Mark Fuhrman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mark Fuhrman
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Fuhrman in 2008
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| Born | February 5, 1952 Eatonville, Washington, U.S.
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| Police career | |
| Current status | Retired |
| Department |  Los Angeles Police Department |
| Country |  United States |
| Years of service | 1975–1995 |
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| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
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 United States Marine Corps |
| Years of service | 1970-1975 |
| Rank | Sergeant |
Mark Fuhrman (born February 5, 1952) is a former detective of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). He is primarily known for his part in the investigation of the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in the O. J. Simpson murder case.
In 1995, Fuhrman was called to testify regarding his discovery of evidence in the Simpson case, including a glove recovered at Simpson's estate. During the trial, witnesses claimed that during the 1980s, Fuhrman frequently described African Americans with a racist epithet, claims he denied. In response, Simpson's defense team produced recorded interviews with Fuhrman and witnesses proved that he had repeatedly used racist language during those interviews. As a result, the defense claimed that Fuhrman had committed perjury and was not a credible witness. The credibility of the prosecution has been cited as one reason Simpson was acquitted. The defense claimed that Fuhrman planted key evidence as part of a racially motivated plot against Simpson. When asked under oath (with the jury not present), Fuhrman declined to answer all questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right. These questions included whether he planted or manufactured evidence.
Fuhrman retired from the LAPD in 1995. In 1996, he pleaded no contest to perjury for his false testimony related to his use of racial epithets. Fuhrman has claimed that he is not a racist and apologized for his use of racist language. Some of his former coworkers who are minorities have expressed support for him. Fuhrman maintains that he did not plant or manufacture evidence in the Simpson case, and Simpson's defense team did not present any evidence to contradict this claim.
Since his retirement from the LAPD, Fuhrman has written true crime books and hosted talk radio.
Life before trial
Fuhrman was born in Eatonville, Washington, and attended Peninsula High School in Gig Harbor, Washington.
Fuhrman's parents divorced when he was seven years old, and his mother remarried briefly. In 1970, aged 18, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he was trained as a machine gunner and military policeman. He served during the Vietnam War era, though his service in the Vietnam theater was restricted to being assigned to the USS New Orleans, an amphibious assault ship stationed offshore. Having attained the rank of sergeant, he was honorably discharged in 1975. After leaving the military, Fuhrman entered the Los Angeles Police Academy and graduated in 1975.
In 1981, Fuhrman requested leave for workers' compensation. During a psychiatric interview regarding this claim, Fuhrman expressed racist sentiments, stating that he stopped enjoying military service because of alleged insubordination from Mexican-Americans and African-Americans. Fuhrman received workers' compensation and remained on paid leave until 1983.
During this time, Fuhrman attempted to leave the police force permanently and receive a stress disability pension. Although several psychiatrists recommended that he be removed from duty completely, and others recommended that he not be allowed to carry a gun, the City of Los Angeles argued that Fuhrman's statements were merely part of an elaborate ruse to win a pension. In 1983, Fuhrman lost his case, and a subsequent appeal to Superior Court was rejected; therefore, Fuhrman returned to active duty as a police officer.
Fuhrman was promoted to detective in 1989. In October 1994 he worked to prove the innocence of Arrick Harris, an African-American male who Fuhrman believed had been falsely implicated for murder. Fuhrman retired from the LAPD in early 1995, after serving as a police officer for 20 years.
Post-trial
Murder in Brentwood
After retiring from the LAPD in early 1995, Fuhrman moved to Sandpoint, Idaho. He wrote a book about the Simpson case, called Murder in Brentwood (1997, ISBN: 0895264218), which includes a foreword by Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor of the Charles Manson case. In the book, Fuhrman apologized for the racist remarks on the audiotapes, terming them "immature, irresponsible ramblings" made because of a desire to make money; he contends that the tapes were merely part of a screenplay. He argued that Lungren had charged him to garner black support for a planned campaign for governor of California, in 1998.
Despite being told that Lungren's case was "flimsy at best", Fuhrman said that he felt he had no choice but to plead no contest. He claimed he could not afford to mount an adequate defense; he already owed thousands of dollars in legal bills, and the city's Police Protective League would not help him pay them. He also claimed he could not afford living expenses for a trial that would take several months (or years, in case of an appeal). He also believed that he could not get a fair trial in the racially charged climate of the time, and thought an acquittal would cause a riot similar to the 1992 Los Angeles riots. He also wanted to protect his family from being harassed by the press.
