FOR many Americans, the sentence handed down to O.J. Simpson by a Nevada judge on Friday was justice delayed after he was acquitted of a double murder years ago.

The former American football star is widely believed to have got away with murder when he was found not guilty of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ron Goldman, in a trial that split America along racial lines.

Before what was dubbed the trial of the century, Simpson was already well-known after a career as a brilliant running back in American football. Cashing in on his sporting fame, he appeared in several successful movies including the Towering Inferno and Capricorn One. A stint in ads for the Hertz rental car company, in which he was pictured running through a crowded airport, cemented his status in the upper reaches of B-list celebrity.

His marriage to Brown – the coming together of a handsome black athlete and a beautiful blonde woman – seemed to complete the picture of someone who had achieved the American dream. In reality, their marriage was rocky and when things soured Simpson emerged as ill-tempered and violent. He was jealous of any hint that Brown might have a new boyfriend.

Simpson’s world imploded when his ex and Goldman were found outside Brown’s home, knifed to death in a frenzied attack. He was arrested after a slow chase across Los Angeles in a white Ford Bronco that was broadcast live on TV.

From the start, the trial transfixed America. The scene outside the Los Angeles courtroom took on a circus atmosphere and turned some of the key players – from the judge, Lance Ito, to Johnnie Cochran, Simpson’s defence lawyer – into household names.

Cochran, who coined the phrase “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” – of the glove found at the murder scene – mounted a brilliant defence by putting the LA police on trial for racism. In a verdict seen live on TV by more than half of the US population, a mostly black jury cleared Simpson, to the astonishment of many in and outside America.

Simpson was pursued doggedly by Goldman’s family. Fred Goldman, Ron’s father, brought a civil suit against Simpson for the deaths. With the burden of proof smaller in civil cases, Simpson was held liable for the deaths and had to pay out $33m, bankrupting him. Simpson fled to Florida where he managed to live comfortably off his pensions, spending much time on the golf course.

Simpson did himself no favours when, in a bizarre twist out of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, he wrote a book last year called If I Did It, in which he detailed a gruesome “theoretical” version of events on the night of the murder. In the book, Simpson describes going to Brown’s house carrying a knife, arguing with her and then being shocked when Goldman appears. He blacks out and comes to again to find two bloodied bodies. The book served only to compound suspicions of Simpson’s guilt.

Simpson’s final downfall began in room 1203 of the Palace Station hotel and casino in Las Vegas on Sept 13, 2007. Two men, Bruce Fromong and Al Beardsley, had set up shop in the room, spreading out their memorabilia from Simpson’s football career.

The men had been told by a friend, Thomas Riccio, that he would bring a buyer to meet them. Instead, Riccio brought Simpson and a gang of other men. At least one them was armed with a gun.

They burst into the room, shouting a stream of obscenities. The two salesmen were pushed against a wall and Simpson and his gang gathered up the goods in pillowcases before marching out of the casino. The shaken victims called police and told them they had just been robbed by O.J. Simpson.

Simpson’s dwindling band of supporters insist the whole thing was a set-up as Riccio, who encouraged Fromong and Beardsley into room 1203, had also bugged the place. It was Riccio who told Simpson about the men. He sold the resulting audio tapes, on which Simpson can be clearly heard, for thousands of dollars to a celebrity website.

Be that as it may and despite its farcical elements, the robbery and subsequent convictions have ensured Simpson will spend time in jail. For many Americans, it has been a long time coming.—Dawn/Guardian News & Media