O.J. Simpson dead at 76

O.J. Simpson, the football star, actor and pitchman whose shocking arrest for double murder and subsequent acquittal at trial shone a light on American race relations, has died. He was 76.

"On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer," the family said in a statement posted to Simpson's X account.

"He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace."

Simpson's well-crafted public image was shattered upon his arrest days after the June 12, 1994, homicide of Nicole Brown Simpson, his ex-wife, and her friend Ronald Goldman. The pair were found slashed to death at the doorstep of her Los Angeles residence.

Simpson's arrest and trial provided indelible moments, with an estimated 95 million Americans watching on television as the white Bronco he was being driven in was trailed by a phalanx of police cars after he failed to surrender to authorities.

Outside of Super Bowls, it was one of the top-10 most-viewed television events of all time in the U.S.

The case gave rise to saturated media coverage and legal punditry. Simpson's struggle to put on gloves found at the crime scene was arguably the most notable moment of the televised trial.

Simpson's murder acquittal on Oct. 3, 1995, delivered by a jury that after eight months of testimony deliberated for only four hours, was widely debated, with disparities in how Black and white Americans viewed the verdict.

"The jury just did not believe the police and I thought my lawyers did an excellent job of showing that evidence was planted and tampered with during my trial," Simpson told NBC's Today Show in 2000.

He would later be found liable for the two deaths in a $33.5 million US civil judgment.

Simpson would go to prison, in 2008, after a bizarre incident in which he organized a hotel room robbery of a sports memorabilia collector.

In a 2023 social media post, Simpson said he had experienced "COVID and cancer at the same time," without elaborating.

In February 2024, he took to social media to deny reports he was in hospice care for prostate cancer. But his frequent posts on X soon stopped.

Simpson rose to prominence nationally at the University of Southern California, earning the Heisman Trophy in 1968 as the top college football player in the country. The running back was soon drafted first overall in the pros, by the Buffalo Bills.