Caption, The image of OJ Simpson showing his hands with gloves on during his double murder trial went around the world in 1995.Article information
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April 11, 2024
OJ Simpson was one of the most recognized American athletes of his time until he ended up involved in a double murder case that would culminate in what the American press dubbed “the trial of the century.”
The former professional American football player and actor died at the age of 76, according to his family this Thursday.
“On April 10, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed in his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren,” the family posted on the X social network.
Simpson rose to prominence as a college football player before playing in the NFL and later became considered one of the greatest American football players in history.
He retired in 1979 to pursue a career in film and television. His credits include roles in The Towering Inferno, Capricorn One and The Naked Gun saga.
His life took a turn when he was accused of the brutal murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
image captionOJ Simpson was one of the most notable American football players of his time.
A brutal double murder
It all started on the night of Sunday, June 12, 1994 when police found the bodies of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman in the residence in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles where OJ Simpson’s ex-wife lived.
The victims had been stabbed and slit their throats while the two children, ages 9 and 6, of Brown and Simpson, who had divorced in 1992, were sleeping inside the house.
As the hours passed and based on the evidence found at the crime scene and in Simpson’s home – among them the famous bloody gloves that would be key in the ex-athlete’s acquittal – the authorities concluded that he had been involved in the crime.
Four days after the murders and after having questioned the suspect exhaustively, the Los Angeles police informed Simpson’s lawyers that they were going to file charges against their client, agreeing that he would turn himself in on the morning of June 17.
Caption, OJ Simpson and Nicole Brown were married from 1985 to 1992, and had two children. Simpson also had three other children from a previous marriage.
When the authorities showed up at the house where Simpson had taken refuge from media pressure, the former athlete – who, if found guilty, could face the death penalty – could not be found.
Simpson’s attorney, Robert Shapiro, told agents that his client had disappeared around noon and had last been seen in the company of his friend and former teammate Al Cowlings.
It was then that authorities held a dramatic press conference in which they announced that Simpson had become a fugitive and requested the public’s help so he could be captured.
Robert Shapiro also appeared before the media to ask his client to turn himself in “for the sake of his family and his children.”
Robert Kardashian – father of reality television star Kim Kardashian and personal friend of Simpson – read to the press one of the three letters that the former athlete had left before disappearing in which he denied being involved in the murder and seemed to indicate that he had intended of taking his life.
“Don’t feel sorry for me. I’ve had a great life, great friends. Please think about the real OJ and not this lost person,” Simpson said in the letter.
The persecution followed by millions
image captionAlmost 95 million people watched the OJ Simpson chase live.
Around 6:45 p.m. on June 17, after receiving a complaint from a citizen, the police detected the former athlete in a white Ford Bronco truck while he was traveling on Interstate 405 accompanied by his best friend, Al Cowlings.
When police approached the vehicle, Cowlings, who was driving, told them that Simpson was in the back of the vehicle and had a gun pointed at his head.
The officers drove away and at that moment a low-speed chase began that would last for an hour and in which around twenty police patrol cars followed the Ford Bronco, while thousands of curious onlookers gathered on the side of the highway watching everything. what was happening.
The main television networks interrupted their programming to retransmit the images of the escape that were being recorded from several helicopters, reaching an audience of close to 95 million viewers.
Even the NBC channel partially interrupted the broadcast of the fifth game of the NBA final that was being played that day to report Simpson’s escape.
It all ended around 8 p.m. in the mansion of the former athlete, who after remaining inside the vehicle for a few minutes while negotiating with the police, ended up surrendering.
Caption, Simpson during the trial.
“The trial of the century” in the US
Media interest in the Simpson case continued until the start of the trial against the former athlete, which began in January 1995 and lasted nine months, being covered by more than 2,000 journalists from around the world.
Prosecutors argued that Simpson killed Brown in a fit of jealousy.
Evidence presented at trial included blood, hair and fiber evidence linking Simpson to the murders.
In one of the most memorable moments of the trial, prosecutors asked Simpson to put on blood-stained gloves found at the crime scene, but Simpson had difficulty getting them to fit.
That led one of Simpson’s lawyers, Johnnie Cochrane, to tell the jury in his closing arguments a phrase that remained for posterity: “If it doesn’t fit, you should acquit him.”
The defense argued that Simpson had been framed by the racism of the Los Angeles police. Two years earlier, several officers from the Californian city had been acquitted after beating the African-American Rodney King, even though the attack had been recorded on video.
It is estimated that on October 3, 1995, nearly 145 million people watched live on television as Simpson was declared not guilty, in a verdict that divided American society.
But Simpson’s problems with the law did not end that day.
Two years later he was sentenced to pay more than US$30 million to the families of his ex-wife and her friend when he was found guilty in a civil trial, although he never paid that compensation.
In 2007 he was arrested for armed robbery and kidnapping, in a case for which he ended up being sentenced to between 9 and 33 years in prison, leaving prison in 2017.
Caption, OJ Simpson in court in 2017.
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