Simpson appeals 1997 civil verdict; $33.5 million at issue

Leonard also told the 2nd District Court of Appeal that the exclusion of testimony by former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman barred important evidence of a police plan to frame Simpson for the murders of Ms. Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

A criminal court jury acquitted Simpson of murder charges in 1995. In 1997, a jury in a civil lawsuit found Simpson liable for the two deaths and awarded the plaintiffs $8.5 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages.

Simpson's attorney noted that since his criminal and civil trials, public attitudes toward Los Angeles police have changed dramatically, especially because of alleged frame-ups and other crimes by members of an anti-gang unit in the department's Rampart area.

"Pre-Rampart, when you tried to convince a jury that the police planted evidence, you had an extremely high hurdle," Leonard said.

He was interrupted by appeals court Justice J. Gary Hastings, who said, "So now if it goes back (for retrial) after Rampart, people will believe it?"

Justice Charles S. Vogel added, "It would greatly enhance the argument of the defense that the defendant was framed. ... What you're saying is that with Fuhrman it would put in question the DNA evidence. It would show that Mr. Fuhrman and others spread it around on the back gate and elsewhere."

Leonard responded, "I couldn't have stated it better."

Vogel, Hastings and Justice Norman L. Epstein questioned Leonard extensively on the issue of the polygraph evidence, noting that it was Simpson's own lawyer, Robert Baker, who first mentioned the lie detector in his opening statement, thus apparently opening the door for the plaintiffs to pursue the issue.

"If in the opening statement Mr. Simpson's lawyer said he offered to take a polygraph, then the genie is out of the bottle," Vogel said. "The plaintiffs' lawyers heard that and they just laid in the bushes waiting."

In response, attorney Daniel Petrocelli, representing Goldman's father, Fred, and leader of the plaintiffs' team against Simpson, acknowledged that he never objected to Baker's statement because he knew the evidence and knew it would be raised later.

Petrocelli told the court that it should not reverse the $33.5 million in damages against Simpson on the basis of possible legal missteps which were insignificant in light of overwhelming evidence against Simpson.

"Even if all of these allegations are right, there is still enough evidence to sustain a verdict," Petrocelli said. "There is an overwhelming amount of evidence of his guilt."

Ms. Simpson's father, Louis Brown, the executor of her estate, sat quietly during the appellate arguments and left without comment when they ended.<