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Former American footballer and actor OJ Simpson, who has died of cancer, will be remembered most for his role at the centre of the “trial of the century”.

Accused of double murder, his case captured the attention of the US until it came to a dramatic end in late 1995.

Here’s a look back at how that trial unfolded.

12 June 1994

Simpson‘s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson was found dead in front of her home in Los Angeles with her friend Ronald Goldman, who was a waiter at a restaurant where she had just dined.

The pair had been stabbed to death outside her home in the neighbourhood of Brentwood.

Read more:
OJ Simpson has died at the age of 76, his family says

OJ Simpson and Nicole Brown
Pic:MediaPunch/AP
Image:
OJ Simpson and Nicole Brown. Pic:MediaPunch/AP

17 June 1994

After the bodies were found, suspicion quickly fell on Simpson, who had been married to Nicole for seven years until their divorce became final on 15 October 1992, little more than 18 months before her death.

Simpson had been ordered by prosecutors to surrender, but on this day, carrying a passport and a disguise, he instead fled, with friend and former team-mate Al Cowlings in a white Ford Bronco.

A white Ford Bronco, driven by Al Cowlings and carrying OJ Simpson, being trailed by Los Angeles police on 17 June , 1994. Pic: AP
Image:
OJ Simpson trailed by Los Angeles police on 17 June 1994. Pic: AP

The vehicle was soon spotted on a California freeway and pursued by police in a car chase that was televised live across the country and watched by an estimated 95 million viewers.

Cowlings, in a phone call to police, said Simpson was lying in the back seat of the car holding a gun to his own head. After eventually driving to his Brentwood home he was persuaded to surrender.

Sky News’ Steve Bennedik recalls how Simpson’s trial was covered

It was the first few weeks of 1995 when Sky News’ live coverage of the OJ Simpson court case got under way. Each evening we showed the trial and invited questions. In those days, the main form of correspondence was by letter.

But there was also a new electronic method emerging, called email. And the first of these had the simple, but deflating, sentence: “Which one is OJ?”

We asked ourselves: Is our audience ready to follow the story of a very American tragedy unfold on British TV? We decided to stick with it.

In contrast, OJ Simpson was a household name in the US. So much more than an ex-football star. But the shock of this icon being arrested for murder, the bizarre Bronco highway chase, the high-profile celebrity defence team, and ultimately the “did he do it?” question had universal attraction.

Although the case stuttered through until October, the weak Judge Lance Ito was obsequious to lawyers’ demands for delays, but the interest among Sky News viewers surged and remained undimmed.

As the court camera panned to the state of California seal, signalling another adjournment, we and no doubt the viewer sighed.

More behind-the-scenes legal wrangling, but we had an ace up our sleeve – Professor Gary Solis. Gary is a Vietnam veteran, former military judge advocate, with alma maters including George Washington University and the London School of Economics.

At the time, he was in London and ready to give up his evenings. He calmly steered our presenters, Laurie and Vivien, and our often puzzled viewers through the complexities of the Californian legal system and became a firm favourite with the newsroom and the public alike.

The court characters emerged. Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden for the prosecution, and the “Dream Team” defence – Jonnie Cochran, F Lee Bailey, Alan Dershowitz and Robert Kardashian, whose children would go on to outshine his fame.

It was compelling court drama, but it was also the very tragic story of two young people who’d been savagely attacked and murdered, with their families devastated by the loss, and tormented by the lingering back and forth court battle.

The proceedings had lasted months, but the jury reached their verdict in just a few hours and when they returned to the courtroom to deliver it, an early evening audience in the UK was hanging on every moment. And then it was over. OJ was a free man.

The People of the State of California v Orenthal James Simpson faded as a memory, flickering back to life with the news of his death.

24 January 1995

The murder trial, dubbed the “trial of the century” by the media, began.

Prosecutors argued OJ Simpson had killed Nicole and Ron in a jealous rage, and they presented extensive blood, hair and fibre tests linking him to the murders.

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The defence countered that the celebrity defendant was framed by racist white police.

