Orenthal James Simpson, a Hall of Fame running back, was tried for the June 12, 1994, killings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Lyle Goldman outside her home in Los Angeles. A jury acquitted him on Oct. 3, 1995. A civil jury later found him liable for their deaths, and in 2008 he was convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping in an unrelated Las Vegas case. He died in 2024.
On Oct. 18, 2026, the New York Times published an investigation based on federal records unsealed at its request, reporting that a government informant with ties to Simpson's circle gave authorities information about the killings, including the disposal of the murder weapon, which has never been found.10 The informant's brother told the Times that the informant came home that night with apparent blood on his hands and a bag holding a heavy object, then later recanted.10 The Los Angeles Police Department said the case "remains an open and ongoing investigation."10 On Nov. 1, 2026, Peacock released OJ's Accomplice, a two-part documentary moved up from December, which questions whether Simpson acted alone and asks whether members of his inner circle were present that night.161715 None of this reporting is a court finding.
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman were stabbed to death on the night of June 12, 1994, in front of her home on Bundy Drive in Los Angeles, according to the California Court of Appeal’s later account of the civil case.1 She was Simpson’s former wife; their divorce had been finalized in 1992.134 That evening, according to the Court of Appeal, Simpson attended their daughter’s dance recital, sat apart from Nicole Brown Simpson, and was excluded from the family dinner afterward at a restaurant where Goldman was a waiter.1 The court wrote that Nicole Brown Simpson later called about eyeglasses left at the dinner, and that Goldman may have been killed while delivering them.1 Simpson testified in the civil case that he was at his home on Rockingham that night until a limousine driver picked him up for a flight to Chicago; the plaintiffs argued that he had time to commit the killings, return home and dispose of evidence.1
On June 17, 1994, Simpson led police on a low-speed chase in his white Ford Bronco that was broadcast on television, then surrendered.31 According to the Court of Appeal, after he learned police would arrest him he left with a friend in the Bronco, carrying his passport, a false goatee and mustache, $8,000 to $9,000 in cash and a loaded gun, and talked about suicide.1 He was tried for the murders of both victims before Judge Lance Ito.532
On New Year’s Day 1989, according to the Court of Appeal, a police detective answered a 911 call at Simpson’s home on Rockingham, and Nicole Brown Simpson ran to the gate, collapsed against him and repeatedly said “he’s going to kill me.”1 The detective saw injuries to her face and neck, and she told him Simpson had hit, kicked and slapped her and pulled her hair.1 Simpson pleaded no contest to spousal abuse.1 The Court of Appeal recounted this and other incidents of abuse as part of the evidence in the civil trial.1
Marcia Clark led the prosecution, with Christopher Darden.203 Darden asked Simpson to try on the gloves over Clark’s objection, according to a 2020 retrospective.20 Johnnie Cochran led the defense.4 Simpson did not testify.7 The trial was televised daily, and it lasted 11 months from jury selection to verdict.31
On June 15, 1995, at the prosecution’s request, Simpson tried on the leather gloves in front of the jury; the Associated Press reporter in the courtroom wrote that he struggled to get them past his knuckles and told the jurors, “They’re too small.”19 Darden told her that evening that he had expected them to fit.19 In rebuttal, a glove expert, Richard Rubin, testified that gloves Simpson wore in photographs from 1991 to 1994 were the same model, Aris Isotoner Lights, as those found at the scene and at his house, and the prosecution showed a receipt for two pairs bought by Nicole Brown Simpson in December 1990.3
The defense argued that the police had planted evidence. Mark Fuhrman, the detective who found a glove outside Simpson’s house, testified that he had not used a racial slur in the past decade; recordings showed that he had.21 Recalled on Sept. 6, 1995, he answered, “I wish to assert my Fifth Amendment privilege,” when asked whether he had planted or manufactured evidence.2 After the trial he pleaded no contest to perjury and was placed on probation.21 In closing on Sept. 27, Cochran told the jury that Fuhrman had framed Simpson, called the prosecution’s timeline a “tortured window of opportunity,” and made “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” his theme.4
The jury deliberated less than a day and told Judge Ito on Oct. 2, 1995, that it had reached a verdict; he sealed it overnight.5 On Oct. 3, 1995, Simpson was acquitted of both murders.5 Nine of the jurors were Black, Maclean’s reported.7 The acquittal is final.
