OJ Simpson, whose murder trial riveted and divided the world, dies at 76
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 of cancer, according to a family member’s statement on X.
It was not immediately clear where Simpson died, but his family said he was surrounded by his children and grandchildren when he died Wednesday. He was 76.
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 served nine years of a 33-year sentence at Lovelock Correctional Center, 90 miles northeast of Reno, Nevada, after his 2008 conviction on armed robbery, kidnapping, conspiracy and other charges stemming from his attempt to recover valuable memorabilia he claimed had been stolen from him. His incarceration was widely viewed as long-overdue punishment for the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald L. Goldman.
While much of the public presumed him to be guilty of the killings, the former University of Southern California 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 slayings of a white person. Polls showed deep fissures between Black people and white people on the question of his innocence. When a predominantly Black jury set him free, it drew those racial suspicions into
