The June 12, 1994, killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman brought what’s dubbed the “Trial of the Century” that culminated with O.J. Simpson’s acquittal of the murders. The announcement Thursday that Simpson is dead has brought renewed attention to the closely watched trial and the fascinating cast of characters who played a role in the case.
Here’s a look at where they are now.
THE DEFENDANT
This image released by the Nevada Department of Corrections shows O.J. Simpson signing documents and leaving Lovelock Correctional Centre early on October 1, 2017.Simpson, whose racially charged 1995 murder trial riveted the nation, was released from jail on parole early October 1, 2017, after nine years behind bars for armed robbery. Simpson, 70, left the Lovelock Correctional Center in the western state of Nevada just after midnight local time, prison spokesperson Brooke Keast said. “I don’t know where he was headed,” Keast told AFP. / AFP PHOTO / Nevada Department of Corrections / HO / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / Nevada Department of Corrections” – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTSHO/AFP/Getty Images
Two years after Simpson’s 1995 acquittal, a civil court jury found him liable for the deaths of his ex-wife and Goldman, and ordered he pay their survivors $33.5 million. He got into a series of minor legal scrapes ranging from a 2001 Florida road-rage incident to racing his boat through a protected Florida manatee zone in 2002; He was acquitted for the former and fined for the latter.
His most serious transgression came in 2007, however, when he and five others barged into a Las Vegas hotel room with guns and seized property from memorabilia dealers that Simpson claimed to own. He served nine years in a Nevada prison and was paroled in 2017. In recent years, Simpson lived quietly in Las Vegas, where he played golf and sometimes posed for selfies with those still enamored with his celebrity.
Ronald Goldman’s father, Fred, speaks about his son’s life during a news conference. Ronald Goldman’s sister, Kim, left, and his stepmother, Patti, embrace Fred Goldman. (6/15/94) (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)
Ron Goldman’s sister, Kim, was 22 and broke into sobs when the not guilty verdict was read. Since then, she counseled troubled teens as executive director of a Southern California-based nonprofit, The Youth Project, until it closed during the pandemic. A best-selling author and public speaker, Goldman also has launched several podcasts including “Confronting: OJ Simpson” and, most recently, ”Media Circus.”
Fred Goldman, Ron’s father, has relentlessly pursued Simpson through civil courts, maintaining it is the only way to achieve justice for his son. Goldman’s family has seized some of Simpson’s memorabilia, including his 1968 Heisman Trophy as college football’s best player that year. The family has also taken the rights to Simpson’s movies, a book he wrote about the killings and other items to satisfy part of the $33.5 million judgment that Simpson refused to pay.
Denise Brown, Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister, has remained the family’s most outspoken critic of Simpson, although like the Goldman family, she refuses to speak his name. The former model has become a victims’ rights advocate and a speaker, urging both women and men to leave abusive relationships. She said she has moved past her anger with God for the killings but has never forgiven Simpson, and will not watch any films or documentaries about the killings.
THE LEGAL DREAM TEAM
Defendant O.J. Simpson is surrounded by his defense attorneys, from left, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., Peter Neufeld, Robert Shapiro, Robert Kardashian, and Robert Blasier, seated at left, at the close of defense arguments in his murder trial, Thursday, Sept. 28, 1995, in Los Angeles. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. (Sam Mircovich/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr., Simpson’s lead attorney, died of brain cancer in 2005 at 68. His refrain to jurors — “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” — sought to underscore that the bloody gloves found at Simpson’s home and the crime scene were too small for the football legend when he tried them on in court. After the trial, that line became a national catchphrase. Following the trial Cochran expanded his law firm to 15 states and frequently appeared on television. He also became the inspiration for Jackie Chiles, the bombastic lawyer character on the TV sitcom “Seinfeld.”
