O.J. Simpson, former football star accused of murder, has died
LOS ANGELES — O.J. Simpson, whose rise and fall from American football hero to accused murderer to prison inmate fueled a rancorous public drama that obsessed the nation and spawned debates over race, wealth, justice and retribution, has died from cancer, according to a family member’s statement on X.
Simpson was once the country’s most admired athlete, a formidable running back who broke records with grace and determination. He became a crossover star, lending his handsome face and affable personality to the slapstick “Naked Gun” movies and classic television commercials for Hertz.
He ended his run as an inmate at Lovelock Correction Center, 90 miles northeast of Reno, Nevada, 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.
“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
