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Marcia Clark, who served as the lead prosecutor of O.J. Simpson‘s 1994 murder trial, is speaking out after his death.
“I send my condolences to Mr. Simpson’s family,” Clark, 70, said in a statement to Entertainment Tonight.
Simpson died on Wednesday, April 10, after battling prostate cancer, his family announced via X on Thursday, April 11. He was 76 years old.
“On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren,” the Simpson family shared in a statement. “During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.”
Though he originally rose to fame as a star NFL athlete, Simpson’s name became a mainstay in the media after he was accused of murdering ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman, both of whom were fatally stabbed.
After a nearly year-long trial that gripped the nation, Simpson was acquitted of murder charges in 1995. He was later found guilty for wrongful death and battery against Goldman in a civil suit in 1997.
Simpson’s legal troubles didn’t end there. After he was arrested in 2007, the former pro athlete was found guilty of kidnapping and armed robbery the following year. Simpson was sentenced to serve nine to 33 years in prison and was released on parole in 2021 after serving the minimum sentence. (His parole hearing was held in November of that year but he was not released until December 2021.)
Clark took a leave of absence after the trial and later resigned from her position in 1997.
“I didn’t go to work that day,” she told The Hollywood Reporter of the day Simpson was acquitted. “I didn’t have to. The case was over. I got the kids off to school. I drove up the coast to meet my friend for lunch. I was numb. I wanted relief.”
She added of her resignation, “I couldn’t even think of going back there. The misery was so profound. The only thing I wanted was, ‘Get me away from there’ — the ugliness I had been through. When my overtime and vacation time ran out, I had my office packed up. I never went back.”
More than two decades after the “trial of the century,” it became the subject of FX’s American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, which premiered on the network in 2016.
The limited series starred Cuba Gooding Jr. (Simpson), Sterling K. Brown (Christopher Darden), John Travolta (Robert Shapiro) and David Schwimmer (Robert Kardashian). American Horror Story actress Sarah Paulson portrayed Clark.
