Thirty years after the courtroom clerk intoned the shocking “not guilty” verdict on Oct. 3, 1995, Americans are still wrestling with what really happened that night and what justice should look like. The anniversary is a painful reminder that the so-called Trial of the Century left more questions than answers and scarred public confidence in our institutions.
Key witness Kato Kaelin has been revisiting those raw memories, appearing in media conversations and speaking to law enforcement about what he saw and what it all meant. Those reflections matter because they come from someone who lived through the circus — not a pundit chasing clicks — and they force a sober look at how celebrity and media spectacle can warp the search for truth.
Kaelin hasn’t sugarcoated his view: he has repeatedly said he believes O.J. Simpson was guilty, and he hasn’t forgotten the victims, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. For hardworking Americans who prize law and order, Kaelin’s candor is a rebuke to the elites who turned the trial into a ratings bonanza while the families got little real closure.
Context matters: Simpson’s life after the criminal verdict included a civil judgment finding him liable and, years later, a different chapter that ended with his death in April 2024. Those facts underscore a lesson conservatives have long warned about — celebrity and media status should never eclipse accountability under the law.
The national conversation around the trial has only become more fraught with time as documentaries and new reporting revisit the case and the racial and cultural tensions it exposed. That historical retelling should not be an excuse to weaponize race or politics; instead, it should be a cautionary tale about how media narratives can twist facts and inflame divisions for partisan gain.
Americans who value safety and fairness also have to reckon with how our justice system treats victims today — Kaelin himself has warned that the country remains divided and that prosecutorial choices matter. Conservatives who believe in real reform should insist on prosecutors who pursue the facts, protect victims, and don’t cave to publicity or ideological fads that let criminals walk without consequences.
If anything, the 30th anniversary should prompt humility and a recommitment to common-sense justice: stop the theater, honor the victims, and strengthen the institutions that keep communities safe. Patriots who love this country ought to demand an even-handed legal system where celebrity doesn’t buy immunity, victims aren’t sidelined, and the truth matters more than the next viral headline.
