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O.J. Simpson acquitted 1995
At the end of a sensational trial, former football star O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the brutal 1994 double murder of his estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. In the epic 252-day trial, Simpson’s “dream team” of lawyers employed creative and controversial methods to convince jurors that Simpson’s guilt had not been proved “beyond a reasonable doubt,” thus surmounting what the prosecution called a “mountain of evidence” implicating him as the murderer.
Orenthal James Simpson–a Heisman Trophy winner, star running back
with the Buffalo Bills, and popular television personality–married
Nicole Brown in 1985. He reportedly regularly abused his wife and in
1989 pleaded no contest to a charge of spousal battery. In 1992, she
left him and filed for divorce. On the night of June 12, 1994, Nicole
Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were stabbed and slashed to death in
the front yard of Mrs. Simpson’s condominium in Brentwood, Los Angeles.
By June 17, police had gathered enough evidence to charge O.J. Simpson
with the murders.
Simpson had no alibi for the time frame of the murders. Some 40
minutes after the murders were committed, a limousine driver sent to
take Simpson to the airport saw a man in dark clothing hurrying up the
drive of his Rockingham estate. A few minutes later, Simpson spoke to
the driver though the gate phone and let him in. During the previous 25
minutes, the driver had repeatedly called the house and received no
answer.
A single leather glove found outside Simpson’s home matched a glove
found at the crime scene. In preliminary DNA tests, blood found on the
glove was shown to have come from Simpson and the two victims. After his
arrest, further DNA tests would confirm this finding. Simpson had a
wound on his hand, and his blood was a DNA match to drops found at the
Brentwood crime scene. Nicole Brown Simpson’s blood was discovered on a
pair of socks found at the Rockingham estate. Simpson had recently
purchased a “Stiletto” knife of the type the coroner believed was used
by the killer. Shoe prints in the blood at Brentwood matched Simpson’s
shoe size and later were shown to match a type of shoe he had owned.
Neither the knife nor shoes were found by police.
On June 17, a warrant was put out for Simpson’s arrest, but he
refused to surrender. Just before 7 p.m., police located him in a white
Ford Bronco being driven by his friend, former teammate Al Cowlings.
Cowlings refused to pull over and told police over his cellular phone
that Simpson was suicidal and had a gun to his head. Police agreed not
to stop the vehicle by force, and a low-speed chase ensued. Los Angeles
news helicopters learned of the event unfolding on their freeways, and
live television coverage began. As millions watched, the Bronco was
escorted across Los Angeles by a phalanx of police cars. Just before 8
p.m., the dramatic journey ended when Cowlings pulled into the
Rockingham estate. After an hour of tense negotiation, Simpson emerged
from the vehicle and surrendered. In the vehicle was found a travel bag
containing, among other things, Simpson’s passport, a disguise kit
consisting of a fake moustache and beard, and a revolver. Three days
later, Simpson appeared before a judge and pleaded not guilty.
Simpson’s subsequent criminal trial was a sensational media event of
unprecedented proportions. It was the longest trial ever held in
California, and courtroom television cameras captured the carnival-like
atmosphere of the proceedings. The prosecution’s mountain of evidence
was systemically called into doubt by Simpson’s team of expensive
attorneys, who made the dramatic case that their client was framed by
unscrupulous and racist police officers. Citing the questionable
character of detective Mark Fuhrman and alleged blunders in the police
investigation, defense lawyers painted Simpson as yet another African
American victim of the white judicial system. The jurors’ reasonable
doubt grew when the defense spent weeks attacking the damning DNA
evidence, arguing in overly technical terms that delays and other
anomalies in the gathering of evidence called the findings into
question. Critics of the trial accused Judge Lance Ito of losing control
of his courtroom.
In polls, a majority of African Americans believed Simpson to be
innocent of the crime, while white America was confident of his guilt.
However, the jury–made up of nine African Americans, two whites, and one
Hispanic–was not so divided; they took just four hours of deliberation
to reach the verdict of not guilty on both murder charges. On October 3,
1995, an estimated 140 million Americans listened in on radio or
watched on television as the verdict was delivered.
In February 1997, Simpson was found liable for several charges
related to the murders in a civil trial and was forced to award $33.5
million in compensatory and punitive damages to the victims’ families.
However, with few assets remaining after his long and costly legal
battle, he has avoided paying the damages.
In 2007, Simpson ran into legal problems once again when he was
arrested for breaking into a Las Vegas hotel room and taking sports
memorabilia, which he claimed had been stolen from him, at gunpoint. On
October 3, 2008, he was found guilty of 12 charges related to the
incident, including armed robbery and kidnapping, and sentenced to 33
years in prison.
(More Events on This Day in History)
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American Revolution
- 1781 French and Americans cut off British supplies at Gloucester
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Automotive
- 1961 UAW walks out on Ford
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Civil War
- 1862 Battle of Corinth
-
Cold War
- 1990 East and West Germany reunite after 45 years
-
Crime
- 2011 Amanda Knox murder conviction overturned in Italy
-
Disaster
- 2005 Hurricane Stan bears down on Mexico
-
General Interest
- 1932 Iraq wins independence
- 1952 Britain successfully tests A-bomb
- 1981 Maze hunger strike called off
-
Hollywood
- 1964 Clive Owen born
-
Literary
- 1895 The Red Badge of Courage is published
-
Music
- 1967 Writer, singer and folk icon Woody Guthrie dies
-
Old West
- 1873 U.S. Army hangs four Modoc Indians for the murder of a Civil War hero
-
Presidential
- 1863 Lincoln proclaims official Thanksgiving holiday
-
Sports
- 1951 The shot heard round the world
-
Vietnam War
- 1967 Operation Wallowa commences
- 1968 Twenty-four die in Army helicopter accident
-
World War I
- 1917 War Revenue Act passed in U.S.
-
World War II
- 1942 Germany conducts first successful V-2 rocket test
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