In what was called the 'trial of the century,' 100 million people across the world watched a Los Angeles jury declare O. J. Simpson not guilty of murder. Take a look back at the murder and trial that captivated the world.
O. J. Simpson’s 1994-95 murder trial, still deemed to this day as the “trial of the century,” centered around the murder of Simpson’s wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman on June 12, 1994. For eleven months, from Simpson attempting to evade police during the infamous White Ford Bronco car chase to the former NFL star trying on the gloves left at the scene of the crime, the world tuned into the case. Simpson was found not guilty on Oct. 3, 1995.
Nicole Brown met former football sensation O. J. Simpson in 1977 while she was waitressing at an upscale Beverley Hills nightclub. They married in 1985 and had two children together, but their marriage was anything but blissful. The couple divorced in 1992 due to a pattern of abuse and infidelity by Simpson.
After Brown’s divorce from Simpson, she met 25-year-old Ron Goldman, who was 10 years her junior. The two spent a lot of time together, yet police sources have said they did not believe Brown and Goldman were romantically involved.
On June 13, 1994, shortly after midnight, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death in the front courtyard of Nicole’s condo in Brentwood, Calif. Reporters and spectators flocked to the crime scene in the early days of what would become one of the most iconic murder cases of all time.
Blood-stained sheets were found strewn along the entryway of Nicole’s Los Angeles-area condo on June 13, 1994, hours after the bodies of Brown-Simpson and Goldman were found.
An unidentified police investigator walks past blood-stained towels near the entrace of Brown-Simpson’s home. The bodies were untouched for two hours before police officers found them.
Ronald Goldman’s family, (l-r) his sister, Kim; his father, Fred; and his stepmother Patti, comfort each other during a conference in Ventura County Calif. on June 15, 1994, following his murder two days prior.
On June 16, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were buried in separate funerals. O. J. Simpson’s children, six-year-old Justin and nine-year-old Sydney, accompanied him to their mother’s funeral in Brentwood and to her burial service in Lake Forest. Goldman was buried in Westlake Village.
The last page of one of three letters written by O. J. Simpson prior to his disappearance following Nicole Brown-Simpson’s funeral.
Robert Kardashian, a lawyer and friend of O. J. Simpson, read one of Simpson’s letters live during a television conference in Los Angeles on June 17, 1994. At this point, Simpson was declared a fugitive and eluded police for several hours before embarking on the infamous freeway chase in a white Ford Bronco.
Spectators pull alongside the roadway as California Highway Patrol cars tail the white Ford Bronco carrying a reportedly suicidal O. J. Simpson during a two-county chase on June 17, 1994, along a Southern California freeway.
Motorists wave as police cars pursue the white Ford Bronco, right, driven by Al Cowlings, carrying fugitive murder suspect O. J. Simpson on a 90-minute slow-speed car chase on June 17, 1994, on the 405 freeway in Los Angeles, Calif. Simpson’s friend Cowlings eventually drove Simpson home, with Simpson ducked under the back passenger seat, to Brentwood where he surrendered after a stand-off with police.
At about 6:45 p.m. on June 17, 1994, after being charged with two counts of murder, Simpson hit the freeway in the backseat of a white Ford Bronco driven by best friend and former teammate, Al Cowlings, in a 60-mile low-speed police chase through L.A. that would become one of the most memorable TV moments of the decade.
Ex-football superstar O. J. Simpson (C) is accompanied by two LAPD detectives to Parker Center, LAPD headquarters, after he was arrested following a 90-minute highway chase on June 17, 1994. Simpson has been charged with the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman who were brutally slain late at night on June 12, 1994.
On Jan. 24, 1995, Simpson’s trial began. The chief defense lawyer, Robert Shapiro headed the high-profile and highly expensive legal team that included attorneys F. Lee Bailey, Alan Dershowitz, Johnnie Cochran, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufel and Robert Kardashian.
One of Simpson’s high-profile lawyers was his close friend and confidant, Robert Kardashian. After meeting in 1973, Kardashian and Simpson started different business ventures together and became very close friends, as did their families. After Nicole’s murder, Simpson was staying at Kardashian’s house when he fled and embarked on the infamous Ford Bronco chase.
