Museum gets OJ's DNA, but not the man

Cultural pundits have been going on for years about how the OJ Simpson case had become part of US popular history, but now it's official. The DNA evidence from the infamous courtroom drama was yesterday handed over to the country's most famous museum.

The Smithsonian Institution, which carries the same august prestige here as the British Museum, gratefully accepted a pile of thick manila envelopes of DNA test results from blood found at the Los Angeles scene where Mr Simpson's estranged wife, Nicole, and a friend of hers, Ronald Goldman, were found stabbed to death in 1994.

The evidence was mostly in the form of pages of raw data and laboratory notes which indicated the presence of Mr Simpson's blood at the scene. The actual blood and other physical evidence was handed back to the state.

The former football star turned movie actor was acquitted of murder, mainly on the grounds that the police had mishandled the collection of the evidence, but then had $33m (£23m) damages awarded against him for wrongful death in a civil suit brought by Nicole's family.

Despite the murder trial acquittal, the case established the central importance and usefulness of DNA evidence.

The analysis was carried out by a company called Cellmark Diagnostics, which is now Orchid Cellmark. Its executive director, Mark Stolorow, who went to Washington yesterday to hand over the historic artefacts, said it was a gesture of national duty.

"In the evolution of forensic DNA testing, the Simpson case represents a watershed in which challenges to the reliability of DNA testing seem to have gone away," Mr Stolorow said last night. "It seemed a shame to have all these records collecting dust in our storeroom when they could be of use to scholars."

The evidence was accepted on behalf of the Smithsonian by Robert Leopold, the museum's archives and collections manager. He could not be reached for comment yesterday, but Mr Stolorow said the Smithsonian was very happy at its acquisition.

The one person missing at the handover was the owner of the DNA. "We didn't invite Mr Simpson," Mr Stolorow said. "I suppose that was an oversight on our part."

Mr Simpson, 54, is now living in Florida, where the drugs squad and FBI, investigating an ecstasy smuggling ring, raided his home last December. Nothing was found and he was not arrested or indicted.

Last month, he asked a federal court to overturn the $33m civil trial verdict, claiming it violated his civil rights.