Mark Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles police detective whose testimony became a flashpoint during the O.J. Simpson murder trial, died at age 74, Lynn Acebedo, the chief deputy coroner in Kootenai County, Idaho, said. Acebedo said Fuhrman died May 12, and noted that the county does not release the cause of death as a rule.
Fuhrman was one of the first two detectives sent to investigate the 1994 killings of Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles. During the trial, Fuhrman reported finding what he said was a bloody glove at Simpson’s home, but the defense challenged his credibility and raised the prospect of racial bias.
Under cross-examination, Fuhrman testified that he had never made anti-Black racial slurs in the past decade. The trial record included a recording, however, that showed he had used such language repeatedly, according to the account in the report.
Dershowitz, who served as a prominent lawyer and law professor and was a legal strategist on Simpson’s defense “Dream Team,” commented on Fuhrman’s legacy after the death. Dershowitz said Fuhrman was “a much better detective than he was a witness,” and he said Fuhrman’s use of the “n” word helped the defense. “He’s very smart, and you know, a very, very aggressive detective. Ultimately his actions helped us win the O.J. case because of his use of the ‘n’ word,” Dershowitz said Monday evening. He also said, “I got to know him later, after it was all over, and we had a cordial relationship.”
Fuhrman retired from the Los Angeles Police Department after Simpson’s 1995 acquittal. Afterward, he moved to Idaho with his family and set up a farm on a 20-acre property, raising chickens, goats, sheep and llamas.
In 1996, Fuhrman was charged with perjury, and he pleaded no contest. He later worked as a TV and radio commentator and wrote the book “Murder in Brentwood” about the killings.
In the years after the criminal case, Simpson was found not guilty of murder in 1995 in a criminal-court proceeding, but a civil trial jury later found Simpson liable in 1997 for the deaths of Brown and Goldman and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to relatives. The report said Fuhrman died in Las Vegas of prostate cancer in 2024 at age 76, though Acebedo’s statement placed Fuhrman’s death date at May 12.
Kato Kaelin, a friend of Brown who also testified in the murder trial, posted on X after Fuhrman’s death. Kaelin wrote that he wanted to “respectfully acknowledge Fuhrman’s death” and said he hoped Fuhrman’s loved ones could find peace. Kaelin wrote, “While we were never close personally, our lives were indelibly linked through our roles in the O.J. Simpson trial over thirty years ago. It was a deeply complex and painful chapter for everyone involved, but any loss of life is a time for reflection and solemnity.”
The report also included background on Fuhrman’s early life: his father left when he was 7 years old, and Fuhrman often cared for his younger brother while his mother worked. After that, he joined the Marines and then the Los Angeles Police Department.
This story was updated to correct the last name of Brown’s friend who testified in the murder trial. He is Kato Kaelin, not Kaitlin.