The O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1994 is still a topic of conversation among many, even with 24 years between us and the events. The whole of the United States, and even the world, were transfixed by what exactly happened. For those that don't understand the significance of these events, it was so much more than a football star-turned-actor being accused of murder.
There was a definite motive and a plethora of evidence backing up the accusations that Simpson killed his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ronald Goldman, but due to the circumstances of the trial, things went a completely different way. In what was an extremely complicated series of events involving a lackluster prosecution, a skilled defense, the media circus, and the fact that a key witness had a history of racial abuse, O.J. was judged to be not guilty to either of the murders.
It's not as if the story got any simpler after this point, either. While many had campaigned for his release as part of the "Free O.J." movement, many others were convinced of his guilt. This led to a man who had previously been beloved across the nation ostracized from his community and met with hatred from members of the public.
In response to years of criticism, Simpson did something mind-boggling: he released a book titled 'If I Did It'. In the book, he discussed the hypothetical process he would have gone through to murder Nicole and Ronald, in an effort to prove his innocence to the world.
However, in August 2007 a Florida bankruptcy court awarded the rights to the book to the family of murder victim Ronald Goldman to satisfy an unpaid civil judgment. The book was still released, but the family renamed it 'If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer', with the word 'if' reduced in size so it read more like 'I Did It'. Later that year, O.J. was arrested for an armed robbery, for which he served a nine-year prison sentence.
In addition to the initial book deal, Simpson conducted an interview with publisher Judith Regan that was due to be aired as a Fox TV special. Public backlash forced Fox to shelve the interview - but now it is going to resurface.
Simpson has been in the news more lately after 2016 gave us the Emmy Award-winning TV series 'The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story' and Oscar-winning documentary 'O.J.: Made In America' (the doc is definitely worth a watch). On top of this, O.J. was released from prison in October last year, bringing him back into the headlines once again.
Likely capitalizing on this, Fox are now going to air the lost interview nearly 12 years after it was initially conducted. You can see the trailer below:
'O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession?' will include additional material from journalist Soledad O'Brien, as well as a panel of experts to analyze his comments.
The interview will air on Sunday 11 March at 8pm ET on Fox - and with a character like O.J. Simpson, there's no way of telling what could be unearthed.