The legendary American football player, OJ Simpson, has died at the age of 76 due to the cancer he had been suffering from for several years. The Buffalo Bills running back’s life was marked by the double murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, his wife, and Ronald Goldman, her lover. The jury found him not guilty of the murder charges in a highly controversial verdict.
Crime and conviction in the OJ Simpson case
The marriage between Nicole Brown and OJ Simpson began in 1985 and lasted seven years, during which time the ex-player was investigated several times by the police for domestic violence. Finally, in 1992, his wife decided to file for divorce. On 13 June 1994, she was found dead in a Los Angeles duplex with her lover, Ronald Goldman.
Among the evidence found by the police was a bloody white glove and a woollen hat. On their visit to Simpson’s house, who had taken a flight to Chicago, another bloody white glove (the partner of the former) and bloodstains on a car were seen. During that visit, one of the policemen, Mark Fuhrman, used racist terms, something that OJ Simpson’s lawyers would play in his favour to tip the balance in the eyes of society.
Earlier, the former Buffalo Bills player had fooled police by faking his voluntary surrender at the police station and fleeing the city. The chase, the next day, was broadcast on all three national networks in the United States and watched by more than 80 million people on television.
The course of the OJ Simpson trial
In 1995, former American football player and actor went on trial for the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her lover, Ronald Goldman. The mayhem generated unprecedented interest worldwide. The trial began on 24 January 1995 and lasted almost a year. To prove his innocence, the (then) commentator hired a team of lawyers led by Robert Shapiro, known as the ‘Dream Team’.
Simpson’s defence argued that the evidence presented by the prosecution had been tampered with, and so they began to cast doubts about their client’s guilt on the jury. His defence focused particularly on the DNA evidence, which they claimed had been tampered with and did not match OJ Simpson. His team of lawyers argued that blood collected from the crime scene had been wrongly collected by scientists.
To add more drama to the events, given the celebrity profile that OJ Simpson had at the time, the trial was televised almost in its entirety, becoming one of the most watched cases in the United States. Such was the magnitude of it that when the end was near, surveys were conducted among citizens to know their opinion about Simpson’s guilt or not. The difference in opinion among the citizens showed a real example of the racial division of the country.
The final verdict in this trial was rendered on October 3, 1995. The jury found O.J. Simpson not guilty on charges of first-degree murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. A decision that was not to be final and would cause an unprecedented uproar in American society and its legal system of justice.
Despite being acquitted in the criminal trial, only two years later, OJ Simpson was found responsible for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman in the civil trial. He was ordered to pay compensation ($33.5 million) to the families of the victims. This fact caused this case to be considered as one of the most controversial trials in the judicial history of the United States.