The victims’ families sued Simpson in Los Angeles County Superior Court, and the case was tried in Santa Monica before Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki, who barred television cameras.17 A civil verdict needed only nine of twelve jurors, and the question was whether the plaintiffs had proved their case by a preponderance of the evidence, legal analyst Stuart Taylor Jr. explained on the NewsHour as the case went to the jury, compared with proof beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal case.6 Simpson testified in the civil trial and denied that he was the killer.17 The plaintiffs produced 31 photographs of him wearing shoes of the kind whose soles matched the bloody footprints, after he denied owning such shoes, Maclean’s reported.7
On Feb. 4, 1997, the jury found him liable.228 As the Court of Appeal described the verdict, the jury found that he “willfully and wrongfully” killed both victims, with oppression and malice.1 Goldman’s parents and heirs, Sharon Rufo and Fredric Goldman, were awarded $8.5 million in compensatory damages for wrongful death, and the estates of the two victims were each awarded $12.5 million in punitive damages, which the jury set on Feb. 10.1239 On Jan. 26, 2001, the Court of Appeal affirmed the judgments; Simpson had not challenged the sufficiency of the evidence that he was the killer.1 This is a civil finding of liability under the civil standard of proof. It is not a criminal conviction, and it does not change the acquittal.61
On Oct. 18, 2026, the New York Times reported on federal records unsealed at its request.10 According to the Times, a man it identifies as a convicted drug trafficker with mob ties, who had escaped from a Florida prison a month before the killings and was a close friend of one of Simpson’s longtime friends, became a federal informant after his 1995 arrest and gave authorities information about the case.10 The Times reported that federal prosecutors, in a December 1996 memo seeking leniency for him, called him “a remarkable source of information” and said he knew facts about Simpson’s alleged domestic violence and alleged disposal of the murder weapon, which has never been found.10 Federal officials shared the information with Los Angeles prosecutors near the end of the trial, the Times reported, and he was never called as a witness.10 He died in 2006.10
The man’s brother told the Times that the informant came back to a Los Angeles apartment that night with apparent blood on his hands and a bag holding a heavy object, and that he threw the bag into a construction dumpster at the informant’s request.10 Months later, according to the Times, the brother asked for payment, and when a reporter declined, he recanted, saying he could no longer tell what was real.1012 The informant’s friends and relatives have disputed that he took part in the killings.12
The former federal prosecutor who wrote the 1996 memo told the Times he did not believe the informant was involved in the killings.12 Marcia Clark said she had never heard of him and would have been told of any credible evidence.12 The case’s lead detective, Tom Lange, told the Times he did not consider the man a serious suspect and still does not believe Simpson had help.10 The Times reported that LAPD cold-case investigators had been gathering information on accomplice theories, and a department spokesman said, “The O.J. Simpson case remains an open and ongoing investigation,” adding that detectives would follow any new leads.101311
The Times also noted that in his book If I Did It, Simpson described a hypothetical account of the killings in which a friend helped dispose of the weapon and bloody clothes, and that investigators gave the account little credence.1015
Separately, Peacock announced in September 2026 a two-part documentary, OJ’s Accomplice, from Ample Entertainment, scheduled for December; its makers say it offers “real evidence” that the accepted account of the case may be wrong and asks whether members of Simpson’s inner circle were present that night.1415 Peacock moved the release up to Nov. 1, 2026.1617 According to Peacock’s announcement as reported by BroadwayWorld, it revisits the crime scene and evidence and features the lead detective, Tom Lange; the defense investigator Pat McKenna; members of Simpson’s defense team; Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister; and what it calls a newly identified eyewitness.17 The documentary’s claims are its makers’, not findings of any court.51 No public response to the 2026 reporting from the Goldman family or from Simpson’s estate has been found.
None of this reporting has been tested in court. No one else has been charged, and no one has been convicted of the killings.1110
Orenthal James Simpson was born in San Francisco on July 9, 1947.3234 According to Biography.com, his parents separated in 1952, and his mother raised him with a brother and two sisters.34 Biography.com reports that he had rickets at 2 and wore shoes joined by an iron bar for part of most days until he was 5.34 He grew up in public housing in the Potrero Hill neighborhood.32 Biography.com reports that he joined a gang at 13 and spent nearly a week at the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center after a fight in 1962; Simpson himself said he was a juvenile delinquent until he met Willie Mays as a teenager.3432
He played running back at Galileo High School, graduating in 1965, then at City College of San Francisco.32 At the University of Southern California he helped win a national championship in 1967 and won the Heisman Trophy in 1968.3233 The Buffalo Bills made him the first pick of the 1969 draft; he played for them through 1977, and in 1973 he became the first player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in an NFL season.35 He finished his career with the San Francisco 49ers in 1978 and 1979.35 He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.34 He later worked as a football broadcaster, as an actor, including in The Naked Gun films, and as a spokesman for Hertz.3331
He married his first wife in 1967; they divorced in 1979.34 Their infant daughter drowned in the family pool in 1979, a month before her second birthday, according to Biography.com.34 He married Nicole Brown in February 1985; she filed for divorce in 1992, and it was finalized that October.34 They had two children.31
