OJ Simpson, a former United States soccer star acquitted of homicide in a broadly watched trial within the Nineteen Nineties, has died at age 76.
In an announcement shared on social media on Thursday morning, Simpson’s household stated he died on Wednesday after a battle with most cancers.
“He was surrounded by his kids and grandchildren. Throughout this time of transition, his household asks that you just please respect their needs for privateness and charm,” the assertion stated.
US media retailers reported in February that Simpson was present process therapy for prostate most cancers.
On April tenth, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with most cancers.
He was surrounded by his kids and grandchildren.
Throughout this time of transition, his household asks that you just please respect their needs for privateness and charm.
-The Simpson Household
— O.J. Simpson (@TheRealOJ32) April 11, 2024
Identified by the nickname “The Juice”, Simpson was a star operating again on the College of Southern California.
He gained the Heisman Trophy — the highest honour in American faculty soccer — in 1968 earlier than making the leap to the Nationwide Soccer League (NFL) a 12 months later because the Buffalo Payments’ number-one draft decide.
He performed 11 seasons {of professional} American soccer and racked up quite a few accolades.
However Simpson grew to become a controversial determine after he was charged with the stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her good friend, Ronald Goldman, in 1994.
He was ordered to give up to police, however 5 days after the killings, he fled in his white Ford Bronco with a former teammate and led police in a slow-speed chase by Los Angeles.
Simpson’s months-long trial — dubbed the “trial of the century” — was televised and drew widespread media consideration within the US and around the globe.
![OJ Simpson in court in the 1990s](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/AP21154757813643-1712846704.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C521)
His acquittal in 1995 additionally divided the nation: Some Individuals considered it as a miscarriage of justice, whereas others believed he was unfairly focused by a racist police drive.
“I don’t assume most of America believes I did it,” Simpson instructed The New York Instances in 1995, every week after a jury decided he didn’t kill Brown and Goldman. “I’ve gotten hundreds of letters and telegrams from folks supporting me.”
Even years later, the case continued to mesmerise the general public, sparking debates on race, gender, home abuse, movie star justice and police misconduct.
Whereas a felony courtroom jury discovered him not responsible of homicide in 1995, a separate civil trial jury discovered him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5m to members of the family of Brown and Goldman.
“We lastly have justice for Ron and Nicole,” Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman’s father, stated after the civil verdict.
A decade later, nonetheless shadowed by the California wrongful demise judgement, Simpson led 5 males he barely knew right into a confrontation with two sports activities memorabilia sellers in a cramped Las Vegas resort room.
![OJ Simpson](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/AP24066573153100-1712846612.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C507)
Two males with Simpson had weapons, and a jury convicted him of armed theft and different felonies.
Imprisoned at age 61, he served 9 years in a distant northern Nevada jail.
“I didn’t need to damage anyone,” Simpson, donning a blue jail jumpsuit with shackles on his legs and wrists, stated at his sentencing. “I didn’t know I used to be doing something incorrect.”
Public fascination with Simpson by no means pale, and plenty of debated if he had been punished in Las Vegas for his acquittal in Los Angeles.
His life saga was recounted within the Oscar-winning 2016 documentary “O.J.: Made in America” in addition to numerous TV dramatisations.