Mark Fuhrman

Mark Fuhrman (2008)

Mark Fuhrman (born February 5, 1952 ) is a retired American criminal investigator, book author and media commentator. He achieved worldwide fame in the criminal case against OJ Simpson in 1995, in which he was accused of racism and falsification of evidence as an investigative detective and was later convicted of perjury . Simpson's defense attorneys cited Fuhrman as an example of the racism present in the Los Angeles Police Department. Chief Defender Johnnie Cochran called Fuhrman a "genocidal racist" and "America's worst nightmare" in his closing argument.

Life

Fuhrman was born in Eatonville, Washington State , and attended Peninsula High School in nearby Gig Harbor , but did not graduate. However, he earned a General Education Equivalency Diploma , which is equivalent to the high school degree, and was enlisted in 1970 for the US Marines and was used as a machine gunner and military policeman. During his time in the army, he took part in the Vietnam War, but by his own account not in the country itself, but on a ship off its coast. After serving in the Marines, he studied history, police science, and arts at a community college, and worked as a police officer and then as a criminal investigator for the Los Angeles Police Department until his retirement in 1995.

Witness in the trial of OJ Simpson

In the trial of OJ Simpson, Fuhrman was an important witness for the prosecution, as an investigator who arrived immediately found a black glove at the scene of the crime, on which DNA traces of Simpson's blood were later found. The Simpsons lawyers accused Fuhrman of trying to attach the murder to their client for racist motives. The witness Kathleen Bell stated in the course of the proceedings that Fuhrman had made derogatory comments about people of dark skin in a chance encounter with her. Among other things, he said that if he saw a black man with a white woman in a car, he would always stop them. Even if there was no reason, he would still find one.

At the Simpson trial, Fuhrman testified under oath that he had never used the derogatory term "nigger" to describe a black person in the past 10 years. The Simpsons Defense then produced tape recordings by professor Laura McKinny , showing that Fuhrman had made derogatory comments about dark-skinned people, including the word "nigger" and talking about falsified reports at the Los Angeles Police Department .

In another interview he talked about gang members and said, among other things, "Yeah, we work with niggers and gangs. You can take one of these niggers and drag him out on the street and beat the shit out of him and kick them. You can see them, how they twitch. That helps you to relieve the tension. "..." We got them to the point that they begged and said that they didn't want to be gang members anymore "..." You do what we tell you, understood, Nigger?" ( "Yeah we work with niggers and gangs. You can take one of these niggers, drag 'em into the alley and beat the shit out of them and kick them. You can see them twitch. It really relieves your tension." .. . "we had them begging that they'd never be gang members again, begging us." ... "You do what you're told, understand, nigger?" )

There is also a passage on the so-called Fuhrman tapes in which Fuhrman makes fun of the wife of the presiding judge Lance Ito , who was briefly his superior. This fact raised the question of whether the presiding judge should resign from the case because of bias. However, this request was not followed up by the prosecutors. In a subsequent trial, Fuhrman was convicted of perjury .

Works as an author (selection)

• The Murder Business: How the Media Turns Crime Into Entertainment and Subverts Justice , Regnery Publishing , New York 2009, ISBN 9781596985841
• Murder in Spokane: Catching a Serial Killer , Cliff Street Books, New York 2001, ISBN 0060194375
• Death and Justice: An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine , Morrow, New York 2003, ISBN 0060009179
• Silent Witness: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo's Death , Morrow, New York 2005, ISBN 0060853379

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jury is urged to discount testimony of Fuhrman , accessed July 24, 2015.
2. ↑ Video: Testimony of March 13, 1995 in the trial of OJ Simpson , accessed on July 24, 2015
3. ↑ Minutes: Testimony of March 13, 1995 in the trial of OJ Simpson , accessed on July 24, 2015
4. ^ Letter from Kathleen Bell to OJ Simpson's Lawyer , accessed July 24, 2015
5. ↑ Mark Fuhrman ( Memento of the original from February 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. project page at University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law. Retrieved January 8, 2008. 
6. ^ Prosecutors drop demand that Ito step down , accessed July 24, 2015.
7. ^ Superior Court of California: People v. Fuhrman , accessed July 24, 2015.