The jury did not hear any testimony Monday morning because County Coroner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran had another commitment, but his testimony was scheduled to resume at 1:30 p.m. The former football superstar-turned-actor is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the Jstabbing and slashing deaths outside Nicole Simpson's condominium. Simpson's defense attorneys had opposed the jury seeing the photos, saying they believed the photos would inflame the passions of the jury so they would be more likely to convict Simpson. Testimony was halted 1 1/2 hours early Thursday after Goldman's family broke down in tears and one juror left the jury box, holding a tissue to her face. Most of the photos were shown to the jury last week, with several panelists appearing emotional. A pool of 48 reporters - 24 at a time - quietly looked at the photos for 25 minutes.
The photos, which were about 9 by 12 inches, were displayed on blue boards that stretched across a courtroom down the hall from the Simpson trial courtroom. One photo shows a mottled area of Nicole Simpson's back - an injury the prosecution contends was inflicted when the killer put his foot on her back while she was lying helpless on the ground, pulled her head back by the hair and slit her throat to the bone. Some of the photos were more clinical, with an employee from the coroner's office holding Ronald Goldman's hands to show defensive wounds he sustained while struggling for his life. Other photos show stabbing injuries to each of the victims' heads, with their hair partially shaved to show the cuts better.
Another series of photos, taken after the victims' bodies were cleaned of blood, showed close-up views of the injuries to Nicole Simpson's neck and a half-dozen injuries to Goldman's face and neck.