Reflecting on O.J. Simpson's death, Alan Dershowitz recalled the "very important case in American history," as the "trial of the century' hinged on the dangers of using tainted evidence in legal proceedings.
"It's a very important case in American history," Dershowitz, a member of the famed "dream team" of defense attorneys during his 1995 murder trial, told Newsmax's "National Report." "It divided the country along racial lines. Also, it showed that a person, whether guilty or innocent, could be framed for a crime."
Dershowitz said he knew Simpson had been suffering from cancer, so it "was not a great surprise to me" that he had died.
But, he said he was "saddened" by the news about the death of the one-time NFL standout and movie star, who was acquitted in 1994 murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman, in a case that shocked the nation.
"I didn't know him well personally," Dershowitz said. "Obviously, I worked with him very closely during the trial and visited him in prison."
Dershowitz was also nearby in the Los Angeles courtroom when Simpson tried on a glove found at the murder scene, leading to his acquittal when the garment was too small to fit.
"The police created a piece of evidence against him, a bloody sock, [with blood] which was poured from a test tube instead of coming from the crime scene," Dershowitz said. "The jury saw through that. We exposed it, and he was acquitted not so much on the theory that he was or wasn't innocent or guilty, but on the theory that when the government tampers with evidence, there can't be trust in the rest of the evidence.
"It became an important case, and I spoke to him occasionally after the verdict, but not very often."
Dershowitz remembered Simpson as being "very smart."
"He participated very actively in his own defense," he said. "I remember being in the side room with him after he tried the glove on it. It didn't fit. He wanted very much to testify, and I said to him, 'We have already testified. You put on the glove in front of the jury and said it was too small.'"
That gave Simpson the "best of all possible worlds," said Dershowitz, as it allowed him to "essentially" testify without being cross-examined.
"There were some, like F. Lee Bailey, who very much wanted him to testify, but in the end, he didn't," Dershowitz said. "He testified in a civil case, and he lost that so I think it was the right decision not to testify in a criminal case."
The prosecution, he added, made the blunder of having Simpson try on the glove in the presence of the jury.
"Under California law, they could have had him try it on outside the jury and they would have seen it didn't fit and they wouldn't have created the embarrassing moment where they had him put it on front of the jury and the jury saw that it didn't fit," Dershowitz said. "So it was a memorable moment. You know, I've had a long career of 60 years, so I've had lots of memorable moments, but this was an important one."
Simpson's later publication of the book "If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer" was "a stupid thing," Dershowitz added.
"I told him the moment he got acquitted," Dershowitz said, "nobody wants to hear from you."
"But O.J. Simpson insisted on staying in the public light and writing that book was a foolish book, and he paid a heavy price for it."
Meanwhile, Dershowitz said he, like many others, believed Simpson was guilty after the news broke that Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman had been stabbed to death outside her home in the wealthy Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood.
Five days after the killings, millions of Americans watched as Simpson's white Ford Bronco, driven by longtime friend Al Cowlings, led police on a slow-speed chase through Los Angeles, and Dershowitz said he also believed when he saw the chase that Simpson was guilty.
"I said to my family when I was watching, 'Looks like he's probably guilty,'" Dershowitz said. "Otherwise, why would he be running away? Also, we thought he might have tried to kill himself. But that became a very memorable moment."
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