Judge Lance Ito
| June 12, 1994 | Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are stabbed to death. Their bodies found in the front courtyard of the Nicole's condominium in Brentwood. |
| June 13, 1994 | O.J. Simpson is notified of the murders while on a business trip in Chicago. He returns to Los Angeles, is temporarily handcuffed, and taken in for questioning. Robert Shapiro is contacted on Simpson's behalf and asked to become defense counsel. |
| June 16, 1994 | The funerals of the victims are held. |
| June 17, 1994 | About to be arrested for murder, Simpson slips out of Robert Kardashian's home. He is chased by police while riding in his white Ford Bronco, driven by friend A.C. Cowlings. When he returns to his home on Rockingham, Simpson is taken into custody. |
| June 24, 1994 | Grand jury recused. |
| July 8, 1994 | Six-day preliminary hearing ends with Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell ruling there is sufficient evidence for O.J. Simpson to stand trial on two counts of first-degree murder. |
| July 22, 1994 | O.J. pleads "absolutely 100 percent not guilty" to the charges. Judge Lance A. Ito assigned to hear case. |
| August 18, 1994 | Defense counsel files motion to obtain personnel records of Detective Mark Fuhrman. |
| September 2, 1994 | District attorney files motion to sequester jury. |
| September 9, 1994 | District attorney announces that the death penalty will not be sought. |
| September 19, 1994 | Judge Ito upholds the legality of the search of Simpson's home. |
| November 3, 1994 | Jury panel selected: eight black, one white, one Hispanic, two mixed race; eight women, four men. |
| December 8, 1994 | Alternate jury selected. |
| January 4, 1995 | Defense waives hearing for challenge of prosecution's DNA evidence. |
| January 11, 1995 | The jury is sequestered. Hearing held on admissibility of domestic-abuse evidence. |
| January 13, 1995 | Prosecutor Christopher Darden and defense attorney Johnnie Cochran argue over racist language regarding the upcoming testimony of Mark Fuhrman. |
| January 24, 1995 | Trial opens in Los Angeles. Prosecutors Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden deliver opening statements. |
| January 25, 1995 |
Johnnie Cochran makes opening statement for the defense. |
| January 27, 1995 | O.J. Simpson's book, I Want to Tell You, is published. |
| February 3, 1995 | Nicole Brown's sister Denise testifies about O.J. Simpson's abuse of her sister. |
| February 12, 1995 | Jurors take field trip to Simpson home and Bundy Drive crime scene. |
| March 15, 1995 | Detective Mark Fuhrman, cross-examined by defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, denies using the word "nigger" at any time in the previous ten years. |
| April 11, 1995 | L.A.P.D. criminalist Dennis Fung concedes, under cross-examination by defense attorney Barry Scheck, procedural errors. |
| April 21, 1995 | After three sheriff's deputies are reassigned, jurors protest. They first refuse to come to court, then show up dressed in black. |
| May 4, 1995 |
Wrongful death suit filed on behalf of the Goldmans. |
| May 10, 1995 | DNA testimony begins. |
| June 15, 1995 | Simpson tries on the bloody gloves. They seem not to fit. |
| July 6, 1995 | The prosecution rests. |
| July 10, 1995 | The defense calls its first witness, Arnelle Simpson, O.J. Simpson's daughter. |
| August 15, 1995 | Controversy over possible conflict of interest concerning Judge Ito. Marchia Clark asks Ito to recuse himself from Simpson trial. |
| August 16, 1995 | Clark changes her mind on Ito recusal. |
| August 18, 1995 | Superior court judge John Reid rules that Captain York's testimony is not relevant to Simpson trial. |
| August 29, 1995 | Fuhrman tapes played in court, with jury absent. |
| August 31, 1995 | Judge Ito rules that jury will hear two excerpts of controversial tapes. |
| September 5, 1995 | The jury hears excerpts from Fuhrman tapes. |
| September 6, 1995 | With jury absent, Mark Fuhrman appears on stand. He refuses to answer questions, citing his Fifth Amendment privilege against self incrimination. |