Fuhrman has said he believes the LAPD could have arrested Simpson on the afternoon of June 13, based on the evidence and his apparently contradictory statements during questioning. However, he believes senior LAPD officials didn't want to take a chance on being wrong about Simpson and wanted to wait until the preliminary genetic evidence came in.
Fuhrman argues that several errors made by his LAPD colleagues permitted the defense to allege that there was suspicious police conduct at Nicole Brown Simpson's residence. For instance, Fuhrman claims that the initial search warrant submitted by one of the detectives on the case, Phillip Vannatter, was too short and did not include enough details of the probable cause and evidence on hand at the time. Fuhrman also argues that major pieces of evidence were mishandled and believes his colleagues did not realize that their every move would be scrutinized in court due to the nature of the case.
Fuhrman asserts that the police and the prosecution made other errors that reduced the chances of a guilty verdict. For example, Fuhrman and his partner, Brad Roberts, found a fingerprint on the north walkway gate of Nicole Brown Simpson's house. According to Fuhrman, at least some of it belonged to the suspect. Had the fingerprint been tied to Simpson in any way it could have been a crippling blow to his defense. It also could have contradicted the defense's allegation that Fuhrman planted the glove. But the fingerprint was destroyed at some point and mentioned only superficially at trial. In fact, Fuhrman later discovered that Vannatter and Lange didn't even know the fingerprint was there because they never read Fuhrman's notes. Roberts could have offered testimony that would have corroborated the existence of the fingerprint and several of Fuhrman's other observations, but lead prosecutor Marcia Clark never called him to testify. This rankled Fuhrman almost as much as Vannatter's and Lange's failure to read his notes; Furhman believed Clark decided not to call Roberts to avoid embarrassing Vannatter on the stand.
Fuhrman has said that he feels the prosecution abandoned him once the tapes were made public. He said that he pleaded the Fifth Amendment after he couldn't get the prosecution to call him to the stand for a redirect prior to the tapes' being played for the jury. Once the tapes came out, Fuhrman has said, his reputation as a credible witness would have been nearly beyond rehabilitation.
Fuhrman felt that Judge Lance Ito allowed the defense to control the trial. For instance, like Bugliosi, Fuhrman insists that relevant case law demanded that Ito foreclose the defense from asking him about racial slurs, since any potential relevance was outweighed by the prospect of prejudice to the prosecution's case.
Fuhrman also asserts that Ito should have never been assigned to the case in the first place, as Ito was married to Margaret "Peggy" York, an LAPD captain who had been Fuhrman's superior officer in the past. In the Fuhrman tapes recorded by Laura McKinny, Fuhrman disparages York's appearance and suggests that she used her sex to advance in the police force. Fuhrman felt that Ito should have been challenged by the prosecution or voluntarily recused himself from the case on that basis. In fact, prosecutors did request that Ito step down, though they later withdrew the request out of fear that it would result in a mistrial.
Other books
For his next book, Murder in Greenwich (1998, ISBN: 0060191414), Fuhrman investigated the then-unsolved 1975 murder of Martha Moxley and presented his theory that the murderer was Michael Skakel, nephew of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Skakel was convicted of Moxley's murder in June 2002, but his conviction was later overturned. The book was adapted for a 2002 television movie starring Christopher Meloni as Fuhrman.
In 2001, Fuhrman published Murder in Spokane: Catching a Serial Killer (ISBN: 0060194375), which investigated a serial killer's spree in Spokane, Washington. In 2003, he published Death and Justice: An Exposé of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine (ISBN: 0060009179), on the subject of capital punishment.
In 2005, Fuhrman published Silent Witness: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo's Death (ISBN: 0060853379 ), which emphasized gaps in the medical and legal records that might allow for the possibility that Schiavo was murdered.
In 2006, he published A Simple Act of Murder: November 22, 1963 (ISBN: 0060721545), about the John F. Kennedy assassination. In it, Fuhrman advanced a theory challenging the single-bullet theory while still maintaining that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. He claimed that the Warren Commission was forced to ratify the single-bullet theory for political reasons. However, he said that a dent in the chrome above the windshield of the presidential limousine used that day vindicated the story told by John Connally that the first shot that hit President John F. Kennedy did not also hit him.
In 2009, he published The Murder Business: How the Media Turns Crime Into Entertainment and Subverts Justice (ISBN: 1596985844), which addressed the fine line between crime reporting and entertainment.
Personal life
Fuhrman has been married three times.
Fuhrman was a collector of various war memorabilia and medals.
See also
In Spanish: Mark Fuhrman para niños
