OJ Simpson ‘died without penance’
OJ Simpson died “without penance” after succumbing to cancer at the age of 76, the family of one of his alleged victims has said.
The former American football star and actor, who was catapulted to notoriety when he was charged with killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman in 1994, died in Las Vegas yesterday.
He was sensationally acquitted of the double murder but later found responsible for their deaths in a civil case, and was ordered to pay US$33.5 million (NZ$55.75 million) to Goldman’s family.
It is possible that Simpson’s estate may be swallowed up by existing liabilities from the case. Fred Goldman, Ronald’s father, recently alleged that he had paid only a fraction of the damages and owed US$96m in interest.
Speaking yesterday, Goldman told NBC News: “The only thing I have to say is it’s just further reminder of Ron being gone all these years.”
By the time of the murder trial, Simpson had been in the public eye for decades. He rose to fame in the 1970s as a running back for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, becoming the first player to rush 2000 yards in a season.
He then moved into acting, starring in the Naked Gun series. Both careers were overshadowed by the double killing of Brown and Goldman in 1994, which made headlines around the world.
The football star-turned fugitive led officers on a two-hour chase when told to turn himself in over their deaths, resulting in a live TV spectacle watched by an estimated 95 million people.
The ensuing court case, known as the “trial of the century”, became one of the most high-profile legal battles of all time.
Simpson’s “dream team” defence, led by Johnnie L Cochran and Robert Kardashian, accused the Los Angeles police of manufacturing evidence.
DNA evidence assembled by the police included blood samples taken from the crime scene that matched Simpson’s – in theory, placing him at the site at the time of the murders. Blood was also found in his white Ford Bronco, on his driveway, his house, and a pair of socks in his bedroom.
The defence argued that the police scientist who collected blood samples from Simpson failed to take them immediately to a laboratory for testing – meaning they could have been tampered with or contaminated.
“We attacked the way that evidence was gathered and processed,” Simpson’s DNA expert Barry Scheck said in 2014. “We had a 21st-century technology and 19th-century evidence collection methods.”
In the end, the 11-month trial came down to just four hours of deliberations by the largely African-American jury, before they declared Simpson not guilty.
Simpson’s courtroom success was shortlived. In February 1997, he was found liable in a civil court for the wrongful deaths of Brown and Goldman. Thirteen years later, he was convicted of armed robbery.
The former athlete was pictured using a cane to walk in January of this year. Rumours surfaced in February that he was undergoing chemotherapy to treat prostate cancer and was in hospice care.
A statement issued by the Simpson family said he “succumbed to his battle with cancer” and “was surrounded by his children and grandchildren”.
A lawyer acting for Ronald Goldman’s family said Simpson “died without penance”.