|
Listen to this article here
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The former football player and acquitted murderer OJ Simpson died on April 10 after a battle with prostate cancer. His family shared on his X (Twitter) account early Thursday morning.
In May 2023, Simpson shared that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Then, in February of this year, Simpson denied claims that he was in hospice but continued to deal with health complications. “Obviously, I’m dealing with some issues, but I think I’m just about over it,” he said in a video shared to his X account. This would be Simpson’s last post before his family announced his passing on April 10, 2024.
Related Stories
Simpson’s football career was his rise to fame. He was a running back with a successful college athletic career, even winning a Heisman Trophy during his time at the University of South Carolina. His high-energy collegiate career earned him the nickname “The Juice.”
After college, he transitioned to the world of professional football. The Buffalo Bills drafted Simpson with the most expensive contract the league had seen at that point. In 1978, he was traded to his hometown team the San Francisco 49ers.
Simpson’s Criminal History
However, his name lives in infamy for the controversial 1995 murder trial of his former wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ron Goldman.
Days after the murder, Simpson was planning to turn himself. Instead, he led the police on a 60-mile freeway pursuit in his Ford Bronco. Nearly 95 million Americans watched the chase live on television. An hour and a half later, the standoff ended, and Simpson was taken into custody.
Simpson was accused of stabbing Brown and Goldman to death in 1994 but after a nine-month trial, Simpson was acquitted of the charges. A pivotal moment in the trial was when defense attorney Johnny Cochran said, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” This was a reference to a pair of gloves found at the murder scene, which Simpson tried on in front of the jury.
Despite his acquittal, OJ Simpson paid the families of Brown and Goldman a collective $21 million in a 2001 wrongful death civil suit.
In 2008, O.J. Simpson was accused and subsequently convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping. The charges stemmed from a 2007 incident in which Simpson and several accomplices entered a hotel room in Las Vegas to retrieve sports memorabilia that Simpson claimed was stolen from him. He was convicted on multiple felony charges, including armed robbery and kidnapping, and was sentenced to 33 years in prison, with the possibility of parole after nine years. Simpson was granted parole and released in October 2017.
The world is a better place without that cold blooded killer.