O.J. Simpson Juror Defends Verdict: ‘The Evidence Didn’t Prove It'
David Aldana said his post-trial life has never been the same.
— -- The O.J. Simpson murder trial is once again captivating many people in a new TV series titled “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
And, now, one of the jurors from the “trial of the century” is defending the controversial verdict.
“Who would’ve thought we’d still be talking about it 20 years later?” David Aldana told ABC News.
Aldana, 54, was one of the 12 jurors on the panel who, after a nine-month trial, acquitted Simpson in the 1994 slaying of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and waiter Ronald Goldman.
“They said we were only going to be sequestered for three months; somebody lied,” Aldana said. “It was nine months and a week.”
Two decades later, Aldana said he continues to defend the jury’s verdict in the case, claiming the evidence presented wasn’t enough to put Simpson behind bars.
“What we were given, do I think he did it?” Aldana said. “Yeah, there’s a shot that he did do it but, then, on the other hand, the evidence didn’t prove it.”
When asked whether he thought there was one piece of evidence that could’ve changed the verdict, Aldana said it would’ve had to have been the murder weapon with Simpson’s handprints on it.
As for “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” and bringing the trial back to life, Aldana said it’s made for television.
But the real-life fascination continues. Just last week, a knife that was purportedly discovered at Simpson’s old property years ago has now turned up, leading many to believe it could be a new development in the case.
The Los Angeles Police Department stressed Friday, however, that the authenticity of the story has not been confirmed and that investigators were looking into whether "this whole story is possibly bogus from the get-go."
"It's unusual how this all of a sudden becomes a huge story during this time," LAPD Capt. Andrew Neiman said during the March 4 news conference, referring to the popular FX miniseries.
A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation says the preliminary assessment is that it is not the murder weapon.
Twenty-one years later, Aldana said his post-trial life has never been the same.
“[I’ve] lost friends,” he said, “People that I knew who didn’t want to talk to me anymore … a few couple of fistfights [over Simpson].”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
