Gathering and Analysing Facts

Gathering and analysing facts is the seventh stage of the investigation process which the police have to follow. This stage mainly revolves around the police pulling together all the facts and evidence that they had previously obtained from the other steps, so that each piece of evidence that has been collected can be thoroughly analysed. This evidence can come in many different varieties but the three that are focused on the most are forensic evidence, witness statements and intelligence gathering. the reason that these three are focused on is because they are seen as key pieces of evidence that are crucial to the case.  This stage in an important part of the investigation process because it allows the police to bring all the evidence collected together and decide whether that evidence is going to be beneficial to the case or whether any of the evidence obtained can be linked to any of the possible suspects of the crime. This stage also makes the next stage of the investigation simpler and quicker which is identifying patterns and links, this is because all evidence that is not relevant to the case can be put to one side which means that time can be saved when linking pieces of evidence together as only the relevant evidence will be used.

OJ Simpson:

In the case where OJ Simpson allegedly murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman a lot of evidence was found at the scene of the crime, most of the evidence found could be linked to OJ Simpson in some way. One of the fist pieces of evidence found at the scene by the police was a glove stained with blood, it was later found that the blood belonged to Nicole and the glove was also a match to the glove that was later found in OJ Simpsons house by detective Mark Fuhram. One of the most useful pieces of evidence found at the crime scene were a set of bloody fingerprints that where believed to belong to OJ Simpson, as well as a trail of footprints that led right from the bodies out of the house, these where also believed to be OJ's footprints.

Even though a large amount of evidence was collected, only a small amount of evidence could actually be used due to how badly the evidence was collected by the forensic team. The pair of gloves that where found (one at the crime scene and one at OJ's house) were one of the main pieces of evidence used in court that could link OJ to the crime scene, however, the keep the gloves preserved they had to be frozen and due to them being wet with blood this resulted in them shrinking, this is why when OJ tried on the gloves in court they did not fit which resulted in him not being charged for the crime. As for the fingerprints and footprints at the scene, they where successfully removed and visible but due to some terrible forensic collection the evidence was not put into the chain of custody, this meant that when the evidence was received to be further analysed they did not know what it what it was and thought it had just got mixed up with another case, this resulted in the evidence not being examined which meant it could not be used in court. A lot of other evidence found was also not entered onto the chain of custody which resulted in a lot of the evidence either being lost or misplaced.

It was also very hard for the forensics team to gather any evidence from the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman thanks to the first attending officer Robert Riske and detective Mark Fuhram. As they forgot to seal of the perimeter with crime scene tape the media soon got into the scene to try to take photographs of the bodies, without thinking the two men grabbed towels from inside the house to cover up the bodies which stopped photos being taken like they intended but it also resulted in a lot of evidence being contaminated.