📄 Sidebar: redirect scope — Monday, May 22, 1995
Address:
C:\DEPT103\CRIMINAL\1995\MAY\22\SIDEBAR-REDIRECT-SCOPE.DOC
TRIAL
▲ Day 79 of 167

Sidebar: redirect scope

Date: Monday, May 22, 1995 • Utterances: 59
Prosecutors sought permission to redirect on Item 117, the rear gate blood stain, using EAP and PGM marker evidence to argue the stain degraded naturally over time — proving it was not planted. Scheck objected on two grounds: the redirect exceeded the scope of cross-examination (which only touched DNA concentration), and Sims was not the analyst who performed the conventional serology tests on 117. Ito allowed limited redirect on the age-of-stain issue but signaled he would not let it expand into a broader retrial of evidence.
1 (The following proceedings were held in open court, out of the presence of the jury:)
2 THE COURT:

All right. Let's have the jurors, please.

3 (Brief pause.)
4 MR. HARMON:

Your Honor, I do want to address the EAP on 117.

5 THE COURT:

Hold them. What is the relevance of 117? It was not gone into on cross?

6 MR. HARMON:

Well, 117 was gone into extensively on cross and this is part of the large picture on 117. As everybody knows now, EAP is in the red cells.

7 THE COURT:

Refresh my recollection. What is 117?

8 MR. HARMON:

117 is the rear gate stain.

9 THE COURT:

Got it.

10 MR. HARMON:

It is one of the EDTA stains. We all know the significance of that. That is one of the stains that wasn't collected until July 3rd. We all know that EAP is in the red cells, DNA is in the white cells, and the Defense contentions about 117 are that it is planted and that that is--remember this great chart that shows--

11 THE COURT:

The amount of DNA?

12 MR. HARMON:

--how much more DNA is in there? Well, that is just the white blood cells. The red blood cells in conventional serology and the EAP is right on that electrophoretogram. Well, Mr. Simpson is EAP type BA and that is not what 117 typed to. It typed to, as I recall, a B inconclusive or a B question mark. And what Mr. Sims, if I am allowed to do--and this is part of the large picture in discussing and demonstrating irrefutably that 117 wasn't planted, the fact that Mr. Simpson's EAP type is changed, just like Miss Brown's did, from a BA to a B, the fact that the conventional serology results by Mr. Matheson show no PGM activity from 117. And Mr. Sims is going to discuss PGM literature. PGM is a much more persistent marker than EAP is. These all demonstrate totally conclusively that that stain, 117, was out there for a long period of time. That we will be discussing scientific literature about PGM to show how it persists in spite of a large number of environmental insults. And the EAP electrophoretogram is right on there and if you recall back, this was back some weeks ago, the Defense made a big deal on one of these exhibits. They wanted us to cut off 117. This is weeks and weeks ago. I can't even remember which exhibit that was. Because they just don't want the jury to see that Mr. Simpson's EAP type went from a BA to a B inconclusive, just like Nicole Brown Simpson's did on the fingernail clippings. So this is a small piece of the big picture that shows that 117 was out there for some period of time. It is consistent with having been out there since June 13th.

13 (Brief pause.)
14 MR. HARMON:

Your Honor, I need to supplement that a little bit, too. That same electrophoretogram has 115 and 116 on there. 115, 116 and 117 all produced the same conventional serology results. This BA looks like a B, looks like a degraded BA. It is a B inconclusive, very much like what Mr. Sims has described 84A and B are, no PGM activity. And let's not forget what we know about 115. And I will bring that up again at the close of the business today, too, your Honor. We have got a photograph taken on June 13th--

15 THE COURT:

No, let's not go into that.

16 MR. HARMON:

That is all part of the picture.

17 THE COURT:

We are only talking about whether or not I'm going to allow you on redirect to go back into 117. And it had been my recollection, erroneously, that that had not been covered in one--117 had not been covered in the cross-examination.

18 MR. SCHECK:

May I be heard?

19 THE COURT:

And I stand corrected.

20 MR. SCHECK:

May I be heard?

21 THE COURT:

Yes.

22 MR. SCHECK:

It was only covered with respect to the DNA concentration and what--first of all, the--

23 THE COURT:

What is the inference that you are going to argue from that?

24 MR. SCHECK:

The inference is with respect to the amount of DNA in that stain and that is it. What Mr. Harmon is trying to do--

25 THE COURT:

Wait. The inference that you are going to argue from that is that it is different than the DNA on 47, 48, 49, 50 and 52?

