THE O.J. SIMPSON MURDER TRIAL : ‘O.J., I Want to Come Home,’ Said Letter Barred From Evidence

A letter from Nicole Brown Simpson to her former husband, which Judge Lance A. Ito declined to allow to be placed in evidence Monday, provides a touching, sometimes puzzling glimpse of the couple’s rocky relationship.

Written on lined notebook paper in a girlishly rounded but clear script, Nicole Brown Simpson refers to the fact that she had “been attending these meetings to help me turn negatives into positives.” As a consequence, she said she had “always known that what was going on with us was about me--I just wasn’t sure why it was about me--So I just blammed [sic] you. I’m the one who was controlling.”

After going on to describe how the “meetings” had helped her to recover her “own self-esteem,” she went on to say, “O.J., I want to come home. I want us all to be together again. We can move wherever you want. We can stay here. I just never want to leave your side again.”

The letter’s closing sentiment is: “I’ll love you forever and always. . . .” It is signed simply, “Me.” Underneath, she drew a happy face.

O.J. Simpson’s defense attorneys had hoped to give the jury a look at the letter as a way of establishing their client’s state of mind toward his ex-wife. Their theory is that the document shows Simpson had little reason to harbor rage or resentment toward his former wife, since she was--by her own account in the letter--eager to reconcile. She concluded her five handwritten pages with the plea: “Please let us be a family again and let me love you better than I ever have before.”

The letter was written more than a year before the murders, however, and Ito ruled that it was inadmissible.