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Michael Rothstein, ESPN Staff Writer
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released 475 pages of documents relating to O.J. Simpson, the NFL Hall of Fame running back who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend.
The documents largely focus on the murder investigation into the 1994 stabbing deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Simpson was a person of interest and ultimately charged, and his 1995 trial, often called one of the most famous trials of the past century, drew worldwide attention and spectacle.
Simpson was acquitted of all charges on Oct. 3, 1995. He was found liable for wrongful death in a civil court case two years later and told to pay $33.5 million in damages to the Brown and Goldman families. Simpson maintained his innocence throughout the rest of his life. He died in April.
The FBI publicly releases records it maintains on individuals after they die. Some names in the Simpson documents have been redacted. While the FBI labeled this release of documents “Part 01,” it’s not clear when or if more documents will be released. In previous such cases, the bureau has released documents in batches as agents review them.
The vast majority of files released by the FBI center on evidence collection and testing, including testing of fibers found at the crime scene and blood testing. The FBI also went to Italy to study Bruno Magli shoes, a rare shoe determined at the time to be worn by the murderer. The documents show the detail that went into tracking the sales and understanding the soles of two models of the shoes sold in the U.S. at the time.
The FBI also sent out a memo to its investigators, explaining the attention the case was receiving.
“Due to the intense media interest in captioned matter, and the potential prejudicial impact that public dissemination could have on pending criminal proceedings,” the memo states about the investigation, “the following information should be handled on a strict need to know basis, and should not be disseminated outside the FBI.”
Read the entire FBI file here.
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