Disgraced former LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman, who rose to infamy for derailing the O.J. Simpson murder prosecution after it was revealed he had used the N-word, has died at age 74.
A close friend told TMZ — which first reported the news — that Fuhrman died of an “aggressive form of cancer” May 12.
Fuhrman found the infamous bloody glove purportedly linking Simpson to the gruesome 1994 killings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman outside her LA home.
Simpson, who died in April 2024, famously appeared to struggle as he attempted to put on the black leather glove over a latex glove in court, a key moment in the trial his lawyer Johnnie Cochran seized on to sow reasonable doubt of his guilt to the jury.
His testimony was to be key to the prosecution’s case against the once-beloved athlete, until the defense produced a tape in which Fuhrman used the racial slur after he testified under oath he had never done so.
With his credibility on the stand diminished, Simpson’s defense team suggested Fuhrman planted evidence in the case, which he denied in court and then later in a 1996 interview with ABC.
“There was never a shred, never a hint, never a possibility, not a remote, not a million-, not a billion-to-one possibility I could have planted anything. Nor would I have a reason to.”
He retired two months before Simpson’s shocking acquittal in October 1995, and the following year pleaded no contest to a felony count of perjury for lying on the stand during his testimony.
His conviction gave him the ignominious distinction of being the only person convicted of a crime as a result of the trial.
After his LAPD career, Fuhrman pivoted to working as a TV and radio commentator and authored several books, including “Murder in Brentwood” about the Simpson trial.
In 2023 he was barred from ever returning to law enforcement under a new California police measure decertifying officers who have exhibited biased or criminal conduct. The reform was enacted following the 2020 killing of George Floyd.
