Delivering the trial’s most famous words, Cochran referred to the gloves in closing arguments to jurors with a rhyme: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” Dershowitz later called the prosecution’s decision to ask Simpson to try on the gloves “the greatest legal blunder of the 20th century”.
After his acquittal, Simpson said “I will pursue as my primary goal in life the killer or killers who slayed Nicole and Mr Goldman … They are out there somewhere … I would not, could not and did not kill anyone”.
The Goldman and Brown families subsequently pursued a wrongful death lawsuit against Simpson in civil court. In 1997, a predominately white jury in Santa Monica, California, found Simpson liable for the two deaths and ordered him to pay US$33.5 million in damages.
“We finally have justice for Ron and Nicole,” Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman’s father, said after the verdict.
Simpson’s “dream team” did not represent him in the civil trial in which the burden of proof was lower than in a criminal trial – a “preponderance of the evidence” rather than “beyond a reasonable doubt”. New evidence also hurt Simpson, including photographs of him wearing the type of shoes that had left bloody footprints at the murder scene.
After the civil case, some of Simpson’s belongings, including memorabilia from his football days, were taken and auctioned off to help pay the damages he owed.
On Oct 3, 2008, exactly 13 years after his acquittal in the murder trial, he was convicted by a Las Vegas jury on charges including kidnapping and armed robbery. These stemmed from a 2007 incident at a casino hotel in which Simpson and five men, at least two carrying guns, stole sports memorabilia worth thousands of dollars from two dealers.
Simpson said he was just trying to recover his own property but was sentenced to up to 33 years in prison.
“I didn’t want to hurt anybody,” Simpson, wearing a blue prison jumpsuit with shackles on his legs and wrists, said at his sentencing. “I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong.”
Simpson was released on parole in 2017 and moved into a gated community in Las Vegas. He was granted early release from parole in 2021 due to good behaviour at age 74.
His life saga was recounted in the Oscar-winning 2016 documentary OJ: Made in America as well as various TV dramatisations.
Simpson married his first wife, Marguerite, in 1967 and they had three children, including one who drowned in the family’s swimming pool at age two in 1979, the year the couple divorced.
Simpson met his future wife Nicole Brown when she was a 17-year-old waitress and he was still married to Marguerite. Simpson and Brown married in 1985 and had two children.
She later called the police after incidents in which he struck her. Simpson pleaded no contest to spousal abuse charges in 1989.
Source: CNA