During her opening statement on Jan. 24, 1995, chief prosecutor Marcia Clark told the jury there was forensic evidence that would prove Simpson was guilty. In this photo, Clark points to a chart that shows where the evidence was found at Simpson’s home.
Mark Fuhrman, a former LAPD detective who was among the first to arrive at the murder scene, was made infamous by the trial after he lied under oath about using racial slurs. Fuhrman declared that he had not used racial epithets in the last decade, though taped interviews that were played for the jury revealed otherwise. His dishonesty is widely regarded as one of the reasons why Simpson was acquitted.
Jurors were shown this Polaroid photo, one of two found in Nicole Simpson’s safe-deposit box, during her sister Denise’s testimony on Feb. 6, 1995. The elder Brown sister testified that Nicole took the pictures a few days after being beaten by O. J. in 1989.
Denise Brown, Nicole Brown-Simpson’s sister, cries as she testifies on the witness stand on Feb. 3 in Los Angeles. Brown had recalled an incident she witnessed when O. J. Simpson became angry at his ex-wife, throwing her to the ground outside their home.
Press photographers gathered eagerly by the hundreds outside of the Los Angeles Courthouse in Los Angeles, Calif., awaiting the verdict. The Simpson case was the most heavily covered story of 1995 and kept Americans glued to their TV screens.
Judge Lance Ito looks at prosecutor Marcia Clark as he admonishes her for argumentative behavior during her opening statements to the jury in the murder trial on Jan. 24, 1994, in Los Angeles, Calif. Ito ended the hearing later, after learning that the court video camera viewed images of two jurors.
On Mar. 6, 1995, Los Angeles Police Detective Tom Lange (L) points to pictures of the trail of blood at Nicole Brown Simpson’s condominium where she and Ron Goldman were murdered. Lange, one of the lead investigators in the case, was cross-examined by the defense as to his actions at the murder scene. Seated to his right is O. J. Simpson’s attorney Johnnie Cochran.
“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” said O. J.’s defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran during his closing argument on June 21, 1995. Cochran was referring to a pair of bloody gloves that became a key piece of evidence during the trial. One glove was discovered at the murder scene and the other at Simpson’s home. However, when asked to try them on, Simpson struggled claiming they did not fit and could not be his.
Prosecutor Marcia Clark demonstrates on her own neck where a knife wound was sustained by Ronald Goldman during her closing arguments on Sept. 29, 1995.
Ron Goldman’s father Fred Goldman (L) wipes a tear as his wife Patti Goldman (C) and daughter Kim Goldman (R) join him during the prosecution’s closing arguments on Sept. 26, 1995. “Our lives are a new and different normal now,” he said. “But you find a way somehow or other to adjust to the pain, to the anger, to the loss.”
Olympic gold medal champion Bruce Jenner and his wife Kris pause for a brief interview on the steps of the Criminal Courts Building as they arrive to watch the closing arguments in the O. J. Simpson double-murder trial on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 1995, in Los Angeles.
On Oct. 3, 1995, the final day of the nine-month “trial of the century,” the jury rendered its verdict: not guilty on both counts of murder. Simpson is seen here receiving the news as attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. holds onto him in relief.
Kim Goldman, Ronald Goldman’s sister, cries after hearing the “not guilty” verdicts on Oct. 3, 1995.
(L-R) O. J. Simpson’s mother Eunice, his daughter Arnelle, an unidentified person, his son Jason, and his sister Shirley Baker celebrate the “not guilty” verdicts.
Miami residents Justin Barker, left, and his colleague Juan Borrego react as they hear the verdict of the O. J. Simpson trial on Oct. 3, 1995. Barker was jubilant while Borrego had believed he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Mark Thomas (C) watches his portable television outside the Los Angeles Criminal Courts building and celebrates with others during the reading of the “not guilty” verdict.
Crowds of passersby and police officers gather outside of the Los Angeles Criminal Courts building after O. J. Simpson is acquitted in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman on Oct. 3, 1995.