15 June 1995

Perhaps the defining moment of the trial came on a Thursday in June, when the prosecution committed what a defence lawyer would later describe as the “greatest legal blunder of the 20th century”.

OJ Simpson grasps a marker while wearing the leather gloves prosecutors say he wore the night his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered.
Pic: Reuters
Image:
OJ Simpson grasps a marker while wearing the leather gloves prosecutors say he wore on the night of the murder. Pic: Reuters

On this day, a prosecutor asked him to put on a pair of gloves believed to have been worn by the killer.

The gloves appeared to be too small, as OJ Simpson struggled to put on the gloves in a highly theatrical demonstration and indicated to the jury they did not fit.

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This led defence lawyer Johnnie Cochran to famously state in his closing argument: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

3 October 1995

The trial came to an end with two words – not guilty.

Read more:
OJ Simpson a ‘completely free man’ after being released from parole

OJ Simpson, who maintained from the outset he was “absolutely 100% not guilty”, waved at the jurors and mouthed the words “thank you”.

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Menendez brothers denied parole – but they could still taste freedom

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Menendez brothers denied parole - but they could still taste freedom

The Menendez brothers, who were sentenced to life for killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989, have both been denied parole.

Lyle Menendez, 56, and his 53-year-old brother Erik have spent 35 years behind bars for the shotgun murders of their father and mother, Jose and Kitty Menendez.

The brothers have claimed that their parents abused them and have argued that the killings were an act of self-defence.

A Netflix drama series about the brothers called Monsters, which aired in September 2024, thrust them back into the spotlight and led to renewed calls for their release, including from their family.

A long-delayed resentencing hearing offered them a path to freedom for the first time since their incarceration.

However, their release from prison is still a long way off – and far from guaranteed.

Parole denied but still possible

Lyle Menendez was denied parole on 22 August after making his first appeal for release. A judge recently reduced both his and his brother’s sentences, making them eligible for parole.

The decision came a day after his brother Erik Menendez was also denied parole by a panel of California commissioners.

A panel of two commissioners recommended that Lyle not be released for three years, after which he will be eligible to apply for parole again.

The panel concluded there were still signs that Menendez would pose a risk to the public if released from custody, despite noting that a psychologist found that he is at “very low” risk for violence upon release.

Lyle Menendez appears before the parole board at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. Pic: AP
Image:
Lyle Menendez appears before the parole board at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. Pic: AP

During the hearing, Menendez cried and took sole responsibility for the murders, saying in his closing remarks: “I will never be able to make up for the harm and grief I caused everyone in my family.”

While speaking to the panel on Friday, Menendez said his father physically abused him by choking, punching and hurting him using a belt.

“I was the special son in my family,” he said. “My brother was the castaway. The physical abuse was focused on me because I was more important to him, I felt.”

He also said his mother sexually abused him, but appeared uncomfortable discussing this when asked by the panel why he did not disclose it during a risk assessment earlier this year.

When asked whether the murders were planned, Menendez said: “There was zero planning. There was no way to know it was going to happen Sunday.”

He also described buying the guns used in the murder as “the biggest mistake”, and told the panel: “I no longer believe that they were going to kill us in that moment. At the time, I had that honest belief.”

What does the resentencing mean?

Before leaving his role in December, former Los Angeles district attorney (DA) George Gascon asked LA County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic to review the brothers’ convictions.

During the resentencing on 13 May, he gave them a revised sentence of 50 years to life, making them immediately eligible for youth parole under California’s youthful offender law because they committed the crime while under the age of 26.

The judgment was based on whether the pair had been rehabilitated based on their behaviour in prison.

Joseph Lyle Menéndez and Erik Galen Menéndez. Pics: Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility
Image:
Joseph Lyle Menéndez and Erik Galen Menéndez. Pics: Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility

The brothers’ case highlighted some of their achievements behind bars: attaining several degrees and contributing to the community.

It listed a prison “beautification programme” Lyle Menendez started called GreenSpace as one example, and added that both brothers had received low-risk assessment scores, with Lyle apparently not being involved in a single fight during his time in jail.

