Simpson passed away this week after a battle with cancer, his family announced on social media.
Former American football star O.J. Simpson, who was acquitted of murder in a highly publicized trial in the 1990s, has died at the age of 76.
Simpson's family announced in a statement shared on social media Thursday morning that Simpson passed away Wednesday after a battle with cancer.
“He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. His family asks that you respect their wishes for privacy and grace during this time of transition,” the statement said.
US media reported in February that Simpson was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.
On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, passed away after a battle with cancer.
He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren.
His family requests that their wishes for privacy and grace be respected during this time of transition.
-Simpson family
— OJ Simpson (@TheRealOJ32) April 11, 2024
Simpson, known as “Juice,” was a star athlete at the University of Southern California.
He won the Heisman Trophy, the highest honor in American college football, in 1968, and a year later was traded to the National Football League (NFL) as the first pick of the Buffalo Bills.
He played professional American football for 11 seasons and earned numerous honors.
But Simpson became a controversial figure after he was charged with stabbing to death his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in 1994.
He was ordered to surrender to police, but five days after the killing, he and a former teammate fled in a white Ford Bronco and led police on a low-speed chase through Los Angeles.
Mr. Simpson's months-long trial, dubbed the “trial of the century,” was televised and attracted widespread media attention in the United States and around the world.
His 1995 acquittal also divided the country. Some Americans saw this as a miscarriage of justice, while others believed he had been unfairly targeted by racist police.
“I don't think most Americans believe that I did it,” Simpson told the New York Times in 1995, a week after a jury found he did not kill Brown and Goldman. Ta. “I received thousands of letters and telegrams from people who wanted to help me.”
Years later, the case continues to fascinate the nation, sparking debate about race, gender, domestic violence, celebrity justice, police misconduct, and more.
A criminal court jury acquitted him of murder in 1995, but a separate civil jury found him responsible for his death in 1997 and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to the families of Mr. Brown and Mr. Goldman. commanded.
“Ron and Nicole are finally getting justice,” Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman's father, said after the civil verdict.
Ten years later, still in the shadow of his California wrongful death conviction, Simpson led five men he barely knew in a cramped Las Vegas hotel room against two sports memorabilia dealers. .
The two men who were with Simpson had guns, and a jury convicted him of armed robbery and other felonies.
Incarcerated at age 61, he served nine years in a remote prison in northern Nevada.
“I didn't want to hurt anyone,” Simpson, wearing a blue prison jumpsuit with shackles on his feet and wrists, said at his sentencing. “I didn't know I was doing anything wrong.”
National interest in Simpson continued unabated, with many arguing that he might have been punished in Las Vegas following his acquittal in Los Angeles.
His life story was told in the Oscar-winning 2016 documentary “OJ: Made in America” and in various television adaptations.
