O.J. Simpson Has Died

O.J. Simpson, the former football star, actor, and accused murderer, has died from cancer, according to a statement that his family posted to X/Twitter.

On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer.

He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren.

During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.

-The Simpson Family

— O.J. Simpson (@TheRealOJ32) April 11, 2024

The Los Angeles Times has more:

He ended his run as an inmate at Lovelock Correction Center, 90 miles northeast of Reno, Nev., where he was serving a term of nine to 33 years after his 2008 conviction on armed robbery, kidnapping, conspiracy and other charges stemming from his attempt to recover valuable memorabilia he claimed was stolen from him. His incarceration was widely viewed as long-overdue punishment for the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald L. Goldman.

Although widely presumed to be guilty of the slayings, the former USC Heisman Trophy winner was acquitted in 1995 in a spectacular trial that was rife with vexing questions, none more divisive than the one posed by Simpson's defense team: whether a black man in America -- even one who had crossed racial barriers and attained significant wealth and status -- could be tried without prejudice for the murders a white person. Polls showed deep fissures between blacks and whites on the question of his innocence. When a predominantly black jury set him free, it drew those racial suspicions into even sharper relief.

According to Jeffrey Toobin, “The only reason that we will care about O.J. Simpson 10 years after, 20 years after, is what it told us about race in this country.” This isn’t nearly as embarrassing as the reason why we’ll all remember Jeffrey Toobin 10 years, 20 years from now, but I digress.

Simpson’s acquittal was only the first chapter in a long legal saga. In 1997 a predominantly white jury in Santa Monica found him liable for the deaths in a civil suit brought by the Brown and Goldman families. Ordered to pay the families $33.5 million in damages, Simpson gave up his Brentwood estate and moved to Florida, in large part to evade the civil judgment.

His desire to shield his assets set in motion the events that ultimately would bring him down: the robbery in a cheap Las Vegas hotel room in 2007. After a short trial that received minimal media coverage, the judge pronounced him guilty, 13 years to the day after the so-called “Trial of the Century” had set him free.

Born Orenthal James Simpson, on July 9, 1947, he was the second of four children to Jimmie, a bank custodian, and Eunice, who worked the night shift as an orderly at San Francisco General Hospital. His parents divorced when he was five years old. 

O.J.’s passing leaves his quest to find the real killer of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman unfinished.