Ron Goldman had wounds on his hands from punching someone, yet OJ had no physical wounds on his body consistent with someone punching him. OJ cut his hand in his hotel room that was already confirmed.
On June 12, 1994, the day of the murders, Simpson had a
cut on the third knuckle his left hand, which the
New York Times described as "swollen and oozing fluid." Simpson had told police he did cut his finger on that day, but didn't remember how, and that he allegedly re-injured it on a trip to Chicago when he broke a glass, grieving for his ex-wife, according to the
New York Times. Fast forward to March 1995, during the criminal trial: Simpson's lawyers claimed that their client's hand is always swollen, but the prosecution argued with before and after photos that the cut did occur on the night of the murders, reported the
NYT.
The topic resurfaced in the civil lawsuit. The plaintiff's attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, invited a detective to testify and he
discredited Simpson's hotel room claim, saying there was no blood on glass found in his Chicago hotel room in 1994, according to the
Los Angeles Times. Petrocelli
asked Simpson if he remembered cutting his finger during his deposition and the former football star responded, "I remember bleeding," according to ABC News. He also responded "yeah" when asked if he cut his finger on glass.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz offered his expertise in his testimony, claiming after looking at an oversized photograph that Simpson's cut — "jagged edges of three curved wounds that measured up to 2 1/4 inches long," wrote the
LA Times — was caused by fingernails. "These are not caused by glass and these are not caused by a knife," the doctor claimed, according to the newspaper. "These are fingernail marks."