26 MR. SCHECK:

The amounts.

27 THE COURT:

Yes.

28 MR. SCHECK:

Yes, and that is what the chart depicts.

29 THE COURT:

All right.

30 MR. SCHECK:

Mr. Harmon has made a series--

31 THE COURT:

What argument are you going to make from that point? What is the relevance to it?

32 MR. SCHECK:

It has to do with the relative age of the drops, there is no question about that, but he has made two different arguments here. And the first is--and let's sort them through, because it is outside the scope of the cross in this regard. The first is, that there is--the 117 is typed inconclusive. It has nothing to do with B, it is just period inconclusive by Matheson. So it seems to me, umm, that it is improper and outside the scope certainly cross-examination to be raising 117 in the context of the fingernail description at this point in time when that wasn't gone into and again it is an inconclusive. Mr. Harmon is talking about PGM now with respect to this stain and how that might relate to the age of the stains, and I think that that again is outside the scope of the cross-examination. But certainly, using 117 to go back into the issue of the appearance of--of a B when it wasn't called a B, it was an inconclusive, and to go back into the fingernail scrapings has nothing to do with the cross-examination on that. As to what he is saying he wants to do with this electrophoretogram on the conventional serology markers, I don't know. It sounds like it is outside the scope there, too. Umm--umm, and if, umm--I mean, that is about all I have to say about that, but plainly, it is beyond the scope with respect to what he is doing right now and that is discussion of the fingernail scrapings.

33 MR. HARMON:

Red blood cells.

34 MR. SCHECK:

We didn't go into that at all and it wasn't even gone into with Mr. Matheson, 117.

35 THE COURT:

Well, the issue is 117 and the age of the brood drop.

36 MR. HARMON:

That's right. Red blood cells, white blood cells, they are within the same cell and they want to--I mean, you talk about something being beyond the scope. We are talking about the same cell and they want to preclude me from talking about implications of red cell testing by saying we only talked about white blood cell testing, and I think that is clearly a silly proposition, your Honor, to confine me. We are talking about 117. We are talking about how long 117 was there. We are talking about whether it was planted. We are talking about the ambient environment that it was in, as opposed to all the things along the walkway in the house. That is what we are going to be talking about with this witness, your Honor, and that is all within the scope of that beautiful chart that they put up there. It is within the scope of that chart.

37 MR. SCHECK:

The other answer to this, is that if they want to make some inferences about--they just had this witness testify that he disagrees with the call that Mr. Matheson made on the EAP B under the fingernails, that he wouldn't have called it a B. Now, what they are tying to do is have him testify about these test results in another context with respect to the gate when he is not the person that performed these tests, has express reservations about the results of these tests. He is the wrong witness. If they want to call a witness to testify about this particular testing and lay a foundation for it in relation to the gate and how conventional markers can or cannot tell you anything about the age of the blood on the gate, then they can call a witness to testify to it, but it is outside the scope of the cross-examination and it is without foundation as to this witness as to these tests which he has disavowed. He wants them to start testifying about results which this witness has disavowed. He disagreed with the call on the fingernail scrapings and now he wants him to testify about the significance of the back gate which was called inconclusive, which ordinarily--in fact this witness has said that inconclusives he won't testify report the results.

38 THE COURT:

Mr. Scheck, hold on. Mr. Harmon, your offer of proof is that you are going to ask Mr. Sims to testify to the durability of PGM markers in blood left at crime scenes?

39 MR. HARMON:

Right. I mean, we are only at the point now we are talking about EAP, and so we haven't gotten beyond that with 117. You can look at this thing and it looks just like 84A and B and that is what Mr. Sims is going to say. The EAP result looks just like 84A and B. Now, if this is planted, unless somebody took Mr. Simpson's red blood cells from this stain, it gets much more complicated if that is--

40 THE COURT:

No, no, no. Please don't launch off on the things that I'm not asking you about.

41 MR. HARMON:

Well, we are--

42 THE COURT:

I'm asking you are you making an offer of proof--

43 MR. HARMON:

Yes, your Honor.

44 THE COURT:

--that you are then going to go into the durability of the PGM marker?

45 MR. HARMON:

Right, and the fact that there was no PGM activity in these stains.

46 THE COURT:

That is going to tell me that it has been out there for a long time?

47 MR. HARMON:

Yes, your Honor, 84A and B.

