Mark Fuhrman, detective whose testimony rocked O.J. Simpson trial, dies at 74

Mark Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles police detective whose testimony became one of the defining controversies of the O.J. Simpson murder trial, has died at the age of 74.

Fuhrman died on May 12 in Kootenai County, Idaho, according to local coroner officials. He was 74. His manager, Lynda Bensky, told The New York Times that the cause of death was throat cancer.

Fuhrman rose to national prominence during the closely watched 1995 murder trial of Simpson, the former NFL star and actor accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles the previous year.

A homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, Fuhrman was among the officers who investigated the brutal killings and gained attention after discovering a bloody glove at Simpson’s Brentwood property, evidence prosecutors argued linked the former football star to the murders.

But Fuhrman’s role in the case later became one of its most contentious elements.

During the trial, Simpson’s defence team challenged Fuhrman’s credibility by introducing recordings in which the detective was heard using racist slurs and making inflammatory remarks. Under oath, Fuhrman had denied using such language, a contradiction that damaged his testimony and became a major issue in the courtroom.

The controversy surrounding the detective overshadowed much of the prosecution’s case and fuelled claims from Simpson’s lawyers that police misconduct may have influenced the investigation, allegations authorities denied.

In October 1995, Simpson was acquitted of the murders in a verdict that gripped the United States and drew worldwide attention. He was later found civilly liable for the deaths in a wrongful death lawsuit and ordered to pay damages to the Goldman family, though the amount was never fully paid before Simpson’s death in 2024.

Soon after the criminal trial ended, Fuhrman pleaded no contest to a perjury charge connected to his testimony and was placed on probation. He later retired from the LAPD and relocated to Idaho.

Despite the fallout from the case, Fuhrman remained a public figure in the years that followed. He publicly apologised for using racist language in the past while continuing to reject allegations that evidence had been planted in the Simpson investigation.

He later reinvented himself as a crime commentator on television and radio and authored several true crime books, including Murder in Brentwood, centred on the Simpson case, and Murder in Greenwich, which examined the killing of teenager Martha Moxley and attracted widespread attention.

In recent years, Fuhrman again made headlines after California authorities barred him from law enforcement under legislation aimed at officers found to have engaged in criminal misconduct.

Fuhrman was married and divorced three times and is survived by a son and daughter.