole Simpson by pulling her head back by her hair and slitting her throat after killing Goldman. The doctor had earlier testified that Simpson had the strength to hold a knife, but was 'certainly not a world-class athlete.' 'He would be average. I wouldn't hire him to back me up in a bar fight,' Huizenga said. 'He isn't as powerful as he looks, but he certainly is as powerful as anyone his age.' Trying to dispute the doctor's characterization of Simpson as a man who 'looked like Tarzan, but was walking more like Tarzan's grandfather,' Kelberg noted that nearly all of the defense's witnesses so far did not notice Simpson limping within hours of the murders. Kelberg suggested that Simpson may have faked the limp as he walked into Huizenga's office a year ago. 'Do you consider yourself an advocate for Mr. Simpson?' the prosecutor asked. 'I consider myself Mr. Simpson's doctor,' Huizenga said. 'I would not in any way lie, but my job is to be his doctor and take care of his health. That's my duty.' The physician said he did not feel it was part of his responsibility to help Simpson's lawyers to try to prepare a defense or to ensure Simpson's acquittal. But Kelberg noted several letters in which the doctor spoke of using medical testimony to counteract prosecution witnesses, noting that the 'night sweats Mr. Simpson complained of may be pertinent to the testimony of the chauffeur who implied O.J. was quite warm when he got into the limo.' Showing apparent sympathy for Simpson, the doctor, who has written a book about his seven years as a team physician with the Los Angeles Raiders, said Simpson suffered from 'insomnia and difficulty handling this incredible stress that maybe no other human being short of (Biblical figure) Job has endured.' The prosecutor retorted, 'And if he had murdered two human beings... would that be the kind of thing that would cause a great weight to be on a man's shoulders?' 'If someone hypothetically killed someone, they certainly would have a great weight on their shoulders,' Huizenga responded. In other testimony, the doctor said Simpson learned to play through pain during his 11-year Hall of Fame professional football career, with Kelberg suggesting that Simpson might have been 'in the throes of an adrenaline rush' during the murders, much like the adrenalin rush experienced by football players during a game, but would be capable of behaving normally after the rush. Also under cross-examination, Huizenga said Simpson had three cuts and seven abrasions on his left hand, but that he could not determine exactly when the injuries occurred. Prosecutors contend that Simpson's left hand was cut and scratched as he struggled with Goldman and dropped a left-handed leather glove that was found at the murder scene -- a scenario the doctor said could be a possibility. Police have testified the glove's mate, which contained DNA consistent with Simpson and the two murder victims, was found near an air conditioning unit at Simpson's mansion, 2 miles from the crime scene. Simpson's defense team claims he broke a glass and cut his finger in a Chicago hotel room after a police officer telephoned him to notify him about his ex-wife's death. Simpson's chief defense attorney, Johnnie Cochran Jr., told the jury during opening statements that Simpson cut the tip of his finger while he was at his Brentwood mansion, but that no one saw any injuries to the knuckle area of his hand until he returned from Chicago.
Testimony in the O.J. Simpson double- murder trial has ended for the day (Monday), with the jury seeing an exercise workout videotape that Simpson made about 2 1/2 weeks before his ex-wife and her friend were murdered. Simpson smiled and laughed several times while watching portions of the videotape, which the prosecution hopes will show the jury that Simpson was physically able to perform the motions necessary to kill.