Another key part of the defense team, Robert Kardashian, died of esophageal cancer in 2003 at age 59. A longtime friend of Simpson’s, he renewed his law license specifically to represent him in the trial. Between the time of the murders and his arrest, Simpson stayed in Kardashian’s home. When Simpson fled authorities in a white Ford Bronco on June 17, 1994, Kardashian read to reporters a rambling message Simpson had left behind as a historic freeway chase unfolded on national television. Since his death, Kardashian’s fame has been eclipsed by that of ex-wife Kris, and children Kourtney, Kim, Khloe and Rob, thanks to their reality TV show, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
FILE – In this Aug. 26, 1994 file photo, O.J. Simpson, right, and defense attorney Robert Shapiro sit in a Los Angeles Superior courtroom as Judge Lance Ito refuses a request to open an afternoon session to the media. Simpson, the former football star, TV pitchman and now Nevada prison inmate, will have a lot going for him when he appears before state parole board members Thursday, July 20, 2017 seeking his release after more than eight years for an ill-fated bid to retrieve sports memorabilia. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, Pool, File)
O.J. Simpson and his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, arrive for the opening of the Harley-Davidson Cafe in New York on Oct. 19, 1993. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. (AP Photo/Paul Hurschmann, File)
EDITORS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – In this file photo provided Friday, Oct. 25, 1996, by the Los Angeles Police Department/Los Angeles Superior Court shows the body of Nicole Brown Simpson, where she was found on the bloodstained walkway of her Bundy Drive condominium, an LAPD evidence image used in the O.J. Simpson civil trial in Superior Court in Santa Monica, Calif. (Los Angeles Police Department/Los Angeles Superior Court via AP, File)
FILE – In this June 17, 1994, file photo, a white Ford Bronco, driven by Al Cowlings carrying O.J. Simpson, is trailed by Los Angeles police cars as it travels on a freeway in Los Angeles. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. (AP Photo/Joseph Villarin, File)
LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES: Murder defendant O.J. Simpson (R) listens to testimony by the Los Angeles County Coroner 07 June on how his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, died of a deep slashing wound to her neck. The Coroner detailed how he estimated that a 6-inch knife was used to cut her neck almost to the spinal column. Next to Simpson is attorney Robert Kardashian. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read Vince Bucci/AFP via Getty Images)
In this June 21, 1995 file photo, O.J. Simpson holds up his hands before the jury after putting on a new pair of gloves similar to the infamous bloody gloves during his double-murder trial in Los Angeles. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. (Vince Bucci/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Defendant O.J. Simpson is surrounded by his defense attorneys, from left, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., Peter Neufeld, Robert Shapiro, Robert Kardashian, and Robert Blasier, seated at left, at the close of defense arguments in his murder trial, Thursday, Sept. 28, 1995, in Los Angeles. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. (Sam Mircovich/Pool Photo via AP, File)
USC quarterback Carson Palmer, left, speaks with former football great O.J. Simpson after the Orange Bowl practice Saturday, Dec. 28, 2002 in Florida. Both Palmer and Simpson were Heisman Trophy winners. (AP Photo/.Gary I. Rothstein)
Kim Goldman poses for a portrait Friday, June 7, 2019, in Los Angeles. Goldman has continued to make the case publicly that it was O.J. Simpson who killed her brother and Simpson’s ex-wife on a June night in 1994. Beginning Wednesday, Goldman will examine the case in a 10-episode podcast, “Confronting: OJ Simpson.” She’ll interview her brother’s old friends, the police detective who investigated the killings, attorneys for the defense and prosecution, and two of the 12 jurors who voted to acquit Simpson. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
FILE – In this Sept. 26, 1995, file photo, prosecutor Marcia Clark demonstrates to the jury how the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were committed during her closing arguments in the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial in Los Angeles. Clark, the trial’s lead prosecutor, quit law after the case, although she has appeared frequently as a TV commentator on high-profile trials over the years and on numerous TV news shows. She was paid $4 million for her Simpson trial memoir, “Without a Doubt,” and has gone on to write a series of crime novels. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Daily News via AP, Pool, File)
FILE – In this Feb. 5, 2019, file photo, former O.J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark participates in the “The Fix” panel during the ABC presentation at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif. Clark, the trial’s lead prosecutor, quit law after the case, although she has appeared frequently as a TV commentator on high-profile trials over the years and on numerous TV news shows. She was paid $4 million for her Simpson trial memoir, “Without a Doubt,” and has gone on to write a series of crime novels. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)
This is an undated photo from a video showing O.J. Simpson with his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and their children Sydney and Justin. (AP Photo/ABC)
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, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 1995, in Los Angeles.
Prosecutor Christopher Darden holds up a photograph of murder victum Ronald Goldman while he addresses the jury during closing arguments 27 September in the O.J. Simpson double murder trial in Los Angeles. Darden put pictures of Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson in front of the jury during his closing arguments. (HAL GARB/AFP/Getty Images)
FILE – In this Dec. 5, 2008, file photo, Fred Goldman, father of Ron Goldman, who was murdered in 1994, speaks to reporters after O.J. Simpson’s sentencing hearing outside the Clark County Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. Fred Goldman has relentlessly pursued O.J. Simpson through civil courts, maintaining it is the only way to achieve justice for his son. Goldman’s family has seized some of Simpson’s memorabilia, including his 1968 Heisman Trophy as college football’s best player that year. (Isaac Brekken/Pool Photo via AP, File)
In this Feb. 4, 1997 file photo, Fred Goldman is hugged by his daughter Kim while patting his wife Patti’s cheek during a news conference after the verdict in the wrongful death suit against O.J. Simpson in Santa Monica, Calif. The jury found Simpson liable on all counts and he is ordered to pay $33.5 million to the Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson estates. (AP Photo/Michael Caulfield, file)
Defense attorney Barry Scheck gestures during direct examination of forensic expert Dr Henry Lee 23 Aug during the O.J. Simpson murder trial where victim Ron Goldman’s bloody jeans were entered into evidence. The defense contends that what appears to be parallel patterns on the left leg of the jeans are shoe imprints from a second assaillant. (POO/AFP/Getty Images)
The prosecution projects a police photograph of Nicole Brown Simpson showing her injuries after a 1989 beating as evidence against her ex-husband, O.J. Simpson. (1995) (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)
Judge Lance Ito speaks to lawyers Friday morning, Sept. 8, 1995, as the prosecution in the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial objected to various defense exhibits. In a partial victory for Simpson prosecutors, an appeals court today ordered Ito to withdraw a jury instruction about Mark Fuhrman or explain his decision further to the higher court. (AP Photo/Eric Draper, Pool)
FILE – In this May 15, 2013 file photo, O.J. Simpson returns to the witness stand to testify after a break during an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas. Simpson, the former football star, TV pitchman and now Nevada prison inmate, will have a lot going for him when he appears before state parole board members Thursday, July 20, 2017, seeking his release after more than eight years for an ill-fated bid to retrieve sports memorabilia. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, Pool, file)
Robert Shapiro, the first member of Simpson’s defense team, continues to practice law. In 2005, he created a foundation that grants college scholarships to 11- to 18-year-olds for staying sober after his 24-year-old son died of an overdose.
