O. J. Simpson came from nothing, then made a career as a professional football player and actor. Until a murder trial changed everything. He was 76 years old.
O. J. Simpson was one of the best football players in the USA. He later gained worldwide fame through a murder trial.
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Orenthal James Simpson, better known as O.J., sits in the back seat of a white Ford Bronco. A former teammate of Simpson’s is behind the wheel. He drives along the wide freeways of Los Angeles at 60 km/h. There are twenty police cars behind them. They follow patiently, fearing Simpson might kill himself. Up in the air, local television stations broadcast live from nine helicopters.
This strange pursuit leads through the city over a distance of almost 100 kilometers and a period of two hours. Then the column comes to a stop in the Brentwood district. Right in front of Simpson’s mansion. Simpson, African American, surrenders to officers. They suspect him of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her acquaintance Ronald Goldman.
It’s June 17, 1994. And 95 million Americans are watching and watching the best running back of his time, an American sports icon, fall.
O. J. Simpson had once been an admired athlete who had displayed a rare aura of grace, agility and determination at the battering ram running back position in college and in eleven seasons with the NFL teams the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers.
Simpson was quickly accused of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown.
Ralph Dominguez / Getty
Simpson’s trial will be televised
Simpson was an athlete who cleverly used his charisma to become a ubiquitous media star after his career. He starred in successful films such as “Flaming Inferno” and “The Naked Gun”. At the same time, he advertised for the car rental company Hertz and appeared on television as a sports commentator.
This career began in humble circumstances. Simpson was born on July 9, 1947 in the poor Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. As a child he suffered from rickets, had spindly, bowed legs and was teased by the neighborhood children because of this. However, he overcame the handicap and became a top performer on the football team in high school. However, his extracurricular activities included something else: stealing hubcaps. In a group of his peers, he was “always the leader – the baddest guy there,” he later said of himself.
By June 17, 1994, Simpson’s life had reached a crescendo. It was an American dream. Things turned into a descent in the back seat of this white Ford Bronco. His life became an endless reality TV show.
A few days after Simpson’s arrest, the trial against him began. It lasted until October 1995. The negotiations were broadcast on television. Millions watched again. In America the media wrote that it was the “trial of the century”.
After the civil trial, Simpson is penniless
Simpson, the alleged perpetrator, was a sports star. An African American who came from nowhere. The victim, his ex-wife, a white woman. The result was a rare mix of pop culture, human tragedy and racist stereotypes.
The process sparked a socio-political debate. On the one hand, racist stories from the era of racial segregation continued to have an impact. Horror fairy tales according to which white women need to be protected from black men. On the other hand, there was the experience of oppression of the African-American population in the USA. And related to this is the question: Can a black man in America – even someone who has overcome racial barriers and achieved wealth and status – be convicted without prejudice for the murders of two white people?
The criminal trial ended in an acquittal for Simpson in 1995. His lawyers not only demonstrated in court that the police had conducted a sloppy investigation. They convinced the jury that Simpson, who was black, had been the target of a racist justice system.
The trial of the century ends with a hug. Simpson thanks his attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr.
Myung J.Chun/AP
But questions remain. Some evidence suggests that Simpson actually stabbed his ex-wife and her companion. His alibi is flawed. There is no evidence of other perpetrators.
In 1997, Simpson was tried again. The victims’ relatives filed a civil lawsuit against him. The court ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages. Simpson became penniless.
In 2008, Simpson was sentenced to nine years in prison
Simpson’s decline continued. As of 2008, he served nine years in a Nevada prison after being convicted of 12 counts of armed robbery and kidnapping two sporting goods dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel.
The law professor Laurie Levenson, who commented on the first Simpson trial on American television in the mid-1990s, once said: “TV viewers followed the Bronco. You followed the process. And they followed everything that happened after that.”
O. J. Simpson’s family said on social media Thursday that they are asking for peace and privacy following his death.
Simpson, who had three children from his first marriage and two from his second to Nicole Brown, died of cancer on Wednesday at the age of 76.