Doctor, did you write this in your 12th edition of the "Deputy medical examiner and procedure manual" on page 40 under the heading "Homicides"? "In homicide cases justice may not be properly served unless meticulous attention to detail is observed. The smallest mark on the body may be of critical importance when all of the facts in the case become known. All marks of trauma are to be charted and described. External measurements shall be in inches since the police and courts are not yet met metricized and recreation of a crime scene is made difficult when converting back and forth from inches to centimeters"?
We try and meet the expectations in every case we do. We try very hard not to make mistakes. When we do make mistakes, we accept them, we review the report and correct them. We work as a team in our office. We have 166 employees who work very hard. We share Honor and blame where the mistakes do occur. We are not proud to make mistakes, we are sad when we make a mistake, but we are ready to accept it.
Your Honor, I'm going to move to strike that as nonresponsive to the question that was asked.
Doctor, in your--let's finish with these forms just so we see what they are. Mr. Fairtlough, if you can just in sequencing, pages 127, 128 and so forth. Doctor, just to back up so we can see these forms, there are numbers in the upper left-hand corner for each of these forms; is that correct?
Yes. Originally these diagrams had letters attached to a number. They had 20-A, B, C, d and I am in the process of revising the form so we have a number for a form and that is how some forms have the letter next to the number and like 20-J or 20-H and have some numbers and we are in the process of doing that, so at the same time we don't want to throw away a form we already have, we want to finish them and then use the new form when the new forms are printed.
Doctor, are all of these forms which are used by the medical examiner in the course of the autopsy?
This is the diagram of the brain. The doctor can use this to document the injuries on the brain if they--when they observe the injuries on the brain during the autopsy.
In the course of reviewing the materials in this case, was there a form 29 completed by Dr. Golden for the autopsy of Nicole Brown Simpson?
What was the written entry, and we will see the document in a few minutes, but what was the written entry?
And incidentally, that scaly looking thing running horizontally at the bottom of the form, what does that depict?
Now, doctor, did you find, in your review of materials on June 22, 1994 with Dr. Baden, that there had been a mistake made by Dr. Golden with respect to that entry of "No injuries"?
I'm going to object as leading and assumes a fact not in evidence; misstates the true facts.
Doctor, on June 22, 1994, did you examine any of the tissue preserved by Dr. Golden from the autopsy of Nicole Brown Simpson?
Yes, I did. I did it in conjunction with Dr. Baden and Dr. Wolf, Defense pathologists who wanted to examine the tissues which we have in our possession.
I'm not sure if Dr. Wolf has been introduced, but that is the young woman who is seated next--I hope she likes the term young woman--she is smiling so I must not be too offensive--seated next to Dr. Baden.
When you examined any of the brain tissue, did you see anything that was of significance to you?
We are going to talk about what a contusion is later on, but given what you saw, did that cause you to form an opinion as to whether or not Dr. Golden's entry of no injury on his form 29 was a mistake?
And have you reevaluated, in the course of reviewing all the material, what significance, if any, that mistake has as to any of the issues about which you are to testify?
It was a mistake in not documenting the injury, but the injury itself did not cause the death. It was not a fatal injury.
KEY QUOTEDoctor, my question is did you assess or consider, that is, the significance, if any, of this mistake of Dr. Golden's regarding this injury to the brain when you were evaluating the issues about which you are to testify here today?
Your Honor, I'm going to object. That is vague, the issues about which he is to testify?
Doctor, have you considered various materials for the purpose of coming to an independent conclusion on cause of death for Nicole Brown Simpson?
On whether one knife could have caused all injuries that are sharp force injuries received by Nicole Brown Simpson?
On whether one knife could have caused all the sharp force injuries received by Ronald Goldman?
On whether the same knife could have caused all of the sharp force injuries received by both Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman?
And in evaluating those issues have you taken into account every mistake that you have identified that you believe is attributed to Dr. Golden?
And have you considered what, if any, significance each of those mistakes has with respect to these issues you have indicated you have considered?
In your opinion did any of the mistakes, including this mistake, have any significance in your ability to determine the cause of death of Nicole Brown Simpson?
Did it have, any of these mistakes, including this one, have any significance to you in your ability to determine the cause of death of Ronald Goldman?
Did any of these mistakes, including this one in form 29, have any significance to you in your ability to determine whether one knife could have caused all of the sharp force injuries received by Ronald Goldman?
Did any of these mistakes, including the one on form 29, have any significance to you in your ability to determine whether one knife caused all of the sharp force injuries to Nicole Brown Simpson?
