Michele Tafoya: O.J. Simpson's death wasn't sad news, but was weird news
Former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya reacts to O.J. Simpson's death on 'America Reports.'
More than two decades after jurors found disgraced NFL star O.J. Simpson not guilty of murder charges in a Los Angeles stabbing that left his ex-wife and her friend dead in a blood-soaked courtyard, a Nevada jury found him guilty of a slew of felonies for an armed robbery involving some of his own memorabilia.
After his acquittal in the California murder trial, which some analysts said was influenced by heightened racial tensions after a group of Los Angeles police officers were cleared in the beating of Rodney King in 1992, the court went extra hard on him on lesser charges for the Las Vegas robbery, experts say.
At the age of 61, Simpson received a 33-year prison sentence for robbery and kidnapping and received parole in 2017 after serving the minimum nine years. At trial, Simpson maintained he was trying to get back some of his own belongings when he helped plot and execute an armed robbery in a Vegas hotel.
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O.J. Simpson (C), flanked by attorneys Gabriel Grasso (L) and Yale Galanter (R), appears in court on charges including kidnapping, assault and burglary at the Clark County Regional Justice Center on Sept. 19, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Clint Karlsen/AFP via Getty Images)
"Celebrity justice works both ways," said Royal Oakes, a Los Angeles media lawyer who has been following the Simpson case for decades and who played a role in igniting televised true crime coverage when he convinced the judge to allow TV cameras into the trial court. "Simpson beat the rap (in LA) in large part because of his fame and wealth – but in the Las Vegas trial, he got a much heavier sentence than a regular guy would’ve gotten, because of his fame, and the desire for a judicial ‘do-over.'"
Oakes also served as a media analyst on the subsequent trial in Las Vegas more than a decade later.
There were also reports of alleged "jury nullification" – in which the majority Black jury was accused of acquitting him based on racial motives.
A split image shows the different reactions as large groups of people gathered to hear the verdict in O.J. Simpson's 1990s murder trial over the deaths of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. (Hector Mata/AFP via Getty Images; Michael Montfort/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
"Even though jurors may have suspected [or] been convinced that Simpson was a double murderer, the anger over racism in the criminal justice system was enough to produce the not guilty verdict, and enough to make a lot of people argue, even today, that he was innocent," Oakes told Fox News Digital.
In Las Vegas, the hammer swung the other way, legal experts say.
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"The Vegas conviction was retribution for the double murder that happened with Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman," said David Gelman, a former prosecutor and now a defense attorney in New Jersey.
O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson pose at the premiere of "Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult," in which O.J. starred on March 16, 1994 in Los Angeles, California. (Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images)
"The evidence in the Las Vegas case was not nearly as strong as the evidence in the murder case," he said.
On top of that, he said, Simpson got closer to the maximum sentence than a typical defendant would have received.
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"That shows the jury knew about the murder – because everyone in the world did," he said. "And they almost made it their job to punish him even though punishment is not supposed to be the goal."
O.J. Simpson is seen on Nov. 12, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Mega/GC Images)
Robbery convictions carry a minimum sentence of 2 to 15 years in Nevada, according to the Las Vegas Defense Group. If a deadly weapon is used, as in Simpson's case, the penalty increases by another 1 to 15.
Gelman said a more typical sentence would have been 5 to 7 years in prison for the robbery case.
"But because of what happened years ago, he had a bull's-eye on his head," he said.
A family photo of Ronald Goldman, who was murdered with O.J. Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson June 12, 1994. (Lee Celano/WireImage)
At sentencing in the robbery case, Nevada Judge Jackie Glass denied that the murders of Brown Simpson and Goldman influenced her decision.
"I'm not here to try and cause any retribution or any payback for anything else," The Associated Press quoted her as saying.
After his acquittal on the murder charges, Simpson lost a wrongful death lawsuit in civil court and was ordered to pay $33.5 million to his ex-wife's estate. Most of that money never arrived.
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Simpson died Wednesday in Las Vegas at 76 years old following a cancer battle. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1968 as a running back for the University of Southern California and in 1973 became the NFL's first RB to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a single season.
After an 11-year NFL career with the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers, he had a turn in Hollywood and co-starred alongside Leslie Nielsen and Priscilla Presley in "The Naked Gun," a police comedy.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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