Legendary athlete, actor and millionaire: O.J. Simpson's murder trial lost him the American dream

LAS VEGAS (AP) — For a long time, O.J. Simpson was the man who had it all.

He lived the American dream as a sports legend, movie actor, commercial pitchman and millionaire. With his wildly successful career, startling good looks and a gorgeous wife, he became an image of success for Black Americans and was embraced by people of all races. It was safe for everyone to love Simpson, who inhabited a world of glamour and privilege available to few.

“I’m not Black, I’m O.J.,” he liked to tell friends.

It all came crashing down in the summer of 1994, when Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, was found dead outside her condominium in Los Angeles. Her friend Ronald Goldman, a waiter who had come to her home to return a pair of eyeglasses left behind at a restaurant, was lying a few feet away, stabbed to death.

Simpson, who died Wednesday at 76 of prostate cancer, immediately came under suspicion amid talk of domestic abuse and jealousy.

A criminal-court jury found him not guilty of murder in 1995, but a separate civil trial jury found him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to relatives of Brown and Goldman.

The criminal case was a media sensation. Simpson was charged with murder, but before surrendering, he led police on a slow-speed chase across the freeways of Los Angeles. The so-called Bronco Chase, named for the white vehicle he rode in, was televised in prime time and became the first of many TV moments in the bizarre saga that engrossed America.

“I’ve had a great life, great friends,” he said in what many believed was a suicide note written just before he set out in the Bronco. “Please think of the real O.J. and not this lost person.”

His monthslong televised trial, dubbed “ the trial of the century,” ended up eclipsing his dazzling record as one of the most gifted running backs in football history. The trial touched on fame and wealth, love and hate, the judicial system, the media, domestic violence and racism. It was a Greek tragedy, soap opera and circus sideshow. America couldn’t get enough.

In 2011, the suit Simpson wore when he was acquitted was donated and displayed at the Newseum in Washington, a remnant of one of the biggest American news stories of all time.

TV comedians satirized the case. Trial Judge Lance Ito was parodied by a black-robed group of “ Dancing Itos.” Prosecutor Marcia Clark was wooed by an admirer who flew a plane over the courthouse with a banner asking her to marry him.

At the trial, prosecutors painted a picture of Simpson as a jealous ex-husband and a cold-blooded killer. They pleaded with jurors not to be intimidated by his “ dream team ” of highly paid defense attorneys, his charisma as an actor or his status as a football star.

Evidence found at the murder scene seemed overwhelmingly against Simpson: Bloody footprints in his size were there, as were blood drops seeming to match his DNA and a glove identical in style to one bought by his slain ex-wife and worn by him at televised football games. Another glove, smeared with his blood and blood of the two victims, was found at his home.

But the science of DNA analysis was in its infancy, and there were mistakes by police and forensic technicians in handling evidence. When Simpson tried on the gloves in court, he couldn't get them onto his large hands, leading to the famous line his attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. later delivered to jurors: “If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.”

Simpson spoke only three words during the trial: “They’re too small.” Many felt that was enough to make his case.

Defense attorneys were unwavering in professing Simpson’s innocence. He was framed, they said, pointing to former Los Angeles police Detective Mark Fuhrman, who denied making anti-Black racial slurs but recanted after a recording was played in court. He later pleaded guilty to perjury.

It was Fuhrman who found the bloody glove at Simpson’s home — or planted it, as some claimed — and it was Fuhrman who could not be trusted, defense attorneys said. Jurors apparently agreed, saying Fuhrman’s past weighed heavily on their minds.

In his final argument, Cochran played up racism and compared Fuhrman to Adolf Hitler.

The acquittal was viewed by millions on TV and on a Jumbotron in New York’s Times Square. President Bill Clinton took a break from meetings to watch.

Simpson's efforts to resume his old life were undermined by Ron Goldman’s family. They believed Simpson was guilty and pursued their wrongful death lawsuit relentlessly. In a civil trial, a jury found Simpson liable for the murders and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages to the Goldmans and Nicole Brown Simpson’s family.

Hundreds of valuable possessions were seized as part of the award, and Simpson was forced to auction his Heisman Trophy, fetching $230,000. He never could pay off the $33.5 million, saying he lived only on his NFL and private pensions.

