{"text":[[{"start":12.62,"text":"OJ Simpson, the American football superstar and Hollywood actor whose acquittal in a 1995 murder trial sparked a rancorous debate about race and justice in the US, has died of cancer aged 76. "}],[{"start":24.509999999999998,"text":"Orenthal James Simpson’s grace on the football field, good looks and charisma led to a successful career as a pitchman for Hertz rental cars and as an actor in films such as The Towering Inferno and The Naked Gun. "},{"start":35.464,"text":"But it was his 1995 trial over the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, that would leave an indelible mark on American society. "}],[{"start":45.42,"text":"The Simpson case was a made-for-television affair from the beginning. "},{"start":49.237,"text":"The wall-to-wall coverage started with a bizarre slow-speed chase on the highways of Los Angeles on June 17, 1994. "},{"start":56.379000000000005,"text":"Nearly 100mn Americans tuned in to watch Los Angeles police pursuing Simpson’s white Ford Bronco, which was being driven by his friend and fellow ex-NFL player Al Cowlings. "}],[{"start":67.12,"text":"The following year people were glued to their TV sets for “the trial of the century”. "},{"start":71.549,"text":"The trial of one of America’s most famous Black citizens in a Los Angeles courtroom unfolded four years after the brutal beating of Rodney King, a Black man, by LA police, and racial tensions in the city were still high. "}],[{"start":84.34,"text":"As the case progressed on TV, Simpson’s legal team of Johnnie Cochran and Robert Shapiro tapped into the theme of race and the LA police department. "},{"start":92.319,"text":"They portrayed the evidence presented by the prosecutors as phoney, planted by corrupt, racist police. "}],[{"start":98.94,"text":"Simpson’s lawyers charged that a crucial piece of evidence presented by the prosecution — a glove found outside Simpson’s Brentwood mansion that matched another at the crime scene — had been planted by a racist police officer. "}],[{"start":111.02,"text":"When asked by the prosecutors to try on the gloves, Simpson appeared to struggle to put them on and declared that they were “too small”. "},{"start":117.749,"text":"It was a point of high drama in the courtroom, and one that would produce the most memorable line from the case. "},{"start":123.167,"text":"In his closing arguments, Cochran told the jury: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit. ”"}],[{"start":128.95999999999998,"text":"After a 10-month trial, a predominately Black jury found Simpson not guilty of murder, a decision made after just four hours of deliberations. "}],[{"start":137.35,"text":"National opinion polls had shown a deep racial divide on the question of Simpson’s guilt or innocence, and the response to the verdict reflected that split. "},{"start":145.317,"text":"The lengthy case had dominated the national discussion, and the jury’s decision produced intense debate on TV and in offices across the US. "},{"start":152.97199999999998,"text":"The events of the murder trial were later dramatised in a 2016 FX television series, The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story. "}],[{"start":161.67,"text":"A mostly white jury in a separate civil trial found him liable in 1997 for the deaths, and he was ordered to pay $33.5mn to the families of Brown and Goldman. "},{"start":171.712,"text":"Simpson sold his Brentwood mansion and moved to Florida — a move widely seen as an effort to escape paying. "}],[{"start":178.42999999999998,"text":"The judgment would hang over Simpson for years as Goldman’s family pursued him to pay the claim. "}],[{"start":183.71999999999997,"text":"In 2006, Simpson wrote a “fictional memoir” that gave a hypothetical account of the murders that he planned to title If I Did It. "},{"start":190.73699999999997,"text":"But Goldman’s family won control of the manuscript, retitling it If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. "}],[{"start":197.51999999999998,"text":"Less than two months after losing control of the book, Simpson and five ex-convicts confronted two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room. "},{"start":205.82399999999998,"text":"He was arrested a few days later and charged with armed robbery and kidnapping. "},{"start":209.96699999999998,"text":"He was convicted, and served nine years in a Nevada prison. "}],[{"start":214.49999999999997,"text":"Simpson’s scandals, trials and imprisonment would have seemed unimaginable when he was a young football star at the University of Southern California with incredible speed and a brilliant smile. "},{"start":224.17899999999997,"text":"He would play American football for 11 seasons, setting records and being hailed by his fans as “The Juice”. "}],[{"start":230.89999999999998,"text":"Many of those fans stood behind him after the murders. "},{"start":234.05399999999997,"text":"“I don’t think most of America believes I did it,” Simpson told The New York Times in 1995. "},{"start":239.42199999999997,"text":"“I’ve gotten thousands of letters and telegrams from people supporting me. ”"}],[{"start":242.89,"text":""}]],"url":"https://creatives.ftacademy.cn/album/150040-1712890502.mp3"}