• By Kamal Kumar
  • Thu, 11 Apr 2024 09:47 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND

OJ Simpson Death:  Star NFL football player, OJ Simpson, who was controversially acquitted in 1995 in a supposed "trial of the century" for the brutal murders of his wife and a male friend, has passed on Thursday at the age of 76. A well-known NFL star, Simpson had a long and successful but controversial career spanning football and show business. Simpson's family announced his passing in a note on the microblogging site 'X'.

"On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer," a message signed by the family said on social media site X. "His children and grandchildren surrounded him," the statement further stated.

OJ Simpson Case:  Double Murder Trial

In June 1994, Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her male friend Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death in Los Angeles. OJ Simpson was arrested, and charged with double murder which changed his football league for the worse. His trial was portrayed as the 'trial of the century' on live TV which mesmerised the public and initiated debates on race, gender, domestic abuse, celebrity justice and police atrocities in the United States.

In 1995, a jury in a criminal court acquitted him of murder charges. However, in a separate civil trial in 1997, another jury found him responsible for the deaths and directed him to pay USD 33.5 million to the family members of Brown and Goldman. Simpson was acquitted of the murder charges. 

OJ Simpson during the case trial of double murder charges.

OJ Simpson 2007 Case

A decade later, still under the cloud of the California wrongful death acquittal, Simpson conspired a clash in 2007 with two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room, with the company of five men he barely knew. Two of Simpson's aides were armed. A jury convicted Simpson of armed robbery and other serious offences.

Later, in 2008, he was sentenced to 33 years' imprisonment on charges of armed robbery.