O.J. Simpson Dead!
O.J. Simpson, former NFL and college football icon who was later acquitted of murdering his wife in what many believed was a miscarriage of justice, died of complications of prostate cancer on Wednesday night.
Simpson, 76, generally regarded as the greatest running back in NFL history who retired to successful careers in the broadcast booth and Hollywood, was embroiled in the sensational murder case of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman that gripped the world in 1994-95 and became known as “the trial of the century.”
Simpson was shockingly acquitted of the crime despite a mountain of evidence against him, but later was convicted in a civil trial. In 2007, Simpson was arrested and later convicted for conspiracy to commit kidnapping and armed robbery of sports memorabilia and sentenced to 33 years in prison, of which he serve nine. Here’s more on Simpson’s death from Fox News, including reaction from longtime friend and noted sportscaster Jim Gray.
Veteran journalist David Goldstein, who covered the Simpson murder trial for the Los Angeles CBS affiliate, describes the racial tension that riveted the Los Angeles metropolitan area during that period.
“It really was a slice of life for what was going on in Los Angeles at that time. Big distrust between Blacks and whites in the city and this trial brought it all to a head,” he said. He shares more of his thought in the following interview, courtesy of KCAL News.
