OJ Simpson death latest: Infamous murder suspect remembered for lifetime of controversy

OJ Simpson, the American football star and actor who was acquitted in a sensational 1995 trial of murdering his former wife but was found responsible for her death in a civil lawsuit and was later imprisoned for armed robbery and kidnapping, has died at the age of 76.

Simpson, cleared by a Los Angeles jury in what the U.S. media called “the trial of the century,” had died on Wednesday after a battle with cancer, his family posted on social media on Thursday.

Simpson avoided prison when he was found not guilty in the 1994 stabbing deaths of former 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.

Nicknamed “The Juice,” Simpson was one of the best and most popular athletes of the late 1960s and 1970s. He overcame childhood infirmity to become an electrifying running back at the University of Southern California and won the Heisman Trophy as college football’s top player. After a record-setting career in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

OJ Simpson told the world in 2023 that he had been diagnosed with prostrate cancer.

He said he “caught cancer” and “had to do the whole chemo thing” but was confident he had beaten it.

“It looks like I beat it,” Simpson said in a video he posted at the time.

In Simpson’s final video he insisted that his health was alright, despite some complications. That video was posted to X/Twitter on 11 February, two months before he died.

“My health is good. I mean, obviously I’m dealing with some issues but I think I’m just about over it,” Simpson said in the video.

OJ Simpson denied being in pallative care in a video he posted in February.

Simpson made the video afte news outlets reported that he had been undergoing chemotherapy for prostate cancer.

While the reports did not suggest he was in hospice — merely that he was being treated for cancer — Simpson insisted he was not in hospice and said Donald Trump was right not to trust what the media says.

Simpson died two months later.

“On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer,” his family wrote. “He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren.”

Simpson was a former American football player – often regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time – and actor who became a cultural icon. But he was perhaps most well known for his role in the highly publicised and controversial trial of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman.

In what many referred to as “the trial of the century”, Simpson was accused, charged and then acquitted of murdering Brown and Goldman in 1994. His acquittal, by a mostly Black jury, was a seminal moment in US cultural history.