“The money is not the issue, it never has been,” Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, said. “It’s making certain that one man, the man who murdered my son and Nicole, is held responsible by a court of law.”

In a statement Thursday, Fred Goldman and his daughter Kim noted that with Simpson's death, “the hope for true accountability has ended.”

A decade later, still shadowed by the California wrongful death judgment, Simpson led five men he barely knew into a confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers in a cramped Las Vegas hotel room. Two men with Simpson had guns. A jury convicted Simpson of armed robbery and other felonies.

Imprisoned at age 61, he served nine years in a remote northern Nevada lockup, including a stint as a gym janitor. Many believed he was being punished for crimes he had been acquitted of, including the Goldmans.

“It’s a bittersweet moment,” Fred Goldman said. “It was satisfying seeing him in shackles like he belongs.”

Simpson was not contrite when released on parole in October 2017. The parole board heard him insist yet again that he was only trying to retrieve memorabilia and heirlooms stolen from him after his criminal trial.

“I’ve basically spent a conflict-free life, you know,” Simpson said.

Simpson lived his final years in Las Vegas, mostly out of the public eye but occasionally taking to social media to opine about sports and his country club lifestyle. He was sometimes seen attending minor league baseball games, and posing for selfies with fans.

Simpson filed a defamation lawsuit in 2017 against a Las Vegas Strip resort accusing it of telling a celebrity news site that he had been banned for being drunk and disruptive. Attorneys for The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas argued that Simpson could not be defamed because his reputation was already tarnished. The case was settled in 2021 on terms that were not disclosed,

Public fascination with Simpson never faded. In 2016, he was the subject of an FX miniseries and a five-part ESPN documentary.

“I don’t think most of America believes I did it,” Simpson told The New York Times in 1995, a week after a jury determined he did not kill Brown and Goldman. “I’ve gotten thousands of letters and telegrams from people supporting me.”

Twelve years later, after an outpouring of outrage, Rupert Murdoch canceled a planned book by the News Corp.-owned HarperCollins in which Simpson offered his hypothetical account of the killings. It was to be titled “If I Did It.”

Goldman’s family, still pursuing the multimillion-dollar wrongful death judgment, won control of the manuscript. They retitled the book “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.”

“It’s all blood money, and unfortunately I had to join the jackals,” Simpson told The Associated Press at the time. He collected $880,000 in advance money for the book, paid through a third party.

“It helped me get out of debt and secure my homestead,” he said.

Less than two months after losing the rights to the book, Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas.

Simpson played 11 NFL seasons, nine of them with the Buffalo Bills, where he became known as “The Juice.” He won four NFL rushing titles, rushed for 11,236 yards in his career, scored 76 touchdowns and played in five Pro Bowls. His best season was 1973, when he ran for 2,003 yards — the first running back to break the 2,000-yard rushing mark.

“I was part of the history of the game,” he said years later. “If I did nothing else in my life, I’d made my mark.”

Orenthal James Simpson was born July 9, 1947, in San Francisco, where he grew up in government-subsidized housing.

After graduating from high school, he enrolled at City College of San Francisco for a year and a half before transferring to the University of Southern California for the spring 1967 semester.

He married his first wife, Marguerite Whitley, on June 24, 1967, moving her to Los Angeles the next day so he could begin preparing for his first season with USC — which, in large part because of Simpson, won that year’s national championship.

Simpson won the Heisman Trophy in 1968. He accepted the statue the same day that his first child, Arnelle, was born.

He had two sons, Jason and Aaren, with his first wife; one of those boys, Aaren, drowned as a toddler in a swimming pool accident in 1979, the same year he and Whitley divorced.

Simpson and Brown were married in 1985. They had two children, Justin and Sydney, and divorced in 1992. Two years later, Nicole Brown Simpson was found murdered.

“We don’t need to go back and relive the worst day of our lives,” he told the AP 25 years after the double slayings. “The subject of the moment is the subject I will never revisit again. My family and I have moved on to what we call the ‘no negative zone.’ We focus on the positives.”

Linda Deutsch is a retired special correspondent for The Associated Press. She covered all of Simpson’s legal cases during her 48-year career as a Los Angeles-based trial reporter.