The brothers’ attorneys pushed for the judge to resentence the brothers to manslaughter, which would have allowed them to be immediately released, but he gave them a revised murder sentence instead.

Handing them the new sentence, Judge Jesic said: “I do believe they’ve done enough in the past 35 years, that they should get that chance.”

The resentencing hearing had faced lengthy delays due to the judge needing to review a large number of files, as well as the LA wildfires in January.

There was also a turnover in the DA’s office, with liberal leaning Gascon replaced by the more conservative Nathan Hochman, who repeatedly attempted to have the resentencing hearing thrown out.

Emotional testimony in court from brothers and family members

The brothers appeared at the proceedings in Los Angeles County Superior Court via video feed from prison in San Diego.

“I killed my mum and dad. I make no excuses and also no justification,” Lyle said in a statement to the court. “The impact of my violent actions on my family… is unfathomable.”

Erik also spoke about taking responsibility for his actions and apologising to his family.

He said: “You did not deserve what I did to you, but you inspire me to do better.”

The brothers chuckled when one of their cousins, Diane Hernandez, told the court that Erik received A+ grades in all of his classes during his most recent semester in college.

Anamaria Baralt, another cousin of the brothers, told the court they had repeatedly expressed remorse for their actions.

“We all, on both sides of the family, believe that 35 years is enough. They are universally forgiven by our family,” she said.

Attorney Mark Geragos hugs Anamaria Baralt, cousin of Erik and Lyle Menendez, after the brothers' resentencing hearing. Pic: AP
Image:
Attorney Mark Geragos hugs Anamaria Baralt, cousin of Erik and Lyle Menendez, after the brothers’ resentencing hearing. Pic: AP

The defence also called a former judge and a former fellow inmate to the witness stand to testify that the brothers were not only rehabilitated, but also helped others. Prosecutors cross-examined the witnesses but didn’t call any of their own.

Former judge Jonathan Colby, who said he considered himself tough on crime, told the court that spending time with the brothers and witnessing their growth made him believe in rehabilitation.

Anerae Brown, who previously served time in prison alongside the brothers, cried as he testified about how they helped him heal and eventually be released through parole.

“I have children now,” he said. “Without Lyle and Erik I might still be sitting in there doing stupid things.”

The judge said he was particularly moved by a letter from a prison official who supported resentencing, something the official had never done for any incarcerated person in his 25-year career.

Los Angeles County prosecutors argued against the resentencing, saying the brothers have not taken complete responsibility for the crime.

The current DA Mr Hochman said he believed the brothers were not ready for resentencing because “they have not come clean” about their crimes.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman. Pic: AP
Image:
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman. Pic: AP

His office has also said it does not believe they were sexually abused.

“Our position is not ‘no’. It’s not ‘never’. It’s ‘not yet’,” Mr Hochman said. “They have not fully accepted responsibility for all their criminal conduct.”

What happens now?

The reduced sentencing made the brothers immediately eligible for parole, but they must still appear before a state parole board, which decides on whether or not to release them from prison.

While this decision is made, the brothers will remain behind bars.

Their first hearing had to take place no later than six months from their eligibility date, according to board policy.

Erik Menendez, left, and his brother, Lyle, sit in the courtroom in 1992. Pic: AP
Image:
Erik Menendez, left, and his brother, Lyle, sit in the courtroom in 1992. Pic: AP

After their first appeal was denied, the brothers will continue to receive subsequent hearings until they are granted release.

But the brothers have another potential avenue to freedom, having appealed to California governor Gavin Newsom for clemency before they were resentenced.

Mr Newsom has the power to free them himself through clemency, and in February, he ordered the state parole board to investigate whether the brothers would pose a risk to the public.

They already have a hearing before the board scheduled for 13 June, but that one was set as part of the clemency petition.

It’s not yet clear if that hearing will serve as their formal parole hearing or if a separate one will be scheduled.

Mr Newsom can override any decision the board makes.

California governor Gavin Newsom. Pic: AP
Image:
California governor Gavin Newsom. Pic: AP

Anne Bremner, a trial lawyer in Seattle, said the brothers will be preparing for the parole board and aiming to impress upon them that they should be let out, but suggested the board members will already have a clear view.

