Simpson died on Wednesday after a battle with cancer, his family said. His celebrity turned to infamy three decades ago when he was accused and then acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her friend.
O.J. Simpson was more than a football star. More than a pop culture icon or a defendant acquitted of murder.
He became a symbol of America's complicated relationship to race, celebrity, and justice. His family announced that he died of cancer Wednesday at age 76.
The murder trial of O.J. Simpson became not only about one man and two victims, but the entire country. Coming up, we assess the legacy of a case, and a verdict, that put race in America on the stand.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
A lawyer for the former NFL star and actor, who was acquitted in the 1994 murder of his ex-wife and her friend, said Simpson's "a completely free man now" after ending his parole for armed robbery.