O.J. Simpson found guilty in civil trial

The criminal trial of Orenthal James Simpson, a former NFL player, ended in a not-guilty verdict in the charge of homicide against his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman. The “trial of the century,” one of the most-watched events in television history, was declared just and fair by many of the white viewers, and all but a farce by just as many of the black ones. O.J. walked away a free man at the end, although Nicole’s family filed another suit — this time a civil one, alleging that O.J. was responsible for the two deaths.

On this day, February 4th, in 1997, a civil trial of O.J. Simpson found him liable for the wrongful death and battery of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson. The plaintiffs were awarded $33.5 million in damages, which they have been attempting to collect ever since.

O.J. had made several moves to guard portions of his income from seizure. While his Heisman trophy was auctioned and sold, his NFL pension could not be touched. In 2007, the rights to O.J.’s tell-all book If I Did It were given over to the Goldman family, who promptly renamed it If I Did It: Confessions of a Serial Killer; with the “If” made much less noticeable.