![]() Orenthal James Simpson-a Heisman Trophy winner, star running back with the Buffalo Bills, and popular television personality-married Nicole Brown in 1985. In the epic 252-day trial, Simpson’s “dream team” of lawyers employed creative and controversial methods to convince jurors that Simpson’s guilt had not been proved “beyond a reasonable doubt,” thus surmounting what the prosecution called a “mountain of evidence” implicating him as the murderer. Simpson is acquitted of the brutal 1994 double murder of his estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Sources: CNN, The New York Times, ABC News, The History channel,, ,, LawEnforcementMuseum.At the end of a sensational trial, former football star O.J. Simpson has since reportedly lived a quiet life in Las Vegas, where he plays golf every day. Having served nearly nine years of his sentence, Simpson is paroled from the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada. The other men plea bargain and testify against Simpson, who’s convicted of 12 charges and sentenced to 33 years in prison. The very day that book is released, Simpson and three other men burst into a Las Vegas hotel room and take sports memorabilia at gunpoint – items Simpson claims belong to him. Rights and proceeds from the book are seized and awarded to the Goldman family. Simpson publishes a book – “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer” – in which he appears to describe how he could have committed the murders. Over the next decade, Simpson finds himself in repeated legal trouble, ranging from battery of a motorist during a traffic dispute to pirating satellite TV signals. A 1999 auction of many of Simpson’s personal effects – including his 1968 Heisman Trophy – pays off $500,000 of that. They are awarded $33.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. While Simpson had been cleared of criminal charges, he is found “responsible” for the murders in a civil suit brought against him by the families of the victims. It had taken the jury just four hours to arrive at a verdict. “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” defense attorney Johnnie Cochran tells the jury in his closing argument.Ībout 140 million Americans watch on live TV as the jury finds Simpson not guilty. ![]() They appear to be too small – despite the apparent surprise to Simpson himself. The bloody gloves are thrown into further question when prosecuting attorney Christopher Darden asks Simpson to try them on. This opens the door for the defense to claim he had planted evidence in this case. When put back on the stand to defend himself, Fuhrman invokes his Fifth Amendment rights against incriminating himself. While Fuhrman denies using “the N-word” anytime over the previous 10 years, the defense then produces tapes in which he uses that racial slur and admits that, in the past, he had sometimes planted evidence to help secure convictions. The most significant is in revealing the racist language and attitudes held by LAPD officer Mark Fuhrman, who had found the bloody glove. In addition to having much of Simpson’s history of spousal abuse tossed out, the defense wins battle after battle in the courtroom. He pleads “absolutely, 100 percent not guilty.” When he finally surrenders, Simpson has a gun, a disguise, $8,000 in cash and his passport with him. Local and then national TV outlets break into scheduled programming – including the NBA Finals – with live coverage of what comes to be called “a low-speed police chase” over 60 miles throughout Southern California. ![]() in the back seat – holding a gun, Cowlings tells police via cell phone. freeway with his friend Al Cowlings driving and O.J. Simpson agrees to surrender but then vanishes. Police call Simpson’s lawyer and tell him they’re issuing a warrant for his arrest. They summon Simpson, who returns home and is brought in for questioning. Police go to Simpson’s house to notify him of the murders but find his blood-stained Ford Bronco and a bloody glove that matches one found near Goldman’s body. The driver takes Simpson to the airport to catch an overnight flight to Chicago. The driver sees a man enter the house and then Simpson calls to say he’ll be right out. Simpson from his home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles but Simpson appears to not be home. That evening, a limo driver is scheduled to pick up O.J. Nicole and Goldman are brutally murdered with what appears to be a knife. Waiter Ron Goldman volunteers to drop them off at Nicole’s apartment. Her mother leaves her eyeglasses at the restaurant. Simpson’s estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, attends their daughter’s dance recital and then has dinner with friends and family.
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