Ron Goldman’s Family Releases Statement Following O.J. Simpson’s Death

O.J. Simpson, the former NFL player who was accused of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994—but ultimately was acquitted—died on Thursday of prostate cancer. He was 76.

In the aftermath of his death, the Goldman family released the following statement:

Simpson’s trial was arguably the highest-profile and most divisive court case in the 20th century. Although the jury in his criminal trial ultimately reached a not guilty verdict, a jury in the civil case that followed found him liable for the deaths of Goldman and Brown and awarded their relatives $33.5 million in damages.

Simpson later contributed to a 2007 book which was portrayed as a hypothetical outlining of how he would have committed the murders. However, many believed the book was a confession from Simpson and a payday for him, and the publisher canceled the book before its release.

A federal bankruptcy judge later awarded the rights to the book to the Goldman family as part of the damages owed them from the original civil trial. They moved forward with publishing the book after renaming it, If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.

“It’s sending him a message,” Kim Goldman said on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007 when asked if any profits from the book represented “blood money” to them. “He put hours putting together this confession about how he killed Ron and Nicole, and he worked hard thinking he was going to make millions off of it. And we snatched it right out from under him.”

That same year, Simpson was arrested and charged with 12 total felony counts, including armed robbery and kidnapping, after leading a group of men into a Las Vegas hotel room to reclaim memorabilia that he claimed was stolen from him.

He was found guilty on all charges and sentenced up to 33 years in prison, though he was granted parole in 2017.