📄 Jury entry and tape playback setup — Thursday, February 16, 1995
📅 Feb 16 — Day 20
⚖️ Lance A. Ito🛡️ Johnnie Cochran🏛️ Marcia Clark
jury
Address:
C:\DEPT103\CRIMINAL\1995\FEB\16\JURY-ENTRY-AND-TAPE-PLAYBACK-S.DOC
TRIAL
▲ Day 20 of 167

Jury entry and tape playback setup

Date: Thursday, February 16, 1995 • Utterances: 19
The jury is handed transcripts in preparation for playing a tape, with brief courtroom confusion as Clark complains the defense took the prosecution's copy. Judge Ito restores order and Darden accepts Cochran's representation that the tape has not been enhanced or edited.
1 MR. COCHRAN:

MAY WE DISTRIBUTE THEM TO THE JURORS, YOUR HONOR?

2 THE COURT:

YES. DEPUTY JACKSON, WOULD YOU DISTRIBUTE THOSE TO THE JURY, PLEASE.

3 (THE BAILIFF COMPLIES.)
4 MR. DARDEN:

BEFORE WE PLAY THE TAPE, MAY WE INSPECT THE TAPE PHYSICALLY BEFORE IT'S PLAYED?

5 (BRIEF PAUSE.)
6 THE COURT:

FOLKS, IF YOU JUST HOLD ON TO THOSE TRANSCRIPTS. DON'T READ THEM UNTIL WE ACTUALLY START PLAYING THE TAPE THAT IT PERTAINS TO.

7 MS. CLARK:

YOUR HONOR, MAY WE GET ANOTHER COPY? DEFENSE JUST TOOK THE COPY WE WERE USING.

8 THE COURT:

I'M SORRY, MISS CLARK. I DIDN'T HEAR THAT.

9 MS. CLARK:

CAN WE GET ANOTHER CLEAN COPY OF THE TRANSCRIPT? THE COURT -- THE DEFENSE JUST TOOK THE ONE WE WERE USING.

10 THE COURT:

I THINK IT'S THE SAME ONE THAT YOU HAVE WITHOUT THE ENVELOPE, ISN'T IT?

11 MS. CLARK:

I REALIZE THAT, YOUR HONOR. BUT WE WANTED TO MARK IT AND DEFENSE OBJECTED TO THE COPY --

12 THE COURT:

WAIT.

13 MR. COCHRAN:

I GAVE YOU ONE I THOUGHT, COUNSEL.

14 MR. HARRIS:

I HAVE ONE HERE.

15 THE COURT:

WAIT. WAIT. WAIT. COUNSEL, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT. WHEN I SAY WAIT, EVERYBODY STOPS TALKING AND SITS DOWN. ALL RIGHT. MISS CLARK, HAVE YOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO LOOK AT THE TAPE? MR. DARDEN?

16 MR. DARDEN:

I HAVE, YOUR HONOR. MR. COCHRAN HAS TOLD ME THAT THE TAPE HAS NOT BEEN ENHANCED OR OTHERWISE EDITED, AND I ACCEPT THAT REPRESENTATION. THANK YOU, SIR.

KEY QUOTE
17 MR. COCHRAN:

THANK YOU, SIR.

18 THE COURT:

MR. COCHRAN, YOU MAY PROCEED.

19 MR. COCHRAN:

THANK YOU VERY KINDLY, YOUR HONOR.

Temperature

routine

Key Quotes (2)

Lance A. Ito
WHEN I SAY WAIT, EVERYBODY STOPS TALKING AND SITS DOWN.
Ito snapping the room to order — a rare moment of judicial firmness amid overlapping crosstalk.
Christopher Darden
MR. COCHRAN HAS TOLD ME THAT THE TAPE HAS NOT BEEN ENHANCED OR OTHERWISE EDITED, AND I ACCEPT THAT REPRESENTATION. THANK YOU, SIR.
Prosecution formally accepts the defense's assurance about tape integrity on the record, waiving further physical inspection.

Evidence (2)

Informal
A tape (unspecified) about to be played for the jury
prepared for playback
Informal
Transcript copies distributed to jurors to follow along during tape playback
distributed

Notable Exchanges (1)

Marcia ClarkJohnnie CochranLance A. Ito
Clark complained the defense took the prosecution's transcript copy; Cochran said he gave her one; Ito cut everyone off with repeated 'Wait's.
mildly chaotic, quickly resolved

Light Moments (1)

Lance A. Ito
Ito's staccato 'WAIT. WAIT. WAIT. WAIT... WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT' to silence the crosstalk is faintly comic in its escalation.

Witness Demeanor

(THE BAILIFF COMPLIES.)
(BRIEF PAUSE.)

Objections

None recorded
Proceeding 5049 • 19 utterances
Criminal Trial
Department 103
⚖️ Start
📂 FEB 16, 1995 📄 Jury entry and tape playback s
FEB 16, 1995 KRT DvH TD