REACTION PAPER

ARELLANO, JERICSON N.

BSCRIMINOLOGY IV-A

Introduction
In the 1960s, Simpson became a college football star as a running back for the University
of Southern California in Los Angeles. In 1968, he won college football's top award, the
Heisman Trophy.

In 1969, Simpson was the first pick in the NFL draft, and he made a name for himself
playing for the Buffalo Bills.

In 1973, he became the first in the NFL to rush for 2,000 or more yards in one season.

Simpson left football behind for Hollywood, appearing in popular Hertz commercials in
the 1970s as well as films including "Capricorn One" in the 1970s and "The Naked Gun" films in
the '80s and '90s.

Simpson, already a father to three children with ex-wife Marguerite Whitley, married
Nicole Brown in 1985. They had two children, Sydney and Justin.

In 1992, Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson divorced.

Body
The night of June 12, 1994, Brown Simpson and her family dined at a Los Angeles
restaurant and she later returned to her Los Angeles home. Ron Goldman, a waiter at that
restaurant, went to Brown Simpson's home to return glasses her mother had left at the restaurant.

Around midnight, Brown Simpson and Goldman were found stabbed to death at Brown
Simpson's home.

Simpson was in Los Angeles the evening of June 12 but took a late flight that night to
Chicago. When he returned to Los Angeles the next day, he was interviewed by police, but not
immediately arrested.

On June 17, 1994, prosecutors ordered Simpson to surrender, but instead he fled in a
white Ford Bronco with his friend, leading police on a slow-speed chase that brought Southern
California freeways to a standstill.
 News helicopters flew overhead documenting the chase, and Angelinos gatherers on the
roadways, and in front of their televisions, to watch in real time.Simpson then surrendered and
was arrested.

In 1995, Simpson's trial transfixed the country.Defense attorneys claimed Simpson was
wrongly accused but prosecutors argued that Simpson was a controlling husband who abused
Brown Simpson. Prosecutors also pointed to blood found in Simpson's car and home, and the
fact that he was unaccounted for for over an hour on the night of the killings.

During the trial, the prosecution asked Simpson to put on gloves believed to have been
worn by the killer, but they didn't appear to fit properly.

Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran famously told the jury in his closing argument, "If it doesn't
fit, you must acquit."

On Oct. 3, 1995, Simpson was acquitted of all criminal charges. He has always
maintained his innocence.

In 1997, a civil jury found Simpson liable for wrongful death in the double murder.
Simpson was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to the Brown and Goldman families.

Reaction

On Oct. 3, 1995, after a televised criminal trial that captivated the nation, O.J. Simpson
was found not guilty of the gruesome double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and
waiter Ron Goldman.

But a decade later, the former NFL star was back in court on kidnapping and armed robbery
charges, and went on to spend nearly 10 years behind bars.

A juror who served on the 1995 O.J. Simpson criminal trial says his perception of Simpson’s
innocence has changed over the years, but he ultimately stands by the not guilty verdict.

“Based off the evidence as presented in the trial … the only conclusion I can come to is not
guilty,” Lon Cryer told ABC News' "Nightline" co-anchor Dan Harris. “It wasn't based on
whether or not I really thought he did it or didn't do it… The only thing that trial did was raise
reasonable doubt in my mind about whether or not he was the perpetrator or not.”
In 1995, Simpson was acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron
Goldman in what became known as the “trial of the century.” In 1997, however, Simpson lost a
wrongful death civil suit that the Goldman and Brown families brought against him, and was
ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages. Simpson has always maintained he did not kill
Goldman and Brown.