The O.J Simpson Saga 20 Years Later

It was a story that captivated the world: a beloved former football star accused of killing his glamorous ex-wife and her handsome friend in a grisly crime of passion.The O.J. Simpson saga was part Shakespearean tragedy and part trashy daytime soap opera, with an unlikely cast of characters and a juicy plot so strange and twisted that few dared to look away. Debating whether O.J. was guilty or not became a national pastime — encouraged by the fact that virtually every second of his trial was broadcast on television. And that debate was often divided along racial lines, underscoring the painful truth that blacks and whites continue to have drastically different views of justice in modern- day America.

In June 1994, O.J. Simpson, a celebrated former football player turned sports commentator, actor and television pitchman, was arrested for the stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. He was acquitted of the murders more than a year later, after circuslike legal proceedings that many dubbed the "Trial of the Century." But his legal woes never subsided. In 1997, he was found guilty in a wrongful death suit filed by the Goldman and Brown families and was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages, much of which remains unpaid. 

Nicole Simpson

He moved to Florida, hoping to protect his  National Football League pension from being seized but continued to run afoul of the law. In one bizarre case, Direct TV successfully sued Simpson in 2004 after Miami police, acting on a tip that Simpson may have been involved in a drug trafficking ring, discovered equipment at his home capable of pirating satellite television. In 2008, Simpson was sentenced to 33 years in prison for his role in a 2007 Las Vegas armed robbery and kidnapping plot that targeted two memorabilia dealers. Simpson has said he was simply trying to retrieve personal items that had been stolen from him. On June 4, Simpson, who is 66, filed an appeal for a new trial. He's currently serving time at a state prison in Lovelock, Nev., where he is not eligible for parole until 2017.

Twenty years later, there's no question that the so-called "Trial of the Century" was indeed that. It was America's first true reality TV show, altering pop culture and the media in a way that no other event has since. Without O.J., there probably would have been no wall-to-wall coverage of the trials of Casey Anthony or George Zimmerman or Oscar Pistorius. There might not even be a "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," a reality show that has its own strange connection to the Simpson drama.