Did any of these mistakes, including the one on form 29, have any significance to you in your ability to determine whether the same single knife could have caused all of the sharp force injuries to both Ronald Goldman and to Nicole Brown Simpson?
And we will get into your reasons as we get into the actual materials and photographs. Now, if we could go to the next form, please, Mr. Fairtlough, and this is a form 24.
This is a form showing diagrammatic representation of the internal neck organs which I alluded to earlier and the doctor uses this form to document any injuries they may see.
This is a form to document injuries on the hands, both the palm and the back of the hands.
Defensive wounds is a term used for describing injuries on the extremities when they are used by a victim to ward off any inflicting assaultive injuries which is going to be inflicted on them.
Both the lower extremity and the upper extremity but most of the extremity means the hands and the feet and the legs and the arms.
And in cases involving stab wounds or the use of a knife to inflict injuries, is defensive wounds on--are defensive wounds kind of thing as a forensic pathologist you are looking for?
And a form like 23, is this where you would expect them to be tagged, at least with respect to the hands?
Yes. This is a side view of the body. We use this diagram because this gives us a better view of the flank area which is demonstrated earlier.
This shows the skull cavity after the skull cap has been removed after we see in the top sheet.
This is a diagram which shows the skeletal system with an outline of the body around it to document any fractures or injuries, penetrating injuries through the rib cage or bony cage. It is a good form to diagrammatically represent what you want to demonstrate.
Doctor, in going back briefly to form 28, you have already identified from form 29 the brain form, this issue of no injuries. What you identified on June 22nd as this contusion to the cerebral cortex of Nicole Brown Simpson's brain tissue, would you expect that to be diagrammed on this form?
Not the brain contusion. The brain contusion is only diagrammed on the brain diagram.
On this form is there any kind of sharp force injury to the skull, like a knife striking the scull? Would you expect that this would be the form where it would be diagrammed?
Doctor, I want to get into a discussion now of sharp force injuries so we have a little more detailed understanding of that. Let's start off with first just your definition of sharp force injuries.
A sharp force injury is one which is caused by a sharp instrument. They would be stab wounds or incise wounds. And the sharp instrument could vary anywhere from a knife to a broken glass or an open scissor with each blade of the scissor acting like a knife. I just gave you a few examples.
Your Honor, I have a board which I ask to be marked as exhibit 331, and I'm not certain where is the best place. Mr. Fairtlough is our expert on this.
I think we need to turn it so it is parallel and the doctor needs to be able to see it.
I may have to step to the board. And also Mr. Fairtlough has the capability and I ask that he put up this particular exhibit 331, which is our page 140, Mr. Fairtlough.
You are going to have to keep your voice up, too, doctor. Can we swing this microphone?
What we are trying to show here is the correlation between the knife and wound damages. The example here is a single-edged knife. The reason is the description of the injuries on the body correlate with certain class characteristics of a weapon. The length of the blade usually corresponds to the depth of the stab wound in the body. The width of the blade corresponds to the length of the wound of the body surface. The thickness of the blade corresponds to the width of the wound on the body's surface. So I will show you another diagram which explains this further.
All right. Doctor, this title for this particular exhibit is--includes "Single-edged knife" which was defined earlier. Is this in fact a depiction of a single-edged knife?
Yes, because you can see that this edge is blunt. You can see the blunt edge here of the knife, (Indicating). That is, this edge will not be sharp in contrast to the other edge which will be the sharp cutting edge of this knife.
Doctor, in your training as a forensic pathologist are you taught about class characteristics of knives?
Are you taught about how you look at class characteristics of knives for the purpose of seeking to identify from the wound to the body the kind of knife that may be responsible for the wounds?
Yes. We look at the wounds, we look for simple penetrating wounds which will help us to give some estimate as to a class characteristic for knife. And "Class characteristic" means the length of the blade, the width and the thickness of the blade.
Doctor, do single-edged knives come in all different dimensions of thickness, width and length?
We work as a team in our office. We have 166 employees who work very hard. We share Honor and blame where the mistakes do occur. We are not proud to make mistakes, we are sad when we make a mistake, but we are ready to accept it.
In homicide cases justice may not be properly served unless meticulous attention to detail is observed. The smallest mark on the body may be of critical importance when all of the facts in the case become known.
We found a piece of the cerebral cortex which had a contusion injury.
It was a mistake in not documenting the injury, but the injury itself did not cause the death. It was not a fatal injury.