OJ Simpson allegations: The charges against NFL star acquitted of murdering wife Nicole Brown

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OJ Simpson, an NFL Hall of Famer turned actor who was later acquitted in an infamous murder trial, died at his home in Las Vegas on Wednesday, his family has said.

“On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer,” his family wrote on X/Twitter on Thursday.

“He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.”

In what the media called the “trial of the century” at the time, Simpson was acquitted of the 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles.

Simpson later served nine years in a Nevada prison after being convicted in 2008 on 12 counts of armed robbery and kidnapping two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel.

Simpson emerged as a prime suspect in the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles.

They were both found stabbed to dearth in a bloody scene outside her Los Angeles home on 12 June 1994.

He was ordered to surrender to police but five days after the killings, he fled in his white Ford Bronco with a former teammate - carrying his passport and a disguise.

A low-speed chase through the Los Angeles area - televised live globally by news channels - ended at Simpson’s mansion, and he was later charged in the murders.

Prosecutors argued that Simpson killed Nicole in a jealous fury, and they presented extensive blood, hair and fiber tests linking Simpson to the murders.

The defense countered that the celebrity defendant was framed by racist white police.

Simpson’s legal team included prominent criminal defense lawyers Robert Kardashian, who was also his close friend, Johnnie Cochran, Alan Dershowitz and F. Lee Bailey, who often out-maneuvered the prosecution.

Prosecutors committed a memorable blunder when they directed Simpson to try on a pair of blood-stained gloves found at the murder scene, confident they would fit perfectly and show he was the killer.

In a highly theatrical demonstration, Simpson struggled to put on the gloves and indicated to the jury they did not fit.

Delivering the trial’s most famous words, Cochran referred to the gloves in closing arguments to jurors with a rhyme: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” Dershowitz later called the prosecution decision to ask Simpson to try on the gloves “the greatest legal blunder of the 20th century.”

After his acquittal, Simpson said: “I will pursue as my primary goal in life the killer or killers who slayed Nicole and Mr. Goldman... They are out there somewhere... I would not, could not and did not kill anyone.”

The Goldman and Brown families subsequently pursued a wrongful death lawsuit against Simpson in civil court. In 1997, a predominately white jury in Santa Monica, California, found Simpson liable for the two deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages.

“We finally have justice for Ron and Nicole,” Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman’s father, said after the verdict.

After the civil case, some of Simpson’s belongings, including memorabilia from his football days, were taken and auctioned off to help pay the damages he owed.

On 3 October 2008, exactly 13 years after his acquittal in the murder trial, he was convicted by a Las Vegas jury on charges including kidnapping and armed robbery. These stemmed from a 2007 incident at a casino hotel in which Simpson and five men, at least two carrying guns, stole sports memorabilia worth thousands of dollars from two dealers.

Simpson said he was just trying to recover his own property but was sentenced to up to 33 years in prison.

“I didn’t want to hurt anybody,” Simpson said at his sentencing. “I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong.”

Simpson was released on parole in 2017 and moved into a gated community in Las Vegas. He was granted early release from parole in 2021 due to good behavior at age 74.