FILE - In this July 20, 2017 file photo, former NFL football star O.J. Simpson reacts after learning he was granted parole at Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nev. 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. (Jason Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP, Pool, File)

FILE - In this May 14, 2013, file photo, O.J. Simpson sits during a break on the second day of an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas. 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/Ethan Miller, Pool, File)

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)

FILE - San Francisco 49ers running back O.J. Simpson is escorted from the field by police after the final NFL football game of his career, Dec. 16, 1979, against in the Atlanta Falcons at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, Ga. 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, File)

FILE - O.J. Simpson checks out the bronze bust of himself after his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Saturday, Aug. 3, 1985 in Canton, Ohio. O.J. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but was found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. The family announced on Simpson's official X account that he died Wednesday, April 10, 2024, of prostate cancer. (AP Photo/Ernie Mastroianni, File)

FILE - Southern Cal's O.J. Simpson poses with the Heisman Trophy at New York's Downtown Athletic Club, Dec. 5, 1968. O.J. 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. Simpson's attorney confirmed to TMZ he died Wednesday night, April 10, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - University of Southern California runningback O.J. Simpson (32)runs against Notre Dame Notre Dame in the first half of an NCAA college football game in South Bend, ind., Oct. 14, 1967. and picks up a few yards in their intersectional football game, Oct. 14, 1967 in South Bend, Indiana. Blocking for USC are Bob Miller (86), Mike Taylor (74), and Dan Scott (38). O.J. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but was found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76. The family announced on Simpson's official X account that he died Wednesday, April 10, 2024, of prostate cancer.(AP Photo/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)

FILE - In this June 15, 1995 file photo, O.J. Simpson, left, grimaces as he tries on one of the leather gloves prosecutors say he wore the night his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered in a Los Angeles courtroom. 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)

FILE - In this Oct. 3, 1995 file photo, attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. holds O.J. Simpson as the not guilty verdict is read in a Los Angeles courtroom during his trial in Los Angeles. Defense attorneys F. Lee Bailey, left, Robert Kardashian look on. 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. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Daily News via AP, Pool, File)

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)

FILE - O.J. Simpson sits at his arraignment in Superior Court in Los Angeles on July 22, 1994, where he pleaded "absolutely, 100 percent not guilty" on murder charges. 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, died Wednesday, April 11, 2024, of prostate cancer. He was 76. (AP Photo/Pool/Lois Bernstein, Pool)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — When Ademola Adesina founded a startup to provide solar and battery-based power subscription packages to individuals and businesses in Nigeria in 2015, it was a lot harder to raise money than it is today.

Climate tech was new in Africa, the continent was a fledgling destination for venture capital money, there were fewer funders to approach and less money was available, he said.

It took him a year of “running around and scouring” his networks to raise his first amount — just under $1 million — from VC firms and other sources. “Everything was a learning experience,” he said.

But the ecosystem has since changed, and Adesina’s Rensource Energy has raised about $30 million over the years, mostly from VC firms.

Funding for climate tech startups in Africa from the private sector is growing, with businesses raising more than $3.4 billion since 2019. But there’s still a long way to go, with the continent requiring $277 billion annually to meet its climate goals for 2030.

Experts say to unlock financing and fill this gap, African countries need to address risks like currency instability that they say reduce investor appetite, while investors need to expand their scope of interest to more climate sectors like flood protection, disaster management and heat management, and to use diverse funding methods.

Still, the investment numbers for the climate tech sector — which includes businesses in renewable energy, carbon removal, land restoration and water and waste management — are compelling: Last year, climate tech startups on the continent raised $1.04 billion, a 9% increase from the previous year and triple what they raised in 2019, according to the funding database Africa: The Big Deal. That was despite a decline in the amount of money raised by all startups in total on the continent last year.

That matters because climate tech requires experimentation, and VC firms that provide money to nascent businesses are playing an essential role by giving climate tech startups risk capital, said Adesina. “In the climate space, a lot of things are uncertain,” he said.

The money raised by climate tech startups last year was more than a third of all funds raised by startups in Africa in 2023, placing climate tech second to fintech, a more mature sector.

Venture capital is typically given to businesses with substantial risk but great long-term growth potential. Startups use it to expand into new markets and to get products and services on the market.

