FOX News Poll: Majority Says O.J. Simpson Guilty of Robbery

NEW YORK – O.J. Simpson is in the news again. He goes to a friend’s wedding in Nevada, and ends up trading his hotel room for a police holding cell. A slim majority of Americans thinks O.J. is guilty of the robbery at a Las Vegas hotel, although less than half think he will go to jail for the crimes.

A new FOX News poll finds that 55 percent think Simpson is guilty of the robbery — three times as many as think he was set up (18 percent); another 27 percent are unsure.

Fewer people think O.J. will serve time for these crimes than think he’s guilty of committing them: Some 45 percent think Simpson will go to jail for the robbery-related charges and 38 percent think he won’t. "These data suggest that some Americans believe there will be a repeat of past events—namely, that, in their view, O.J. will avoid punishment for crimes they think he committed," commented Ernest Paicopolos, a principal of Opinion Dynamics.

Opinion Dynamics Corp. conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for FOX News from Sept. 25 to Sept. 26. The poll has a 3-point error margin.

Click here to view full results of the poll (pdf).

Views on O.J. vary dramatically by race. A 59 percent majority of whites think O.J. is guilty compared to 24 percent of blacks. Conversely, 13 percent of whites think he’s innocent, while 45 percent of blacks think he didn’t commit the crimes.

A Look Back

In 1995, Simpson was acquitted of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. Today, 74 percent of Americans say they think he is guilty of the murders.

Furthermore, majorities have consistently said they believe O.J. is guilty, ranging between 66 percent (in 1996 and 2004) and 72 percent (1998), and now to a high of 74 percent.

Eight of 10 (80 percent) whites think O.J. is guilty of the murders and 34 percent of blacks agree. Only 7 percent of whites think he’s innocent compared to 30 percent of blacks. More than one third (36 percent) of blacks say they don’t know if he killed his ex-wife.