O.J. Simpson's bloody glove that didn't fit — what it revealed in court

He held up his left hand, palm flat, and pushed it into the glove.

The glove was a bloodstained leather one, found on the grounds of his estate, and in court on that day in June 1995, it appeared not to fit his hand.

The moment became a turning point in public perception, a single image that seemed to say something about the case without saying anything at all.

The glove was one of a pair.

A matching glove had been found at the murder scene on Bundy Drive, where Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were killed, according to the investigation report.

The defense argued the glove had been planted by detective Mark Fuhrman, who had used racial slurs in the past.

Fuhrman’s credibility collapsed when tapes surfaced of him using those slurs, and the defense used that collapse to argue police misconduct.

The glove on Simpson’s hand was the centerpiece of that argument: if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit, the defense suggested in court.

Was the fit a measure of guilt?

Was it a measure of innocence?

Was it a measure of anything at all?

The trial record does not establish that the glove’s fit was conclusive evidence of anything.

It was a theatrical moment, not a scientific finding.

The glove was one piece of a larger, contested evidence chain.

Blood samples taken from Simpson matched blood found at the scene, according to forensic analysis.

A pair of socks in his bedroom contained blood that DNA testing linked to Nicole Brown Simpson.

The glove that didn't fit was the image that lingered, but the record shows it was never the whole story.

It was a glove on a hand in a courtroom.

It was also a symbol, and symbols are not proof.

THE NIGHT ON BUNDY

On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found stabbed to death outside Nicole’s condominium on Bundy Drive in Brentwood.

A neighbor walking her dog discovered the bodies around midnight and called police.

Both had been killed with a knife.

The weapon was never recovered.

Goldman, a waiter at a nearby restaurant, had been returning a pair of eyeglasses Nicole’s mother had left at the restaurant.

He was 25.

Nicole was 35.

Her two children were asleep inside the condominium during the killings.

The police report recorded the scene as it was found.

The witness statement recorded the moment the bodies were seen.

The investigation recorded the time, the place, the victims.

What it did not record was the exact sequence of events inside the condominium.

That sequence is not in the record.

The night on Bundy was not a courtroom, and it was not a symbol.

It was a walkway, and a dog leash, and a phone call at midnight.

It was a pair of eyeglasses returned out of courtesy.

It was two children asleep in their beds.

The horror of the crime is in the plainness of those facts.