O.J. Simpson, the former NFL star and broadcaster whose athletic achievements and fame were eclipsed by his 1995 acquittal in the brutal killings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, has died of cancer, his family announced Thursday. He was 76.
While Simpson was a highly decorated athlete — winning the 1968 Heisman Trophy as a senior running back at the University of Southern California before playing for the NFL's Buffalo Bills and later the San Francisco 49ers — he became perhaps one of the most controversial figures of the late 20th century after he was charged with the murders of his former wife and her friend.
A jury found him not guilty in a trial that saw America's fascination with celebrity collide with its centuries long struggle with race, as well as issues of class, policing and criminal justice. Those themes — and the judge's decision to allow the trial to be televised — coalesced in what many called a "Trial of the Century" that held the country's attention in a vise grip for nearly nine months before evolving into a cultural touchstone.