Venture capitalists “can take risks that other people cannot take, because our business model is designed to have failures,” said Brian Odhiambo, a Lagos-based partner at Novastar Ventures, an Africa-focused investor. “Not everything has to succeed. But some will, and those that do will succeed in a massive way.”

That was the case for Adetayo Bamiduro, co-founder of Metro Africa Xpress, which makes electric two- and three-wheelers and electric vehicle infrastructure in Nigeria and has raised just under $100 million since it was founded in 2015.

Adetayo said venture capitalists “are playing a catalytic role that is extremely essential.”

“We all know that in order to really decarbonize our economies, investments have to be made. And it’s not trivial investment,” he said.

The funds can also bridge the gap between traditional and non-traditional sectors, said Kidus Asfaw, co-founder and CEO of Kubik, a startup that turns difficult-to-recycle plastic waste into durable, low-carbon building material. His company, which operates in Kenya and Ethiopia, has raised around $4.6 million since it was launched in 2021.

He cites waste management and construction as examples of traditional sectors that can connect with startups like his.

“There’s so much innovation in these spaces that can transform them over time,” he said. “VCs are accelerating that pathway to transforming them.”

Besides venture capital, other investments by private equity firms, syndicates, venture builders, grant providers and other financial institutions are actively financing climate initiatives on the continent.

But private sector financing in general lags far behind that of public financing, which includes funds from governments, multilaterals and development finance institutions.

From 2019 to 2020, private sector financing represented only 14% of all of Africa’s climate finance, according to a report by the Climate Policy Initiative, much lower than in regions such as East Asia and Pacific at 39%, and Latin America and the Caribbean at 49%.

The low contribution in Africa is attributed to the investors putting money in areas they’re more familiar with, like renewable energy technology, with less funding coming in for more diverse initiatives, said Sandy Okoth, a capital market specialist for green finance at FSD Africa, one of the commissioners of the CPI study.

“The private sector feels this (renewable energy technology) is a more mature space,” he said. “They understand the funding models.”

Technology for adapting to climate change, on the other hand, is “more complex”, he said.

One startup working in renewable energy is the Johannesburg-based Wetility, which last year secured funding of $48 million — mostly from private equity — to expand its operations.

The startup provides solar panels for homes and businesses and a digital management system that allows users to remotely manage power usage, as it tries to solve the problems of energy access and reliability in southern Africa.

“Private sector financing in African climate is still rather low,” said founder and CEO Vincent Maposa. “But there’s visible growth. And I believe that over the next decade or so, you’ll start to see those shifts.”

Investors are also starting to understand the economic benefits of adapting to climate change and solutions as they have returns on investment, said Hetal Patel, Nairobi-based director of investments at Mercy Corps Ventures, an early-stage VC fund focused on startups building solutions for climate adaptation and financial resilience.

“We’re starting to build a very strong business case for adaptation investors and make sure that private capital flows start coming in,” he said.

Maëlis Carraro, managing partner at Catalyst Fund, a Nairobi-based VC fund and accelerator that funds climate adaptation solutions, urged more diverse funding, such as that which blends private and public sector funding. The role of public financing, she said, should be to de-risk the private sector and attract more private sector capital into financing climate initiatives.

“We’re not gonna go far enough with just the public funding,” she said. “We need the private sector and the public sector to work together to unlock more financing. And in particular looking beyond just a few industries where the innovation is writ large.”

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Oladapo Adekunle, an engineer with Rensource Energy, installs solar panels on a roof of a house in Lagos, Nigeria, Thursday, March 21, 2024. Funding for climate tech startups in Africa from the private sector is growing, but there's still a long way to go. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Oladapo Adekunle, an engineer with Rensource Energy, installs solar panels on a roof of a house in Lagos, Nigeria, Thursday, March 21, 2024. Funding for climate tech startups in Africa from the private sector is growing, but there's still a long way to go. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Oladapo Adekunle, an engineer with Rensource Energy, installs solar panels on a roof of a house in Lagos, Nigeria, Thursday, March 21, 2024. Funding for climate tech startups in Africa from the private sector is growing, but there's still a long way to go. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Oladapo Adekunle, an engineer with Rensource Energy, installs solar panels on a roof of a house in Lagos, Nigeria, Thursday, March 21, 2024. Funding for climate tech startups in Africa from the private sector is growing, but there's still a long way to go. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)