“My guess is the parole board has been watching this and of course they’ve done these risk assessments already,” she said, adding they will know “who these two are, what their alleged crimes were and what they’ve done since the time that they were incarcerated until today.”

Potential new evidence

The brothers’ lawyers have also submitted a letter Erik wrote to his cousin as new evidence, saying it was not seen by the jury when the brothers were sentenced in 1996 and could have influenced their decision.

The letter is dated months before the murders, which they say alludes to him being abused by his father, Jose Menendez.

In the handwritten letter, Erik wrote: “I’ve been trying to avoid dad… every night, I stay up thinking he might come in.”

He also said he was “afraid” and that he needed to “put it out of my mind” and “stop thinking about it”.

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More new evidence submitted comes from Roy Rossello, a former member of the band Menudo, who alleges he was sexually assaulted by Jose Menendez as a teenager in the 1980s.

He has provided a signed declaration of his alleged rape by Jose Menendez to the brothers’ lawyers, which the lawyers say is further proof of his supposed abusive nature.

LA prosecutors filed a motion opposing the petition, but its status is unclear, and appears to have been halted while the brothers have pursued their resentencing and clemency.

What happened in the original Menendez trials?

Lyle and Erik Menendez before entering their pleas in 1990
Image:
Lyle and Erik Menendez before entering their pleas in 1990

On 20 August 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez shot their parents, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, multiple times at close range.

The brothers, who were 21 and 18 at the time, initially told police they found them dead when they got home, but were eventually tried for their murder.

During the original trial, prosecutors accused the brothers of killing their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance, although their defence team argued they acted out of self-defence after years of sexual abuse by their father.

An initial attempt to try each brother individually in front of separate juries ended in a mistrial after both juries failed to reach a verdict.

In their second trial, which saw the brothers tried together, the defence claimed the brothers committed the murders in self-defence after many years of alleged physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of their father, with no protection from their mother.

Lyle Menendez confers with brother Erik during trial in 1991. Pic: AP
Image:
Lyle Menendez confers with brother Erik during trial in 1991. Pic: AP

They said they had feared for their lives after threatening to expose their father.

The prosecution argued the murders were motivated by greed, and they killed their parents to avoid disinheritance.

Evidence of alleged abuse from their defence case was largely excluded from the joint trial by the judge.

In 1996, seven years after the killings, a jury found the brothers guilty, and they were convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder.

They were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

But the brothers and many of their family members have continued to fight for their freedom ever since.

Although their focus of late has shifted towards the brothers’ rehabilitation in prison, their main argument in recent years has been that more evidence of Jose Menendez’s alleged abuse has come out since the last trial, and that a modern jury would have a better understanding of the impact of abuse than one 30 years ago.

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US Justice Department releases Ghislaine Maxwell interview transcript

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US Justice Department releases Ghislaine Maxwell interview transcript

The US Justice Department has released a transcript of an interview with Ghislaine Maxwell – the jailed ex-girlfriend of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell said in the interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last month that she never saw US President Donald Trump in an “inappropriate setting”.

According to the transcript, Maxwell said: “I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody.”

Trump and Epstein at a party together in 1992. Pic: NBC News
Image:
Trump and Epstein at a party together in 1992. Pic: NBC News

Maxwell also recalled knowing about Mr Trump and possibly meeting him for the first time in 1990, when her newspaper magnate father, Robert Maxwell, was the owner of the New York Daily News.

“I may have met Donald Trump at that time, because my father was friendly with him and liked him very much,” Maxwell said, according to the transcript.

Maxwell said her father was fond of Mr Trump’s then-wife, Ivana, “because she was also from Czechoslovakia, where my dad was from.”

She was sentenced in the US in June 2022 to 20 years in prison following her conviction on five counts of sex trafficking for luring young girls to massage rooms for Epstein to abuse. She has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn her conviction.

Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell at a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.

