Who remembers OJ Simpson’s 1973 NFL season? Specialists and enthusiasts surely, the former American football superstar having been crowned MVP. But for the general public, Orenthal James Simpson, his real name, will forever remain, far from his sporting record, the main character in one of the most fascinating legal cases of the 20th century in the United States. We remind you what “the trial of the century” was for the man who died this Thursday from cancer, at the age of 76.
What happened with OJ Simpson? What was he accused of?
OJ Simpson has been retired for almost fifteen years when his life and his posterity are turned upside down. At that time, the former American football legend, sometimes considered the first black superstar in the United States, still enjoyed considerable notoriety. Attractive, charismatic, with a deep voice, he still delights some films and advertisers.
But on June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown, his ex-wife and the mother of two of his children, was discovered dead in Los Angeles in a pool of blood, alongside the body of her friend and potential lover Ronald Goldman, also brutally murdered. murdered with a knife. Very quickly, and because of blood stains on a seat of his car, OJ Simpson is the main suspect.
Why did his arrest make history?
Having left for Chicago on the evening of the macabre discovery, OJ Simpson wanted to go himself to the Los Angeles police station on June 17 where he was expected by several hundred journalists. Which he will never do. Instead, the former American football player fled, leaving a farewell letter at home suggesting suicide.
A national search notice is issued. The police found him while he was in a white Ford Bronco, driven by Al Cowings, one of his childhood friends. What followed was a chase with the police, filmed by American television live from helicopters for nearly three hours in front of 95 million viewers.
So much so that the broadcast of Game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the Houston Rockets was interrupted to follow the event.
OJ Simpson eventually surrendered by returning to his LA home. A bag containing his passport, cash and a 357 Magnum revolver was discovered by investigators in the Ford Bronco.
How did his trial fascinate America?
After this completely crazy chase, it is the beginning of the “trial of the century” for the Americans who continue to follow the adventures of their former American football legend at the bar of the Los Angeles courthouse.
Indicted for double murder, the athlete pleads not guilty under the advice of his famous lawyers Robert Kardashian and Robert Shapiro. However, the evidence is accumulating against him: genetic analyzes identify Simpson’s blood at the crime scene, that of the victims in his car and at his home.
Broadcast regularly on television, his trial is colossal. One hundred and fifty people were called to the witness stand during the 133 days of this exceptional trial with twists and turns. Even President Bill Clinton expresses his greatest sadness regarding this affair.
But this trial goes well beyond just OJ Simpson. Three years after bloody racial riots in the Californian megalopolis following the attack on African-American Rodney King, his trial stirs up racial tensions in the country, especially when reports of racist remarks from one of the investigators in charge of the case. The black population is convinced of their innocence and moves en masse in front of the courthouse or their homes.
Why was he acquitted?
Nearly a year and a half after the start of the trial, the verdict was awaited on October 3, 1995 by more than 200 million viewers. And then, there was astonishment, at 10 a.m. and after “only” 3 hours of deliberation, the man whom everyone accused was finally declared not guilty by a popular jury.
In addition to having attacked the police investigation for perjury and manipulation of evidence, OJ Simpson’s defense triumphed in particular thanks to the demonstration live on television that OJ Simpson did not fit into the gloves which would have carried out the blows. mortals.
But for Marcia Clark, the prosecutor in charge of the case, OJ Simpson’s victory is played out elsewhere. “We had an overwhelming amount of evidence against Simpson. But, as we presented them, it was more and more obvious that the jury didn’t want to hear anything (…) We would have won if he hadn’t been so famous, but he was so admired that the jury did not want to send him to prison,” she explained in our columns in 2017.
The ex-player was nevertheless later found responsible for the deaths of the two victims during a civil trial in 1997 and ordered to pay damages of more than $33 million to their families, which he did not will never do.
How did the OJ Simpson case become more than a trial?
The impact of this case and this verdict then entered popular culture over the years. Documentaries and series retracing his story and his trial have multiplied. The first season of the famous series “American Crime Story” is also dedicated to him. It is also quite common to see a few nods in films or series that recall significant episodes of the trial.
That of the chase will obviously remain in people’s minds. The now famous Ford Bronco is now on display at a Tennessee museum specializing in the criminal history of the United States. In Los Angeles, a company even considered offering sightseeing tours in the car, following the same route as OJ Simpson. In short, a business like no other.
