The O.J. Simpson case timeline runs from the June 1994 stabbings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman through Simpson’s death in April 2024 and the acceptance of a nearly $58 million creditor claim against his estate in November 2025. In between came a criminal acquittal, a civil judgment finding him responsible for both deaths, a Las Vegas armed robbery conviction, and nine years in a Nevada prison. Here is how the events fit together.
June 1994: The Murders and the Bronco Chase
A passerby found the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman outside a Bundy Drive condominium in Brentwood on the evening of June 12, 1994. Both had been stabbed multiple times. Officers arrived shortly after midnight on June 13 and secured a scene that already contained the blood drops and shoe prints the forensic case would turn on.
Detectives went to Simpson’s Rockingham estate that same morning to notify him. No one answered. They noticed what appeared to be blood on a white Ford Bronco parked outside and entered the grounds without a warrant, later justifying the entry under the exigent circumstances exception to the Fourth Amendment.1Cornell Law Institute. Exigent Circumstances Inside the property they recovered a blood-stained leather glove that appeared to match one at the Bundy scene.
By June 16, the Los Angeles County District Attorney had filed two counts of first-degree murder. First-degree murder in California carries 25 years to life, with the death penalty available only under special circumstances.2Supreme Court of the United States. California Penal Code 187, 190, 190.1, 190.2, 190.3, 190.4, and 190.5 Prosecutors announced on September 9, 1994 that they would not seek it.
Simpson failed to surrender by the agreed 11:00 AM deadline on June 17. That afternoon Robert Kardashian read a letter from Simpson that many took as a farewell. Around 6:20 PM, authorities spotted Simpson in the backseat of a white Ford Bronco driven by his friend Al Cowlings. Simpson was holding a handgun. The low-speed pursuit that followed drew dozens of patrol cars, news helicopters, and an estimated 95 million television viewers. It ended back at Rockingham around 8:50 PM, where Simpson surrendered. Bail was denied.
The Criminal Trial: January to October 1995
A preliminary hearing in early July 1994 sent the case forward, and Simpson entered his “absolutely, 100 percent not guilty” plea at arraignment on July 22. Jury selection under Judge Lance Ito stretched into the fall. The final panel of twelve jurors and twelve alternates was seated by early November and immediately sequestered. The sequestration would last roughly eight and a half months, one of the longest in American legal history.
Opening statements began on January 24, 1995. Deputy District Attorneys Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden framed the killings as the end of a pattern of domestic violence and built the case on DNA, hair fibers, and shoe print analysis. The defense team, led by Johnnie Cochran and Robert Shapiro with F. Lee Bailey on key cross-examinations, attacked the LAPD’s evidence handling and pressed the possibility of contamination or planting.
Two moments cut against the prosecution. Detective Mark Fuhrman, who had recovered the Rockingham glove, denied on the stand that he had ever used racial slurs; taped interviews later surfaced in which he used racial epithets 41 times, and Judge Ito allowed the jury to hear excerpts. Recalled to the stand, Fuhrman invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked whether he had planted evidence. Then, on June 15, 1995, Darden asked Simpson to try on the leather gloves in front of the jury. Simpson appeared to struggle. Cochran built his closing around it: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
Closing arguments ran in late September 1995 after roughly nine months and about 126 witnesses. The case went to the jury on October 2.
October 3, 1995: The Not Guilty Verdict
The jury reached a unanimous verdict in under four hours. The reading was held until the next morning for security. On October 3, 1995, with an estimated 150 million Americans watching, the court clerk read the verdict: not guilty on both counts. Simpson walked out of the courtroom that day. Under the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment, the acquittal was final, and no later evidence could bring the same charges back.
1996–1997: The Civil Trial and $33.5 Million Judgment
The Brown and Goldman families filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 1996. Civil court runs on a lower standard than criminal court: a plaintiff need only show the defendant was more likely than not responsible, the preponderance of the evidence standard.3Cornell Law Institute. Burden of Proof
The other big shift was that Simpson could be made to testify. The Fifth Amendment protects against compelled testimony that might incriminate a witness in a criminal case.4Library of Congress. General Protections Against Self-Incrimination Doctrine and Practice Because he had already been acquitted and could never be recharged for the murders, that shield was gone. He took the stand and was cross-examined. Plaintiffs also introduced photographs of Simpson wearing the rare Bruno Magli shoes that had left prints at the scene, prints he had denied could be his.
On February 4, 1997, the civil jury found Simpson liable for both deaths. The judgment came out to roughly $33.5 million: $8.5 million in compensatory damages to the Goldman family on the wrongful death claim, and $12.5 million in punitive damages each on the Goldman and Brown survival actions.5Justia. Rufo v Simpson (2001)
Why the Judgment Went Largely Unpaid
Simpson moved to Florida after the civil verdict, and Florida law made the judgment extraordinarily hard to collect. Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution shields a primary residence from forced sale to satisfy most court judgments, with narrow exceptions for property taxes and debts tied to the home itself. Florida courts have applied that protection broadly, including for debtors who acquired property specifically to shield assets.
Simpson’s NFL pension added a second wall. Qualified retirement plans under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act contain anti-alienation provisions that generally block civil judgment creditors from reaching those funds. Between the homestead exemption and the pension, Simpson was able to live comfortably in Florida while paying only a fraction of what he owed.
One partial recovery came through the book “If I Did It,” which Simpson arranged in 2006 to describe how the murders hypothetically could have been committed. The project was canceled after public backlash, but a federal bankruptcy judge awarded the book rights to the Goldman family after finding that the corporation Simpson used to negotiate the deal was a front. The Goldmans published the book in 2007 with an added prologue, and proceeds went toward the judgment.
September 2007: The Las Vegas Robbery
On September 13, 2007, Simpson led a group of men into a room at the Palace Station hotel in Las Vegas and confronted two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint. Simpson said the items were his own property that had been stolen from him. Nevada charged him with armed robbery, kidnapping, and several other offenses.
The guilty verdict came down on October 3, 2008, thirteen years to the day after his murder acquittal. Simpson was convicted on all twelve charges. On December 5, 2008, the court sentenced him to up to 33 years in prison, with parole eligibility after nine.
2013–2021: Parole, Release, and Discharge
Simpson was granted parole on the kidnapping charge in 2013. He was released from the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada on October 1, 2017, after serving close to nine years, and returned to Las Vegas under parole supervision. On December 1, 2021, the Nevada Board of Parole approved his early discharge, ending supervision entirely.
2024–2025: Death and the Final Claim
O.J. Simpson died of cancer on April 10, 2024, at 76. His death did not end the Goldman family’s civil judgment. With decades of accrued interest, the claim had grown from $33.5 million to nearly $58 million. In November 2025, Malcolm LaVergne, the executor of Simpson’s estate, formally accepted Fred Goldman’s creditor claim for $57,997,858.12. LaVergne said he intended to pay it to the extent possible by auctioning Simpson’s remaining possessions, and noted that federal tax obligations to the IRS would take priority.
What the Case Changed
The televised trial pushed many courts to tighten rules on cameras in the courtroom. Federal criminal proceedings remain largely closed to cameras under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 53, which prohibits broadcasting from federal courtrooms except in narrow circumstances.6Congressional Research Service. Broadcasting Federal Criminal Proceedings Public attention to Simpson’s documented history of abusing Nicole Brown Simpson also drove California and other states to build specialized domestic violence prosecutors and courtrooms.
The two opposing verdicts on the same set of facts, an acquittal beyond a reasonable doubt and a finding of civil liability by a preponderance of the evidence, remain the case’s clearest lesson about how the American legal system handles the space between “not guilty” and “innocent.”