Nicole Brown Simpson & Ron Goldman

Case background and investigation

Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and Ronald Goldman, 25, were stabbed to death on the night of June 12, 1994, outside Brown's condominium at 875 South Bundy Drive in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. According to Wikipedia's account, their bodies were discovered shortly after midnight on June 13. Goldman, a waiter and a friend of Brown's, had come to the home to return a pair of glasses that Brown's mother had left at the restaurant where he worked. The knife was never found.

Police attention turned to Brown's former husband, O.J. Simpson, the retired professional football player and actor. The couple had married in 1985 and divorced in 1992. On June 17, 1994, prosecutors charged Simpson with both murders. He did not surrender as arranged, and that evening police followed a white Ford Bronco carrying Simpson and driven by his friend A.C. Cowlings along Los Angeles freeways in a slow pursuit broadcast live on television. Simpson gave himself up at his Brentwood home. He pleaded not guilty on June 20 and was held without bail, and on July 7 a judge ruled that there was enough evidence for trial.

The trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court ran from January 24 to October 3, 1995. Prosecutors relied on blood, hair and fiber evidence, a pair of gloves, and shoe prints, according to History.com. The defense team, which included Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey, argued that evidence had been mishandled and that Simpson had been framed by police, focusing on Detective Mark Fuhrman. On October 3, 1995, after about four hours of deliberation, the jury found Simpson not guilty on both counts.

The victims' families then sued Simpson in civil court, where the standard of proof is lower. In February 1997 a jury in Santa Monica unanimously found him liable for Goldman's wrongful death and for battery against both victims. He was ordered to pay $33.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The families have recovered only a small part of that amount, according to Wikipedia and History.com.

In an unrelated case, Simpson was convicted on October 3, 2008, of armed robbery, kidnapping and other charges arising from a 2007 confrontation over sports memorabilia in a Las Vegas hotel room. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison, was granted parole in July 2017 and was released on October 1, 2017.

Simpson died of cancer in Las Vegas on April 10, 2024, at age 76. He always denied killing Brown and Goldman. Because he was acquitted and no one else has ever been charged, the murders remain without a criminal conviction. According to Wikipedia, no other suspect was identified by investigators.