KOOTENAI COUNTY, Idaho — Mark Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles police detective whose credibility collapsed during the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder trial after defense attorneys exposed his past racist remarks, died May 12 in Kootenai County, Idaho, at the age of 74, according to a report by The New York Times.
Fuhrman’s manager, Lynda Bensky, stated that the cause of death was throat cancer.
After a California jury found Simpson not guilty, Fuhrman was placed on probation after pleading no contest to perjury charges brought against him. Fuhrman later authored numerous books, including works on the Simpson case and other murder investigations, and became a television commentator.
Fuhrman was one of many Los Angeles police officers over the years who responded to calls from Nicole Brown Simpson, who feared for her life and reported being beaten by her husband. The Simpsons divorced in 1992.
Afterward, “on June 12, 1994, she and a friend, Ronald L. Goldman, were stabbed to death on a walkway leading to her condominium in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. She was nearly decapitated.”
At the outset, investigators suspected the former husband was responsible for the killings. “Among the evidence they collected was a bloody glove found at the murder scene,” the article stated. “But Simpson’s lawyers asserted during his 1995 trial that the police had planted the glove, though they offered nothing to support that allegation.” However, the knife used in the killings was never located.
Fuhrman’s testimony proved devastating for the prosecution because of his past use of racial slurs, which he initially denied using. Simpson’s defense team later played audio recordings proving otherwise. Fuhrman later acknowledged his past language and claimed it was used in the context of creating a screenplay he hoped would become a movie.
Another trial witness testified that Fuhrman used the racial slur sincerely. According to The New York Times article, one person recalled him saying that, if it were up to him, “Black people would be gathered together and burned.” On certain tapes, the article continued, Fuhrman said there were police officers who “would just love to take certain people and just take them to the alley and just blow their brains out.”
There were several complaints during Fuhrman’s tenure as a police officer from 1975 to 1995. “Some of Mr. Fuhrman’s Black and Latino police colleagues defended him, telling newspaper reporters that while they found him to be arrogant, they did not believe he was racist.”
The damage to the prosecution was severe. “In a second turn on the witness stand, Mr. Fuhrman invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination,” the article stated. Among the 12 jurors were eight Black jurors, which further undermined the detective’s credibility. The New York Times described how Simpson lawyer Johnnie Cochran “likened him to Hitler and called him a lying, perjuring, genocidal racist.”
The jury’s September 1995 verdict found O.J. Simpson not guilty.
However, “two years later, in a civil suit brought by the victims’ families, Mr. Simpson was found liable for the deaths and ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages,” the article stated. “He paid only a little of it, and then struggled to reshape his life; he died in 2024 at 76.”
The only person convicted in connection with the trial was Fuhrman. “In October 1996, on the strength of a plea bargain arranged with prosecutors, he pleaded no contest to perjury charges and was sentenced to three years’ probation and fined $200,” the article stated. “The charges were expunged in 1999.”
Throughout the years, Fuhrman apologized for his racist remarks and denied planting evidence against O.J. Simpson or being racist. Fuhrman believed the entire jury thought the Los Angeles Police Department was racist, which he believed likely contributed to Simpson’s acquittal.
“After retiring from the police force in 1995, Mr. Fuhrman moved to Sandpoint, a city in northern Idaho,” the article stated. “He briefly worked as an electrician’s apprentice, then turned to writing and to appearing as a Fox News commentator on prominent criminal cases.”
Fuhrman later wrote multiple true-crime books, including the 1997 book “Murder in Brentwood,” as well as another examining the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He also wrote about the 1975 killing of Martha Moxley in “Murder in Greenwich,” which was adapted into a television show.
In “Murder in Brentwood,” Fuhrman acknowledged that he should not have used racist language. He also argued that he was unfairly blamed in the O.J. Simpson case and stated that police officers are often not given the benefit of the doubt.
