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In response to
"Does OJ count? Robert Blake. Phil Spector -- nm"
by
Sexy Android Andie
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Yes to all three
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O.J. Simpson
On the night of on June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson, the ex-wife of actor and ex-football star O.J. Simpson, was stabbed to death outside her Los Angeles home, along with her friend Ronald Goldman. The former football player was arrested and following one of the most publicized trials in history, during which many of the evidence-collecting techniques of the prosecution were called into question, Simpson was found not guilty of homicide. However, in a civil trial in 1997, he was deemed to be liable for the two deaths. The Goldman family was awarded $8.5 million in compensatory damages, and each family was awarded $12.5 million in punitive damages.
Robert Blake
On May 4, 2001, actor Robert Blake’s wife Bonnie Lee Bakley was shot and killed while sitting in a car outside a Studio City, California restaurant. Blake claimed to be inside the restaurant at the time, retrieving a gun that he’d left at his table. Almost a year later, Blake was arrested and charged with murder, but despite the testimony of two men who claimed that he tried to recruit them to kill Bakley, Blake was found not guilty by the jury. However, when Bakley’s three children filed a civil suit against Blake in 2005, he was found liable for the wrongful death of his wife and was ordered to pay them $30 million. In April 2008, an appeals court upheld the civil case verdict but cut Blake’s penalty in half.
Phil Spector
Early in the morning of February 3, 2003, the body of 40-year-old actress Lana Clarkson was found dead in the Alhambra, California home of legendary music producer Phil Spector. Clarkson had been shot in the mouth at close range. She had met Spector that night while she worked at the House of Blues in Hollywood. They returned to his house and were inside for about an hour before Spector’s driver, who waited outside, heard a gunshot. The driver testified that Spector stated, “I think I just shot her.” Spector was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. The producer claimed that Clarkson shot herself while kissing the gun, but during the trial, several women came forth claiming that Spector had pulled guns on them while drunk. Although the first trial, in 2007, resulted in a hung jury, the second, in 2009, ended with a conviction. Spector received a jail sentence of 19 years to life.
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