Mark Fuhrman obit

Mark Fuhrman Dies: LAPD Detective At Center Of O.J. Simpson Murder Trial Was 74

 He was not on the list.

Mark Fuhrman, the former LAPD detective who discovered the bloody glove that became as pivotal to the O.J. Simpson murder trial as the epithet-spewing cop himself would be, died Tuesday, May 12, in Idaho, where he resided. He was 74.

The Kootenai County Coroner Office confirmed to Deadline on Monday that Furman died last week. The infamous LAPD detective had been suffering from cancer for “a while,” a well-placed source tells us.

Fuhrman, whose post-LAPD career included writing true crime books, as well as broadcasting stints on radio and television, including for Fox News, retired from the LAPD in August 1995.

His role in the Simpson trial, in which the accused murderer’s defense team portrayed Fuhrman as an avowed racist who frequently used the n-word, was pivotal in the jury’s decision to acquit the Hall of Fame football star-turned-actor. Fuhrman repeatedly denied the accusations.

Fuhrman’s discovery of a bloody glove on the property of the slaughtered Nicole Brown Simpson — and the claim that the glove belonged to O.J. Simpson — was meant to be a key piece of evidence in trial, but the defense suggestion that Fuhrman planted the evidence out of racism backfired for the prosecution. The glove became the focus of the trial in one of the most notorious televised moments from the entire proceeding when Simpson, already wearing rubber evidence gloves, struggled to put on the bloody glove.

“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” said defense attorney Johnnie Cochran in his closing statements.

Fuhrman was played by actor Steven Pasquale on the Fox limited series American Crime Story.

Simpson died in 2024.

. As a detective for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), he became known for his role in the Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman murder investigation and the subsequent prosecution of O. J. Simpson. After his retirement from the LAPD, Fuhrman wrote several true crime books and hosted talk radio.

In 1995, Fuhrman was called to testify regarding his discovery of evidence in the Simpson case, including a bloody glove recovered at Simpson's estate. During the trial, witnesses claimed that in the 1980s, Fuhrman frequently described African Americans as "niggers", claims he denied. In response, Simpson's defense team produced recorded interviews with Fuhrman and witnesses proved that he had repeatedly used racist language during those interviews. As a result, the defense claimed that Fuhrman had committed perjury and was not a credible witness. The credibility of the prosecution has been cited as one reason Simpson was acquitted.

Fuhrman was born in Eatonville, Washington, on February 5, 1952. He attended Peninsula High School in Gig Harbor, Washington. Fuhrman's parents divorced when he was seven years old, and his mother remarried briefly. In 1970, at the age of 18, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he was trained as a machine gunner and military policeman. He served during the Vietnam War era, although his service in the Vietnam theater was restricted to being assigned to the USS New Orleans, an amphibious assault ship stationed offshore. Having attained the rank of sergeant, he was honorably discharged in 1975. After leaving the military, Fuhrman entered the Los Angeles Police Academy and graduated in 1975.

Fuhrman's words on the tapes resulted in his being widely condemned, including by the prosecution. His use of racial epithets and accusations that he had planted evidence became a focal point of the trial and attracted enormous media attention that for a time eclipsed coverage of the crime itself, such that Ron Goldman's father, Fred Goldman, told the media, "This is now the Fuhrman trial. It is not the trial of O. J. Simpson, the man accused of murdering my son and Nicole."

After the trial, there was widespread pressure on Los Angeles County district attorney Gil Garcetti to bring perjury charges against Fuhrman. Garcetti initially refused, saying that Fuhrman's use of racist language was "not material to the case", a major element of proving perjury. As many members of Garcetti's office made public statements on the issue, Garcetti, citing the high emotions in his office about the case, opted to give the decision to prosecute to Dan Lungren, the California attorney general, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

On July 5, 1996, Lungren announced that he would file perjury charges against Fuhrman and soon thereafter offered Fuhrman a plea bargain. On October 2, Fuhrman accepted the deal and pleaded no contest to the charges. He was sentenced to three years' probation and fined $200. Fuhrman is the only person to have been convicted of criminal charges related to the Simpson case. His probation ended early in 1998, and his felony charges were expunged 18 months later.

In an October 1996 television interview with Diane Sawyer, Fuhrman said he did not plant evidence in the Simpson case. He said he is not a racist, and apologized for his use of racist language. He said he had forgotten about the existence of the audiotapes and that they were merely part of a misguided effort to have a fictional screenplay produced. A police investigation of the claims of violence on the tapes found that Fuhrman had grossly exaggerated, and many of his minority former coworkers have expressed support for Fuhrman and said they do not believe he is a racist.

In his book Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O. J. Simpson Got Away with Murder, Vincent Bugliosi argues that planting the glove would have required a far-reaching and unlikely conspiracy between Fuhrman and other police officers. Anyone involved in such a conspiracy would have been risking their life, because Article 128 of the California Penal Code states that anyone who fabricates evidence in a death penalty case — as the Brown and Goldman murder case might have become — can be sentenced to death themselves. Bugliosi further argues that Fuhrman was one of the victims in the case and that his lying under oath about racial epithets did not rise to the level of indictable perjury, because it was immaterial to the actual facts of the case.