On Sept. 13, 2007, Simpson and other men confronted two sports memorabilia dealers in a room at the Palace Station casino hotel in Las Vegas; he said he was trying to recover his own property.2630 On Oct. 3, 2008, a jury convicted him on all counts, including armed robbery and kidnapping.2426 NPR noted that the verdict came 13 years to the day after his acquittal.25 At sentencing on Dec. 5, 2008, he told the court, “I didn’t want to steal anything from anyone,” and apologized; Judge Jackie Glass replied, “It was much more than stupidity,” and said the sentence was unrelated to the 1994 case.26 She sentenced him to up to 33 years, with parole eligibility after nine.26 On Oct. 22, 2010, the Nevada Supreme Court rejected his appeal, writing that “all of Simpson’s arguments on appeal are without merit.”2827
He served his sentence at Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada.2729 On July 20, 2017, the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners voted 4–0 to grant him parole; at the hearing he said, “I haven’t made any excuses in the 9 years I’ve been here and I’m not trying to make an excuse now.”29 He was released on Oct. 1, 2017, and discharged from parole on Dec. 1, 2021, earlier than scheduled, for good behavior; his lawyer, Malcolm LaVergne, said he was “a completely free man now.”30
In May 2023, Simpson said he had cancer and had undergone chemotherapy.31 He died on April 10, 2024, at 76.31 His family’s statement said, “On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer,” and that he was surrounded by his children and grandchildren.31 He denied killing Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, and was never convicted of their deaths.15
The claim"If it doesn't fit, you must acquit": the gloves did not fit Simpson's hands, so they could not have been his. Johnnie Cochran made the line the theme of his closing argument.420
The recordOn June 15, 1995, Simpson struggled to pull the leather gloves past his knuckles in front of the jury, according to the Associated Press reporter who was in the courtroom.19 The prosecution argued that he was faking or that the gloves had shrunk, and a glove expert later testified that Simpson was photographed wearing the same rare model, of which Bloomingdale's sold about 200 pairs that year.3 The prosecution showed a receipt for two pairs bought by Nicole Brown Simpson in December 1990.3 Whether the gloves fit was argued at trial; the record does not settle it, and the jury's verdict does not say what it made of the demonstration.5
The claimSimpson "didn't act alone": an accomplice helped him that night, a claim made by his former manager in 2018 and by the makers of a 2026 documentary.1815
The recordNo court has found that a second person was involved. The criminal jury acquitted Simpson, and the civil jury found that he killed both victims.51 An informant who gave federal authorities information about the case was never called as a witness by either side, according to the New York Times.10 No one has been convicted of the killings, and the Los Angeles Police Department says the case remains open.1110
Prosecutors relied on physical evidence including gloves found at the scene and at Simpson's house. A glove expert called in rebuttal testified that photographs showed Simpson wearing the same rare model, and the prosecution showed him a receipt for two pairs bought by Nicole Brown Simpson in December 1990.3 After the glove demonstration in court, the prosecution argued that Simpson was faking or that the gloves had shrunk.3
In closing, Johnnie Cochran argued that former detective Mark Fuhrman had framed Simpson, called the prosecution's timeline a "tortured window of opportunity," and made "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit" his theme.4 Fuhrman, who found the glove at Simpson's house, invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege when asked whether he had planted or manufactured evidence.221
In 1997 a civil jury found that Simpson "willfully and wrongfully" killed both victims, with oppression and malice, as the Court of Appeal described the verdict. Simpson did not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence on appeal, and the judgments were affirmed.1
He wins the Heisman Trophy at the University of Southern California.3233
The Buffalo Bills make him the first pick of the NFL draft.35
He marries Nicole Brown.34
After a New Year's Day argument, he later pleads no contest to spousal abuse.1
Their divorce is finalized.34
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are stabbed to death in front of her home.1
Simpson leads police on a televised low-speed chase in his white Ford Bronco, then surrenders.31
At the prosecution's request, Simpson tries on the gloves before the jury.1920
Former detective Mark Fuhrman invokes the Fifth Amendment when recalled.2
Johnnie Cochran gives his closing argument for the defense.4
The jury finds Simpson not guilty.5
A civil jury in Santa Monica finds him liable for the deaths.228
The California Court of Appeal affirms the civil judgments.1
Simpson and others confront two sports memorabilia dealers in a room at the Palace Station casino hotel in Las Vegas.26
A Las Vegas jury convicts him on all counts, including armed robbery and kidnapping.2425
Judge Jackie Glass sentences him to up to 33 years in prison.26
The Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners votes 4–0 to grant parole.29
He is released from Lovelock Correctional Center.30
He is discharged from parole early.30
Simpson dies of cancer, his family announces.31
Peacock announces the documentary OJ's Accomplice for December; it is later moved up and released Nov. 1.1416
The New York Times publishes its investigation of a federal informant's information about the killings.10
The California Court of Appeal affirmed the civil judgments in January 2001; Simpson had not challenged the sufficiency of the evidence that he was the killer.1 In September 2007 he led a confrontation with two memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas hotel, saying he wanted to recover his own property; a jury convicted him in October 2008, and the judge said the sentence was unrelated to the 1994 case.2630 The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed his convictions in 2010.27 He was paroled in 2017 and discharged from parole in 2021.30 He died in April 2024.31 No one has been convicted of the 1994 killings, and the Los Angeles Police Department says the investigation remains open.1110