Fuhrman was born in 1952 in Washington state. Shortly after high school, he enlisted in the Marines and served as a military police officer and machine gunner. Later, in 1975, he joined the Los Angeles Police Department.
Fuhrman’s departure from the LAPD was attributed to a combination of stress and growing racist feelings that he said were affecting him. Later, during an interview with a psychiatrist, Fuhrman stated that he had tortured criminals. However, the city believed he was exaggerating his problems in order to secure a pension and return to active duty.
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Yes, sadly Furhman’s past use of certain language let a killer go free.
And the problems with the LA Crime lab, critical mistakes by the DA, and more…
Might have also been some racism on the jury itself, who then chose to overlook science.
Look at the difference between “white” people’s reaction, vs. “black” people’s reaction at the time. (This ultimately became fodder for Family Guy.)
I was at work when the verdict was announced – I recall several of us watching it on TV. I immediately looked at my co-workers, and the white people were appalled but the only black guy there was smiling/amused. (Which I frankly found amusing, myself.)
Norm MacDonald practically built his career at Saturday Night Live, making fun of OJ’s presumed guilt. Reportedly, this was also a factor in his dismissal from that show.
The verdict didn’t bother me, though.
I subsequently learned that one of my older siblings attended high school with OJ. I think he said something about racism on the part of OJ’s friends (against white people – which wouldn’t surprise anyone attending public schools in San Francisco). The same type of blatant racism that progressive white people prefer to deny its very existence.
The main problem was that they didn’t explain the science well enough, so it was clear as mud.
But the bottom line is that it didn’t take much to convince a community that was victimized by LAPD that a racist cop might lie and cheat and frame.
“But the bottom line is that it didn’t take much to convince a community that was victimized by LAPD that a racist cop might lie and cheat and frame.”
Hence, their possible racist reaction.
The same reason that Reginald Denny was pulled out of his truck and had a brick/rock smashed into the side of his head – with the perpetrators then “celebrating”.
At some point, you have to call out blatant racism for what it is – and stop denying that black people, for example, don’t engage in it.
But even though it’s not acknowledged in progressive circles, they actually already do know the reality. Which is the reason they’re in Davis for example, instead of Oakland or Richmond. It’s easy to be progressive and to focus on white racism, when you’re not around predominantly black communities.
Is it racist to react with suspicion when I guy was literally yelling the N-word?
The reaction of black people (vs. white people) tells you all that you need to know about this issue.
In this case, white people were almost certainly correct in their judgement (as a group).
Have you ever heard the phrase “black fatigue”? This refers to people getting fed up with black people viewing themselves as perennial victims and taking it out on others. (That’s racism, and it’s usually posted by other black people online – who are fed up with it themselves.)
At some point, you have to call things what they are (and what everyone knows to be true, even if it clashes with their preferred worldview).
Reginald Denny almost certainly wouldn’t have been attacked, if he was black.
But as far as the OJ trial is concerned, I found it more entertaining than anything else. The verdict didn’t upset me.
“ But as far as the OJ trial is concerned, I found it more entertaining than anything else. The verdict didn’t upset me.”
Don Henley: “It’s interesting when people die, give us dirty laundry”
Or perhaps we can go with Kurt Cobain: “Here we are now, entertain us”
It was definitely “infotainment” – just like all of the reality crime shows on TV (e.g., 48 Hours, Forensic Files, etc.).
Just like much of the news, itself (e.g., the latest mass shooting, etc.).
As are the predictable reactions to it (calls for more gun control, arming teachers, etc.). And prayers, of course.
Though perhaps the more important (societal) issue is the difference between how black people reacted, vs. white people (in general).
As far as OJ himself, his public persona was quite likeable. (That’s ultimately why I doubt that Furhman was out to frame OJ.)
I think it’s probably a safe bet to assume that OJ himself uttered something racist, at some point(s) during his lifetime. To which I’d say, “so what”?
I’m pretty sure that OJ was no threat to the public at large, and was probably quite personable to strangers.