| September 7, 1995 | The defense announces that Simpson won't testify on his own behalf. The defense asks Judge Ito to instruct jury as to reason for Fuhrman's further nonappearance. Judge agrees, but prosecution objects. The question is appealed |
| September 8, 1995 | Appeals court rejects Ito's jury instruction. |
| September 11, 1995 | Defense refuses to rest their case due to the unresolved question of judge's instruction to jury concerning Fuhrman. Judge Ito orders prosecution to begin its rebuttal. |
| September 18, 1995 | Prosecution conditionally rests its case. |
| September 19, 1995 | Detective Vannatter is cross-examined by Shapiro on statements he made to mob informants about why police went to O.J. Simpson's residence. |
| September 21, 1995 | Both defense and prosecution rest their cases. In a statement to judge waiving his right to testify, Simpson says "I did not, could not, and would not have committed this crime." Judge Ito gives jury instructions. |
| Sept. 26 & 27, 1995 | Clark and Darden deliver prosecution's closing arguments. |
| Sept. 27 & 28, 1995 | Cochran and Scheck deliver defense's closing arguments. Cochran makes controversial statements to the jury comparing Fuhrman to Hitler. |
| September 29, 1995 | The case goes to the jury. |
| October 2, 1995 | After less than four hours, jury announces that it has reached a verdict. |
| October 3, 1995 | Jury finds O.J. Simpson not guilty of two counts of murder. |
| October 23, 1996 | Opening statements in civil trial in Santa Monica. Jury consists of nine whites, one black, one Hispanic, and one person of mixed Asian and African ancestry. |
| November 22, 1996 | Simpson testifies before a jury for the first time. He denies killing Goldman or his former wife, but cannot explain the physical evidence against him. |
| December 9, 1996 | Fred Goldman, Ron's father, testifies. Plaintiffs rest. |
| December 20, 1996 | Simpson awarded custody of his children by an Orange County judge. |
| January 10, 1997 | Simpson on the stand again. |
| January 16, 1997 |
Both sides rest. Jury has heard 101 witnesses over 41 days of testimony. |
| January 21, 1997 | Closing argument of Daniel Petrocelli for the plaintiffs. Petrocelli points at Simpson and says, "There's a killer in this courtroom." |
| January 22, 1997 | Closing argument by Robert Baker, representing Simpson. |
| February 4, 1997 | Jury finds Simpson liable and awards plaintiffs $8.5 million in in compensatory damages. |
| March 26, 1997 | Court orders Simpson to turn over his assets, including 1968 Heisman trophy, a Warhol painting, and his golf clubs. |
| July 14, 1997 | The Brentwood estate is auctioned off (and the new owner soon demolishes it). |
| June 30, 1998 | Simpson's attorneys appeal wrongful death award against him, calling award "excessive and the clear result of passion and prejudice on the part of the jury." |
| November 2, 1998 | Brown and Goldman families split proceeds from an auction of O. J. Simpson's belongings. |
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May 10, 1999 |
O. J. Simpson and the Browns negotiate a custody arrangement for the two Simpson children. The following year, in August 2000, Simpson leaves California for Florida, a state where homes and pensions cannot be seized to pay for civil liabilities in other states. |
| September 2007 | A court seizes the book "If I Did It" by O. J. Simpson. The book, renamed "If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer" is published with proceeds used to pay off Simpson's civil claim. |
| October 3, 2008 | O. J. Simpson is convicted of assault, kidnapping, and armed robbery in connection with his attempt to recover sports memorabilia (which Simpson claimed was his) from a Las Vegas hotel room. Simpson is sentenced to 33 years in prison. |
| 2017 | The Nevada Parole Board decides to grant Simpson's request for parole. Simpson is released in October 2017 with restrictions. He lived in Nevada and Florida from 2017 to 2021. On Dec. 1, 2021, Simpson was granted an early discharge by the Nevada Parole Board and became a completely free man at age 74. He died of prostrate cancer on April 10, 2024. |