Jeffrey Epstein. File pic: New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP
Image:
Jeffrey Epstein. File pic: New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP

His case has generated endless attention and conspiracy theories due to his and Maxwell’s links to famous people like royals, presidents and billionaires, including Mr Trump. No one other than Epstein and Maxwell has been charged with crimes.

Mr Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s. During Maxwell’s trial in 2021, Epstein’s longtime pilot, Lawrence Visoski, said Mr Trump flew on Epstein’s private plane several times. Mr Trump has denied flying on the plane.

Maxwell said in her interview with the Justice Department that she never saw Mr Trump receive a massage.

She told Mr Blanche that Mr Trump “was always very cordial and very kind to me”, adding: “And I just want to say that I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now.”

The release of the transcript comes after Mr Trump has faced criticism from Republican supporters and Democrats over his Justice Department’s decision not to release further details relating to Epstein, after the now US president promised to do so during the election.

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
Image:
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell

The Justice Department previously said a review of the Epstein case had found “no incriminating ‘client list'” and “no credible evidence” the jailed financier had blackmailed famous men.

In the transcript of the department’s interview with Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend said that she is not aware of any Epstein ‘client list’.

After her interview in July, Maxwell was moved to a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) after she was held at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, that housed men and women.

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The Texas camp houses solely female prisoners, the majority of whom are serving time for nonviolent offences and white-collar crimes.

Neither Maxwell’s lawyer nor the BOP gave a reason for the move.

Maxwell’s legal team have maintained that she was wrongly prosecuted and denied a fair trial, and have floated the idea of a pardon from Mr Trump.

Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein. Pic: US Department of Justice
Image:
Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein. Pic: US Department of Justice

The president said earlier this month that “nobody” had asked him about pardoning Maxwell, but insisted that he has “the right to do it”.

Mr Trump said: “I’m allowed to do it, but nobody’s asked me to do it. I know nothing about it. I don’t know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it. I have the right to give pardons, I’ve given pardons to people before, but nobody’s even asked me to do it.”

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Multiple people killed after tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls crashes

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Multiple people killed after tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls crashes

A tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls has crashed on a major road, killing and injuring multiple people.

The bus, with 52 passengers on board, crashed and rolled on Interstate 90 near Pembroke, about 30 miles (48km) east of Buffalo, in New York State at around 12.30pm (5.30pm UK time).

“At this time we have multiple fatalities, multiple entrapments and multiple injuries,” said Trooper James O’Callaghan, a spokesperson for the New York State Police. He added that authorities believe one child was among those killed.

Several people inside were thrown from the bus as the windows shattered, while some passengers became trapped in the wreckage.

Some passengers remain trapped in the wreckage of the bus. Pic: Buffalo News/AP
Image:
Some passengers remain trapped in the wreckage of the bus. Pic: Buffalo News/AP

Erie County Medical Centre in Buffalo said it had received 24 patients.

At a news conference, Dr Jennifer Pugh, chief of emergency medicine, said two people had been taken to the operating theatre, one of whom had suffered internal injuries.

Dr Jeffrey Brewer, chief of surgery, said he expected that two patients who had suffered the most serious injuries would recover.

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He added that people had been admitted with blunt trauma, head injuries and extremity (arm and leg) fractures.

Mr O’Callahan said most people on the bus were Indian, Chinese, and Filipino, and translators were being brought to the scene. The driver survived and is cooperating with the police.

He added, “It’s a full-size tour bus. Heavy amount of damage. Most people, I’m assuming, on the bus did not have a seat belt on, that is the reason why we have so many ejected people on this bus.”

The Mercy Flight air medical transport service said its three helicopters were transporting people from the crash site to area hospitals.

“It’s a very active scene,” said Mercy Flight president Margaret Ferrentino. “At this time we’re praying for the victims.”

Mr O’Callaghan said the driver, who survived the accident, lost control while the bus was at full speed, causing it to flip when he tried to correct course.

The highway has been closed in both directions, causing massive traffic delays at the onset of one of the last weekends of the summer vacation season.

The falls, which are on the US-Canada border, are a major tourist attraction.

More than nine million visitors explore Niagara Falls State Park annually, according to the official website for the park.

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