The News
O.J. Simpson, the former American football star who was accused and ultimately acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her friend in 1994, died on Wednesday, his family said on social media. He was 76.
Simpson’s family said he “succumbed to his battle with cancer.”
Simpson played 11 seasons in the NFL as a star running back. He was arrested in 1994 in the double murder of his former wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman, leading to a televised trial that garnered international attention.
About 100 million people nationwide watched as the “not guilty” verdict was announced. The intense attention on the case foreshadowed the “proliferation of reality shows, the tabloidization of the media and the insatiable appetite for celebrity news” that defines much of the current media and cultural landscape, The Washington Post wrote in 2014.
Simpson’s legal troubles continued after the trial: He was found liable for the deaths in a civil suit three years later, and was arrested on armed robbery and kidnapping charges in Las Vegas in 2007. He was convicted and served almost ten years in prison, before being released on parole in 2017.