48 THE COURT:

All right.

49 MR. SCHECK:

My objection is to if he is restricting it that way, that is one thing, although I still think it is outside the scope, but I don't want him doing this with respect to the fingernail scrapings in this context because I didn't go into it in that context on cross-examination and it is going to open up a whole can of worms that--

50 THE COURT:

All right. I understand this argument to be in the context of 117, the stain at the gate.

51 MR. HARMON:

115. They are all in the same electrophoretogram, your Honor.

52 THE COURT:

All right. The issue was raised regarding the age of the stain on the gate, I will allow limited access by the Prosecution on redirect to that issue. All right. I'm not willing to try the rest of the case on this.

KEY QUOTE
53 MR. SCHECK:

But I still have a remaining objection that he didn't even do these tests.

54 THE COURT:

I understand that.

55 MR. SCHECK:

And he is asking him to talk about inconclusive.

56 THE COURT:

And I anticipate the foundation will be laid, but you did bring up the issue of the EAP.

57 MR. SCHECK:

On the amount of DNA, that is fine, but this is an apples and oranges issue.

58 THE COURT:

No. It is the issue that is relevant to the case.

59 MR. SCHECK:

I have no quarrel with putting in such testimony through the competent witness with a proper foundation, but that is not--

KEY QUOTE

Temperature

tense

Key Quotes (4)

Rockne Harmon
We are talking about 117. We are talking about how long 117 was there. We are talking about whether it was planted... And I think that is clearly a silly proposition, your Honor, to confine me.
Harmon frames the EAP/PGM redirect as essential to the anti-planting argument — degradation of red-cell markers proves the stain was out there since June 13th.
Barry Scheck
He wants them to start testifying about results which this witness has disavowed. He disagreed with the call on the fingernail scrapings and now he wants him to testify about the significance of the back gate which was called inconclusive.
Scheck's strongest point: Sims previously distanced himself from this very testing methodology, making him an improper vehicle for this evidence.
Lance A. Ito
The issue was raised regarding the age of the stain on the gate, I will allow limited access by the Prosecution on redirect to that issue. I'm not willing to try the rest of the case on this.
The ruling — narrowly permits redirect on age-of-stain, signals impatience with scope creep.
Barry Scheck
I have no quarrel with putting in such testimony through the competent witness with a proper foundation, but that is not—
Scheck concedes the substance of Harmon's argument is legitimate, but insists Sims is the wrong witness — a narrower and harder-to-rebut objection.

Evidence (5)

Item 117
Rear gate blood stain, collected July 3rd — central to defense planting theory
discussed — prosecution seeks redirect on EAP degradation and absence of PGM activity
Items 115, 116
Additional stains on same electrophoretogram as 117, showing same conventional serology results
referenced to contextualize 117's results
Items 84A and 84B
Stains previously discussed by Sims showing similar EAP degradation pattern
referenced as comparison — Harmon argues 117 looks just like 84A/B
Informal
EAP electrophoretogram showing BA-to-B degradation pattern for OJ Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson samples
discussed — prosecution argues the degradation pattern proves natural aging, not planting
Informal
Defense chart showing DNA concentration differences between 117 and other stains (47, 48, 49, 50, 52)
referenced — Scheck argues cross only addressed this chart's DNA concentration data

Notable Exchanges (2)

Rockne HarmonBarry ScheckLance A. Ito
Harmon argues the red-cell/white-cell distinction means EAP is inherently within scope when cross touched DNA (white cells) in the same stain. Scheck calls it apples and oranges. Ito cuts through and focuses narrowly on the age-of-stain question.
strategic
Lance A. ItoRockne Harmon
Ito repeatedly interrupts Harmon's expansive argument to extract a precise offer of proof — specifically whether Sims will testify to PGM marker durability. Harmon keeps launching into broader arguments; Ito keeps pulling him back.
procedural

Credibility Attacks (1)

⚔ Gary Sims
prior inconsistent position / witness competency
Scheck argues Sims is the wrong witness for Item 117 conventional serology because he previously disavowed the EAP call on the fingernail scrapings — making it improper to have him now vouch for similar testing methodology on the gate stain.

Objections

3 objections (0 sustained, 0 overruled)
Proceeding 6132 • 59 utterances
Criminal Trial
Department 103
⚖️ Start
📂 MAY 22, 1995 📄 Sidebar: redirect scope
MAY 22, 1995 KRT DvH TD