O.J. Simpson double murder case gets revisited 30 years later. What key players say about the ‘trial of the century’ today.

It’s been 30 years since the “trial of the century” — in which O.J. Simpson faced double murder charges for the stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ronald Goldman — but for the people involved, it’s something they’ve never been able to escape.

“In my obituary, they’ll say, ‘the disgraced racist detective in the O.J. Simpson case,’” former Los Angeles Police Department Detective Mark Fuhrman said in Netflix’s new documentary American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson, which is now streaming.

Former prosecutor Christopher Darden, who worked alongside Marcia Clark, said that he’ll forever be remembered for asking Simpson, who was ultimately acquitted amid allegations of police misconduct, to try on the bloody gloves in court — and the fallout from that.

“Christopher Darden and the glove, married together for all eternity,” the attorney said in the series. “When I die, bury me with a pair of Isotoner gloves.”

Kim Goldman, Ron’s sister, said she doesn’t want to talk about the case again but feels she has to.

“It’s a vicious cycle because I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to do this,” she said. “But If I wasn’t, my brother wouldn’t be part of it and so I have to. And other victims and survivors, whether they’re high profile or not, we have to keep doing this … to remind you that it wasn’t just about the killer. My brother was barely 25 years old and lost his entire life because somebody else thought that they had the power to take it.”

The Floyd Russ-directed project — broken into four parts: “The Blood,” “The Search,” “The Circus” and “The Verdict” — sees these and other key players involved with the fallen football star’s high-profile case, which went to trial in January 1995, and infamous Bronco chase, reflecting on what happened, now decades later. Former Detective Tom Lange, Simpson attorney Carl E. Douglas, witnesses Kato Kaelin and Ron Shipp, Simpson agent Mike Gilbert and juror Yolanda Crawford also give new interviews. Simpson died from cancer in 2024.

The docuseries gives a broad look at the time period. The killings took place in June 1994, two years after police officers who beat Rodney King were acquitted. Racial tensions were high when the trial began. On Simpson’s “dream team” of lawyers was civil rights and police brutality powerhouse Johnnie Cochran, who wasn’t afraid to play the so-called race card. Also, DNA evidence was relatively new, first being used in criminal cases in 1986.

The documentary looks at how there was no shortage of evidence linking Simpson to the killings. There was a bloody glove outside Brown’s Brentwood condo, where the slayings took place, and a matching one on Simpson’s nearby estate. Simpson owned the same style of gloves, once wearing them on TV for sideline reporting, as well as the Bruno Magli shoes that left bloody footprints at the condo. Simpson’s blood was found at the crime scene, and a mix of his and the victims’ blood was found at his home and in his Bronco. He had an hour and 10 minutes of time unaccounted for on the night of the killings and wounds on his hands.

Simpson had also previously been convicted of domestic violence against Brown, who was 12 years his junior and who he left his first wife for. There were 911 recordings, in which Brown pleaded for help, and a safe deposit box she left behind with diaries and photos documenting abuse. Friends and family members testified that they witnessed abuse.

The docuseries looks at how there was even more evidence that wasn’t collected or didn’t make it into the trial. Fuhrman said he flagged a fingerprint to detectives Lange and Philip Vannatter, who died in 2012, that was never logged. He also claimed there was a knife box in Simpson’s bathroom and elsewhere at the Rockingham estate, blood on a light switch in the laundry room and wet clothes in the washing machine that were not collected.

There were also witnesses who prosecutors never called to testify, like Skip Junis, who claims in the doc that he saw Simpson throw out a bag at the airport in the immediate aftermath of the killings. Jill Shively claimed she saw Simpson racing away from the crime scene in his Ford Bronco, but she sold her story to a tabloid, so prosecutors declined to use her as a witness.

The players also talked about all the mistakes and omissions during the trial, like Darden and the glove. To this day, he insists that “it fit,” blaming the latex glove Simpson had on underneath. Criminalist Dennis Fung was also photographed collecting evidence at the crime scene without rubber gloves. Simpson’s own police interview, obtained in the aftermath of the Bronco chase, in which he made inconsistent statements, according to Lange, was not used in the trial.

However, Fuhrman’s involvement in the case was ultimately its undoing. On the witness stand, he was questioned about his history of using racist slurs during his time on the job, which he denied. The defense surfaced recordings and other proof of him using the slurs over and over. He later evoked his Fifth Amendment privilege, including when asked if he planted or manufactured evidence.

Crawford, one of the jurors, said Simpson’s defense team — which also included Robert Shapiro, Robert Kardashian, F. Lee Bailey, Barry Scheck and Carl E. Douglas — created enough reasonable doubt around Fuhrman and evidence tampering by police that it led them not to convict. The jury made their decision, after eight months of testimony, in less than one day.

Fuhrman, who later pleaded no contest to perjury, was put on the hot seat in the documentary, including being asked if he considers himself racist.

“I can’t argue the point,” he said. “I can’t undo what has been done. If somebody says you’re a racist, I can’t argue with them… Do I like it? No. Do I try to plead with people, ‘That’s not me. Forgive me.’ No.”

Fuhrman was also asked if he planted the evidence and replied, “No, and that’s the way I would have testified.” He called the allegation “absolutely ridiculous,” but “I can’t change” people’s minds. “It is what it is.”

Darden talked about being a Black prosecutor pulled into the case during racially charged times in a racially charged city. He was viewed as a “token” hire but insisted he was good at his job. (“I hadn’t lost a felony case in 15 years … I was a beast,” he said.) Darden said losing was a “shock to the system,” and he still feels some responsibility for Simpson being found not guilty and letting down the families.

Lange, who recalled in his interview the brutality of the killings, with Brown being nearly decapitated and Goldman’s extensive defense wounds, is still frustrated with the outcome, despite Simpson later being found liable for Brown and Goldman’s deaths in a civil case.

“The DNA evidence in this case should have been enough to convict anybody,” he said. “We don’t get over these things,” he added. “They don’t heal with time. This is forever.”

On the other side, Douglas, part of the defense, celebrated his team’s win and Simpson’s freedom, saying the “jury got it right” and he “will sleep well every night” over it “like I have for the past 30 years.”

American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson is now streaming on Netflix.

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