OAN’s James Meyers
3:18 PM – Thursday, April 11, 2024
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre offered her condolences on Thursday following the news of the death of OJ Simpson on behalf of the White House. However, she did not mention the two victims he was accused of killing almost 30 years ago.
“Our thoughts are with his families [sic] during this difficult time — obviously with his family and loved ones,” Jean-Pierre said at her regular briefing.
“And I’ll say this, I know that they have asked for some privacy. And so we’re going to respect that. And I’ll just leave it there.”
Simpson’s family announced his death from prostate cancer Thursday morning on social media. He was 76 years old.
Simpson is best remembered for being arrested and charged on June 12, 1994, for the murders of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman.
Brown was known for accusing Simpson, who at the time was an actor, NFL analyst and TV pitchman, of physical abuse during their seven-year marriage, which ended in 1992.
After arranging to turn himself in five days after the murders, in a bizarre turn of events, Simpson led police in a slow-speed freeway chase, broadcasted for everyone to see across America. The chase ended in his arrest at his mansion in Brentwood, California.
Simpson’s “Trial of the Century,” was known for the former football star’s team of attorneys, led by Jonnie Cochran, who argued his client’s arrest and prosecution was driven by racial bias on the part of the Los Angeles Police Department.
However, despite overwhelming evidence that linked him to the murders, the Heisman Trophy winner was found not guilty on October 3rd, 1995, by a jury made up of nine Black panelists, one Hispanic citizen and two white Angelinos.
In a civil lawsuit filed by the Goldman family, a jury found Simpson liable for Brown and Goldman’s deaths in 1997. It was ruled that he had to pay $33.5 million, an amount that has not yet been received by the families.
Goldman family attorney David Cook told the Daily Mail that Simpson had never paid off the full amount over the past decades, causing the amount to increase to more than $100 million.
“We have to start over here,” Cook said in response to Simpson’s death. “We’re going to work on that. There might be something out there.”
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