Photo: Getty Images
Pro Football Hall of Famer O.J. Simpson was excluded from the 'In Memoriam' segment of the 2024 ESPY Awards Thursday (July 11) night.
Simpson, who was infamously accused in the 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman, died at the age of 76 in April, but wasn't mentioned in the montage of the other recently deceased athletes, which included Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays, Pro Football Hall of Famer Larry Allen and Basketball Hall of Famers Jerry West and Bill Walton. ESPN's decision to exclude Simpson came less than two weeks after he was mentioned during the BET Awards' remembrance segment, which was criticized by the Brown and Goldman families.
Simpson was found "not guilty" for the deaths of Brown and Goldman in his highly publicized 1995 trial, despite being later unanimously found liable in a civil trial for the wrongful death of and battery against Goldman and battery against Brown two years later. Last month, the FBI publicly released nearly 1,000 pages of documents related to the murder investigation.
Simpson's 1995 murder trial and 2008 prison sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping have overshadowed a Hall of Fame football and acting post-retirement acting careers, which he has unsuccessfully attempted to restore though his social media presence, launching his X account just over a year after being released from jail on parole. Simpson was sentenced to 33 years in prison with the possibility of (granted) parole after nine years on charges of kidnapping and armed robbery.
Simpson's official cause of death was determined to be prostate cancer, his longtime attorney, Malcolm LaVergne revealed to TMZ Sports on April 26. LaVergne, the executor of Simpson's estate, said he received the former NFL MVP's death certificate and confirmed that the previously unspecified cancer diagnosis was of the prostate form. Simpson's family revealed his death in a statement shared on his X account on April 11.