O.J. Simpson Dies
O.J. Simpson was one of the most controversial and most talked about persons in the mid 90’s. From his trials to his scandals and even his time playing football! One of the most famous trials ever was the 1995 trial when O.J. was accused of murdering his wife and her friend!
O.J. Simpson was born on July 9, 1947. He was a professional football player, actor, and convicted felon! He played in the NFL for 11 seasons with the Buffalo Bills and is described as one of the best running backs of all time! He was a popular public figure, but all of that was overshadowed by the famous trial and controversial acquittal for the murders of his former wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.
The trial started in 1994 when O.J. was found not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman. They were both stabbed to death outside Brown’s condominium in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on the night of June 12, 1994. The trials spanned 11 months, from November 9, 1994, to October 3, 1995. On January 24, 1995, where prosecutors argued that there was plenty of evidence on O.J. that he was guilty of the murders.
Commentators agreed that the defense capitalized heavily on anger toward the African American community! This trial is often labeled as the trial of the century because of the amount of publicity it had! People all over the world were talking about this case and everyone was keeping up with this case to see if O.J. was found guilty or not! O.J. had a very high-profile defense team behind him and is often referred to as “The Dream Team,” which included Robert Kardashian, Robert Shapiro, Johnnie Cochran, Shawn Holley, and Barry Scheck! Months and months of going back and forth and trying to see if O.J. is guilty or not, on February 4, 1997, the jury unanimously found O.J. responsible for the deaths of both Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman! The Goldman family was awarded over 33.5 million dollars in damages. O.J. was later released in 2017.
A little background information on O.J. and Nicole is that they met in 1977 when O.J. was 30, and Nicole was 18, working as a waitress at a Beverly Hills private club called Daisy. They began dating even though O.J. was married. He later filed for divorce from his first wife in March 1979. O.J. and Nicole got married on February 2, 1985, they had two children together, a girl named Sydney and a boy named Justin. The marriage wasn’t perfect, and often experienced a lot of domestic abuse. The marriage was falling apart, and he would abuse Nicole so many times. Nicole was conflicted about reporting the abuse to the police because she was financially dependent on O.J. The marriage experienced over 62 incidents of abuse, and the police were notified many times, and O.J. got arrested once. They finally divorced, but things didn’t seem to get any better. After their divorce, Simpson would stalk Nicole plenty of times. He would spy on her and even threatened to kill her if he caught her with another guy. Nicole even considered staying in a women's shelter because she didn’t feel safe.
Now let’s discuss the night Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman’s bodies were found. On June 12, 1994, Nicole and O.J. went to their daughter's ballet recital. After the recital, they went to a restaurant to have dinner, Simpson was not invited. One of the waitresses there was Ronald Goldman, a friend of Nicole but he was not assigned to Nicole’s table. After dinner, Nicole and her kids went to Ben & Jerry’s before going home. The manager at that restaurant got a phone call from Nicole’s mother asking about a pair of eyeglasses that she lost. The manager found the glasses and put them in a white envelope. Ronald was planning on going to Nicole’s house to return the missing eyeglasses. Nicole’s neighbors testified that they heard barking that night from 10:15 to 10:55. A dog walker who lived near Nicole’s house came across Nicole’s Akita dog, whose legs were covered in blood, and followed the man home. The man tried to walk the dog back to where he found it, but the dog resisted. Later he left the dog with a neighborhood couple who agreed to watch the dog overnight. The couple decided to walk the dog back to where it had been found in the first place. It’s midnight and the couple reached the area where the dog had been found. The dog stepped back outside the house, and the couple saw the body of Nicole lying outside the house. The couple called the cops and found the body of Ronald near Nicole’s body. Nicole’s body was severely damaged, and so was Ronald’s body. Police started to investigate and try to see what exactly happened, who was behind this, why this happened, and what were the motives behind killing Nicole and Ronald. That’s where the trial started, and O.J. was accused.
Later on in O.J.’s life, he would later be diagnosed with cancer and passed away on April 12, 2024. His family announced on Thursday his sudden passing at age 76. Many people took to social media to express their thoughts on O.J.’s passing, and to this day, people are talking about the famous case and discussing if O.J. really did murder Nicole Brown and Ronal Goldman or not. People had mixed feelings about his passing. Some did not care and felt no type of remorse over his passing, and some sent their condolences to O.J.’s family. Some people feel like O.J. didn’t do it, and others strongly feel like he is guilty, but to this day, we will never know what really happened on June 12, 1994.