Barry Scheck was the lawyer who introduced DNA science to jurors and undermined the prosecution’s forensic evidence by attacking the collection methods. He and fellow defense lawyer Peter Neufeld co-founded The Innocence Project in 1992. It uses DNA evidence to exonerate people who were wrongly convicted.
F. Lee Bailey was the lawyer who played a key role in exposing racist statements made by one of the prosecution’s key witnesses, police Detective Mark Fuhrman, which undermined his credibility. When he joined the defense team, Bailey already was already famous for his role in some of the most high-profile cases of the 20th century, including that of heiress-turned-bank-robber Patricia Hearst. Bailey was disbarred in Massachusetts and Florida in the early 2000s for misconduct in handling a client’s case. He died in 2021.
Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor emeritus, also helped Simpson get an acquittal and consulted on the scientific aspects of the case. Since then, he courted controversy by helping the late hedge fund manager and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein win a lenient sentence for abusing underaged girls. He was also part of President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team that ended with his acquittal.
THE PROSECUTORS
Prosecutors Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden talk to the media after the acquittal of O.J. Simpson in Los Angeles in this Oct. 3, 1995 file photo, could be getting married, People magazine reports. “Ridiculous,” their agent, Norman Brokaw, said after People magazine issued a statement reporting that the O.J. Simpson prosecutors plan a trip down the aisle. Clark, who was in New York on Thursday seeing the play “Showboat,” likewise called the report of an impending marriage to Darden “ridiculous.”. (AP Photo/Pool, David Sprague)
Marcia Clark, the trial’s lead prosecutor, quit law after the trial, although she has appeared frequently over the years as a TV commentator on high-profile trials. She was paid $4 million for her 2016 memoir, “Without a Doubt,” and has gone on to write a series of crime novels.
Chris Darden, the co-prosecutor, was criticized for having Simpson try on the bloody gloves in the courtroom without first ensuring they would fit. He is now a defense attorney himself. He represented the man charged with killing hip-hop mogul Nipsey Hussle before withdrawing from the case, saying his family had received death threats. Darden has also taught law, appeared on television as a legal commentator and wrote about the Simpson trial in the 1996 book, “In Contempt.” Currently, he is running for Los Angeles County Superior Court judge.
THE JUDGE
Judge Lance Ito views evidence with a magnifying glass during O.J. Simpson’s double-murder trial, Aug. 25, 1995, in Los Angeles. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. (AP Photo/Pool/Mark J. Terrill, File)
Lance Ito retired in 2015 after presiding over approximately 500 trials. Simpson’s trial made him such a household name that “The Tonight Show” briefly featured a comedy segment called “The Dancing Itos,” in which lookalikes performed in judicial robes. After the Simpson trial he had to remove his name plate from his courtroom door because people kept stealing it. Ito has never discussed the trial publicly, citing judicial ethics.
THE HOUSEGUEST
Witness Brian “Kato” Kaelin testifies under direct examination during O.J. Simpson’s double-murder trial at the Los Angeles Criminal Courts Building Tuesday, March 21, 1995, in Los Angeles. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. (John McCoy/Los Angeles Daily News via AP, Pool, File)
Brian “Kato” Kaelin, a struggling actor living in a guest house on Simpson’s property, testified he heard a “bump” during the night of the murders and went outside to find Simpson in the yard. Prosecutors later said Kaelin’s testimony showed Simpson was sneaking back home after the killings. Mocked on talk shows as America’s most famous houseguest, Kaelin has gone on to appear on reality shows, as well as in small parts in TV sitcoms and films, and to launch a loungewear clothing line.
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