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Twenty-nine years ago, in 1995, a case that the American media called the “trial of the century” shocked the world. In this case, American football star and actor O.J. Simpson was charged with murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson. his friend Ron Goldman; They had been brutally stabbed to death.
Simpson was a sports and film superstar in the United States, but what really made him famous in Britain was a live television broadcast of police chasing Simpson’s car through the streets of Los Angeles – making him a wanted man. Viewers were stunned when they saw the celebrities.
Other drivers also got out of their cars to cheer him on, making it an iconic real-life highlight in television history.
After 60 miles, the chase ended at Simpson’s residence, and he was later charged with double murder.
The story of an alleged American hero turned villain unfolded dramatically in a courtroom, one of the most infamous trials of 20th century America.
This incident had all the elements to keep viewers in suspense. Wealthy celebrity defendants. A black man is accused of murdering his white ex-wife out of jealousy. A woman was murdered after divorcing a man who beat her. An expensive and charismatic defense attorney. And a huge blunder by the prosecutor.
The trial ended in a sensational fashion and Simpson was acquitted of both murder charges, but 13 years later, in 2008, he was arrested for kidnapping two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint at a Las Vegas hotel and for an armed robbery. He was found guilty on 12 counts. For that he spent nine years in prison.
Many people who were still convinced that he had committed the murder felt it was the next best outcome.
Simpson, who has died of prostate cancer at the age of 76, was one of the greatest and most popular American football players of all time.
Orenthal James Simpson, known as “Juice”, was born on July 9, 1947 in San Francisco. He was diagnosed with rickets caused by a vitamin D deficiency when he was two years old and had to wear leg braces for three years.
At age 13, he joined a street gang, but eventually focused his energies on athletics and enrolled at the University of Southern California as a halfback in American football. There he won the Heisman Trophy as college football’s top player.
In 1967, Simpson married his first wife, Margaret, and they had three children, one of whom drowned in the family pool at the age of two in 1979, the year the couple divorced.
Simpson also dabbled in acting, ironically playing a man accused of murder in the 1974 film clansman.
His NFL career with the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers was record-setting. He became one of the greatest ball carriers in NFL history and was subsequently inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
After retiring in 1979, he forged a new career as a sports commentator and appeared in several television ads.
Simpson met Nicole Brown when she was a 17-year-old waiter and he was still married to Margaret. He and Brown married in 1985 and had two children.
He was cast as a dimwitted detective’s assistant in the hit parody film. naked gun (1988) and its sequel. towering inferno (1974) and Capricorn 1 (1977).
There seemed to be nothing in the world that he could not do. But his hero status took a hit in 1989 when he was charged with spousal abuse after Brown called police claiming he had hit her.
She told friends and recorded in her diary how Simpson “first beat her in 1978, punching and kicking her for hours in a hotel room while she tried to escape.”
She claimed that the abuse included jealous rages, such as Simpson throwing her against a wall and inflicting multiple bruises on her.
Then, in 1994, she and Goldman were found fatally slashed at a bloody scene outside their Los Angeles home.
Simpson, who quickly emerged as a suspect, was ordered to surrender to police, but five days after the killing, he fled in a white Ford Bronco with a former teammate, taking his passport and disguise. A slow-motion car chase through an LA freeway captured attention around the world.
But there was no escaping the law. At the beginning of the case, the sports star-turned-actor declared he was “absolutely 100 percent innocent.”
Prosecutors argued he killed his wife in a fit of jealousy and presented extensive blood, hair and fiber tests implicating him in the murder. His defense claimed he was framed by racist white police.
This trial transfixed America. At the White House, US President Bill Clinton left the Oval Office to watch the verdict on his secretary’s television.
Prosecutors made the blunder of ordering Simpson to try on a bloodstained glove found at the murder scene, believing it would fit perfectly and prove he was the killer.
However, in a highly theatrical demonstration, Simpson struggled to put on the gloves, pointing out to the jury that they didn’t fit.
Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran delivered the most famous line of the trial, telling the jury: “If it doesn’t fit, then you have to acquit.”
His colleague Alan Dershowitz later called the decision to require Simpson to try on gloves “the greatest legal blunder of the 20th century.”
A predominantly black panel of 10 women and two men acquitted Simpson, who waved to the jurors and said, “Thank you.”
The verdict was divisive, with many black Americans celebrating his acquittal as a symbol of progress in a legal system that was considered racially unfair at the time. But for those who felt they had met their burden of proof, there was little to celebrate.
Interviewed by Ruby Wax years later, OJ, who is still hailed as a hero by millions, was filmed simulating stabbing someone as a joke.
The Goldman and Brown families pursued a wrongful death lawsuit against Simpson in civil court in 1997. The burden of proof in this case was lower than in criminal trials, requiring a “preponderance of the evidence” rather than “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The new evidence included a photo of Simpson wearing the type of shoes that left bloody footprints at the murder scene.
A majority-white jury in Santa Monica, California, found him responsible for their deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million (£26.7 million) in damages.
“Justice is finally being served for Ron and Nicole,” Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman’s father, said after the verdict.
Following the civil suit, some of Simpson’s belongings, including memorabilia from his football days, were confiscated and auctioned to pay for the damages he sustained.
On October 3, 2008, exactly 13 years after his acquittal in the murder trial, he was found guilty of kidnapping and armed robbery by a Las Vegas jury.
Simpson and five men, at least two of whom had guns, stole thousands of dollars worth of sports memorabilia from two dealers at a casino hotel.
He said he was just trying to get his property back, but was sentenced to 33 years in prison.
“I didn’t want to hurt anyone,” Simpson said at sentencing. “I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong.”
He was paroled in 2017 and moved to a gated community in Las Vegas. He is 74 years old and was granted early parole release in 2022 in recognition of his good behavior.
His life story was detailed in an Oscar-winning 2016 documentary. OJ: Made in Americaand has also appeared in several television drama adaptations.
Last year, he revealed on social media, where he has around 870,000 followers, that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and was using medical marijuana to relieve symptoms.
He is survived by four children: Sydney, Jason, Justin and Arnel Simpson; They stand to inherit his fortune, estimated at $3 million (£2.4 million).
But Fred Goldman claims that Simpson did not pay all the damages he had to pay in the civil suit, with $96 million still owed due in part to interest on the original $33.5 million penalty. He claimed that.
In his last tweet before his death, Simpson claimed that some of his health “issues” were “almost over”. “My health is good,” he said.
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