Marc Lamont Hill: OJ Simpson Acquittal Was Necessary Response To Racist System

April 12, 2024

Marc Lamont Hill, a professor of urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City, responded to the death of OJ Simpson by saying his acquittal in the double murder of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman was a “necessary” outcome.

Simpson, 76, died at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada Thursday after battling prostate cancer.

The former running back for the Buffalo Bills is best known for having been acquitted for the aforementioned murders. Hill though, had an interesting take following his death.

“O.J. Simpson was an abusive liar who abandoned his community long before he killed two people in cold blood. His acquittal for murder was the correct and necessary result of a racist criminal legal system,” he wrote on X.

“But he’s still a monster, not a martyr.”

Marc Lamont Hill Suggests OJ Simpson Acquittal Was Right Because He Was Black

Marc Lamont Hill, a former CNN and Fox News contributor, was called out for his take on the OJ Simpson case.

It’s difficult not to conclude this take on these remarks: OJ wasn’t really black, but he deserved to get away with murder because he was black.

“Saying he left the black community and admitting he is a murderer, but believing he still deserves black criminal immunity is wild,” one follower on X responded.

Hill though, denies that was his opinion, despite clearly stating the Simpson case was a “correct and necessary result of a racist criminal legal system.”

“I never said that,” he replied to the critic. “The witness was caught lying. That raises legal doubt. That’s why the verdict was proper. Regardless of race, the system has to be fair.”

But that isn’t what he initially said.

Detective Mark Fuhrman was caught lying on the witness stand about using racial slurs. Additionally, he pleaded the 5th Amendment each time the defense asked him about planting evidence.

But many, many people surmise the jury acquitted Simpson because of his race, a response to the police beating of Rodney King years earlier.

Still, just as Hill admits, the actual evidence was plentiful in pointing to Simpson’s guilt in the case.

“He killed two people in cold blood.”

And, in fact, in a subsequent civil trial in 1997, Simpson was found liable for the wrongful deaths of Nicole Brown and Goldman. He was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to the victims’ families.

Fired From CNN

Marc Lamont Hill made news earlier this year when he demanded that Harvard’s President be chosen exclusively on race and gender.

“The next president of Harvard University MUST be a Black woman,” Hill insisted in a post on X.

He was responding to news that Claudine Gay, the previous president of Harvard, was forced to resign from her post. Gay’s fate followed controversy about alleged plagiarism and accusations of enabling antisemitism on campus.

CNN famously fired Hill after he called for the destruction of Israel and inciting violence against Jews in front of a United Nations panel in 2018.

And here it is, Marc Lamont Hill calling for a "free Palestine from the river to the sea" (video via @bennyavni) pic.twitter.com/E7ugrByKyf

Hill defended the use of terrorism and violence by the Palestinian resistance in 2018.

“We must recognize the right of an occupied people to defend itself,” he said.

“We must prioritize peace, but we must not romanticize or fetishize it,” he added, concluding that “justice requires … a free Palestine from the river to the sea.”

The phrase, “from the river to the sea,” has been used by the terrorist organization Hamas. It is widely regarded as a mantra calling for the destruction of Israel.