Parallels with OJ Simpson case

Oscar Pistorius has been acquitted of murder but will have to wait another day to learn his fate on the lesser charge of culpable homicide.

THE Oscar Pistorius court case has been likened to the OJ Simpson trial — two elite sporting heroes charged with killing the women they loved.

While the obvious parallel was the involvement of two popular celebrities, it was the brutal nature of the slayings that proved just as shocking in both cases.

The trials, albeit two decades apart, gripped the world from the opening ­address. Everyone had an opinion.

OJ Simpson and his then wife Nicole in 1993 / Picture: AP Source: AP

An estimated 100 million people worldwide stopped what they were doing to watch or listen to the OJ Simpson verdict announcement — it was much the same with last night's Pistorius verdict.

Against all odds, American football star-turned-actor Simpson was found not guilty of the stabbing murder of ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend ­Ronald Goldman in 1994. Reaction to the verdict was notable for its division along racial lines: with polls showing that most African-Americans felt that justice had been served by the not- guilty verdict while many white Americans did not.

Oscar Pistorius and his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2012 / Picture: AFP Source: AFP

The Brown and Goldman families found some solace when a civil jury in 1997 found Simpson — who is in jail for kidnapping and robbery — guilty of their deaths. In Pistorius's case, the shooting of Reeva Steenkamp was not ­racially motivated.

Nevertheless, a great many believe by beating the premeditated murder charge, Pistorius has dodged a bullet … sadly the same couldn't be said for Steenkamp.

Originally published as Parallels with OJ Simpson case

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