By Mark Gray
8:41am PDT, Apr 14, 2024
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On April 11, 2024, O.J. Simpson passed away after a battle with cancer. He was 76.
Once a football legend, in the '90s, O.J. became more known for his legal issues: In 1994, he was arrested in Los Angeles for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. The following year, O.J. was acquitted in a case that was dubbed "The Trial of the Century."
Still, many felt that O.J. got away with murder. In 1997, a jury in a civil case agreed that he was responsible for the deaths, and the Goldman family was awarded $33.5 million, a settlement "The Juice" fought hard to avoid paying.
A decade later, O.J. found himself in court again, this time in Las Vegas on kidnapping and armed robbery charges after he was accused of forcefully taking property from two sports memorabilia dealers in a hotel room. Exactly 13 years after his murder acquittal, a Vegas jury convicted O.J. of these new crimes. A judge later sentenced him to serve nine to 33 years in prison. He was released on Oct. 1, 2017, after nine years. He spent the rest of his days in Las Vegas.
Following his death, many people from O.J.'s past reacted to the news (and some didn't react at all). Keep reading to see what's being said about O.J. after his passing...
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"I send my condolences to Mr. Simpson's family," O.J. SImpson murder trial prosecutor Marcia Clark said in a statement to "Entertainment Tonight."
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"I'd like to express my condolences to the children… they lost their father, and that is never easy. I wish to express my love and compassion to the Goldmans. To Fred and to Kim. I hope you find closure. And finally, to the family of the beautiful Nicole Brown Simpson: May we always cherish her memories. Nicole was a beacon of light that burned bright. May we never forget her." —Kato Kaelin
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"I knew he was very sick, so I'm upset that he died. I got to know him fairly well during the trial. It was one of the most divisive trials in American history along racial lines," O.J. Simpson's "Dream Team" lawyer Alan Dershowitz told NBC. "He'll always be remembered for the Bronco chase, for the glove and for the moment of acquittal."
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"I'm not mourning his passing. He got to live to 76 and he got to die in his own bed surrounded by family and grandchildren, something that Nicole Simpson Brown or Ron Goldman didn't get." — Zoey Tur, the famed helicopter pilot who covered the Bronco chase, via CNN
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"I have nothing to say, I simply don't care," Detective Tom Lange told TMZ. Tom was one of the lead detectives in the 1995 double murder case.
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"The only thing I have to say is it's just [a] further reminder of Ron being gone all these years. It's no great loss to the world. It's a further reminder of Ron's being gone," Fred Goldman, Ronald Goldman's father, told NBC News.
In a separate conversation with People magazine, Fred said, "This is just a reminder for us of how long Ron has been gone, how long we have missed him and nothing more than that. That is the only thing that is important today. It is the pain from then until now. There is nothing today that is more important than the loss of my son and the loss of Nicole. Nothing is more important than that."
Fred further told DailyMail.com, "The only thing that I have to say today is that this is a further reminder of the loss of my son Ron. It is a further reminder of my son's murder and a reminder about the many years we have missed Ron. His death is a reminder that Ron and Nicole were murdered by him. I am not going [to] react to my thoughts about him dying. I have nothing to say about him. My response will not be about O.J.'s death but about the loss of my son's life by him. Thank you for calling. That is the only thing that I have to say."
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"Simpson's death reminds us that the legal system even 30 years later is still failing battered women, and that the power of celebrity men to avoid true justice for the harm that they inflict on their wives or significant others is still a major obstacle to the right of women to be free of the gender violence to which they are still subjected." —Gloria Allred, attorney for the family of Nicole Brown Simpson
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"Who doesn't remember the Trial of the Century? It was an 11-month-long trial. And the Bronco, and I think it's one of those questions, where were you at when O.J. was in that Bronco? I remember it and I also remember feeling a great sense of injustice happened, and it's one of the reasons I became a prosecutor, because I remember watching Chris Darden and I remember watching Marcia Clark. I remember watching the late, great Johnnie Cochran and just the masterful job that I thought everyone did." —Sunny Hostin on "The View"
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"To me, when someone like this passes, my only thought is I hope it gives some peace to the family of the victims. They did win the civil suit after the fact, because I agree it was a miscarriage of justice, but that doesn't make up for it. I hope that it helps them to find some peace." —Alyssa Farah Griffin on "The View"
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David Cook, the attorney for the family of Ron Goldman, told TMZ that Ron's loved ones will be exploring ways to get money from O.J. Simpson's estate. A civil jury concluded in 1997 that the former football star was responsible for the deaths of both Ron and Nicole Brown Simpson. The jury awarded the family $33.5 million. For decades, O.J. tried to avoid paying the Goldmans, and as of 2021, he had reportedly only paid $123,000. "O.J. died without penance," David said.
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"Some context on the 1995 Simpson acquittal by the downtown, largely Black jury. Race Matters in Criminal Justice. The Black community was smoldering when Simpson murdered his wife Nicole and Ron Goldman. The community that would become his jury had a specific beef against the white cops who would be the witnesses against him.
Just three years before, in 1992, four white LA cops had been acquitted by a Simi Valley (suburban white) jury in a barbaric, videotaped, roadside beating of Rodney King. A Black man stopped for driving while intoxicated, a videotape graphically showed King being beaten within an inch of his life.
Still, the white jury acquitted the white cops, despite powerful evidence of their brutality. The white cops walked. Rage ensued, and LA burned. The Rodney King Riots were among the worst riots in American history. The outrage resulted in 50 deaths, 2,300 injured, 1,100 buildings destroyed, and a billion dollars in damages.
When O.J. Simpson went on trial in downtown Black LA jury, virtually no amount of evidence would have been enough. Add to that, Simpson's brilliant attorneys elicited powerful testimony of racist statements by cop/witnesses like Mark Fuhrman.
Even videotape of the murders would not have been enough to convict popular Black football and Teflon media hero O.J. Simpson." —Geraldo Rivera
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"The most important thing to remember about OJ Simpson is that he killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman." —Jeffrey Toobin, who wrote "The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson," a book that inspired an Emmy-winning FX series
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"Finally, OJ can rest knowing his wife's killer is dead" —comedian Brad Williams
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"I'm sure people on this app will be very responsible with the news that OJ Simpson has died." —Jemele Hill, on X
