The former American football player, accused of the double murder of his ex-wife and her partner in 1994, was acquitted of criminal charges in 1995 and then found guilty of their deaths in 1997.
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OJ Simpson, former American football player, accused of the double murder of his ex-wife and her partner in 1994, died of cancer at the age of 76, his family announced Thursday, April 11 . He was acquitted of criminal charges in 1995 and then found guilty of their deaths in 1997 by a jury which ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages.
“On April 10, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, died following his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren”wrote his family on.
A brilliant career and immense popularity
Born in San Francisco on July 9, 1947, he was raised by a single mother, abandoned by his father when he was five years old. Suffering from rickets as a child, he later became a professional athlete and had a brilliant career in the National American Football League NFL. He was crowned player of the year in 1973 while playing for the Buffalo Bills. He enjoyed immense popularity which he retained well after the end of his professional career in the late 1970s.
After appearances as an actor in cinema and television, through experience as a sports commentator, he returns to the center of the news as the main character in one of the most fascinating legal cases of the 20th century in the United States.
On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown was discovered dead in Los Angeles in a pool of blood, alongside the body of her friend Ronald Goldman, also brutally murdered. After a pursuit lasting several hours on the highways of Los Angeles, followed live by television cameras filming from helicopters, Simpson was arrested by the police.
Genetic analysis identifies Simpson’s blood at the crime scene, that of the victims in his car and at his home. “OJ” maintains his innocence but is charged with the double murder. “We had an overwhelming amount of evidence against Simpson”recalled prosecutor Marcia Clark in 2017 at Parisian. “But as we presented them, it became more and more obvious that the jury didn’t want to hear anything.”
Sentenced to 33 years in prison in 2008 in another case
After nine months of a spectacular trial in Los Angeles, also broadcast live on television, OJ Simpson was acquitted. This decision provokes a wave of indignation in the United States and divides opinion between blacks and whites, three years after bloody racial riots in the Californian megalopolis.
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The ex-player was then found responsible for the deaths of the two victims during a civil trial in 1997. However, he never paid the families the damages for which he was sentenced. His death is not “not a great loss for the world”Fred Goldman, the father of one of the victims, reacted Thursday. “It’s another reminder of Ron’s death,” he told NBC News over the phone.
Another case finally lands him in prison. September 13, 2007, OJ Simpson broke into a hotel-casino in Las Vegas (Nevada) with five henchmen. He wished “to recover”under gunpoint, sports souvenirs from resellers. Sentenced to 33 years in prison in 2008, he ultimately spent nine years behind bars. “I am committed to changing to be a better person”had promised the former star before the parole board.