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The 1995 criminal trial of O.J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson fascinated the American public. It also served as a catalyst for debate among criminal justice professionals around such topics as DNA evidence, the jury system, domestic violence, TVs in the courtroom, and of course, the role of celebrity, money and race. But, was this trial merely a fading sensationalized media event, or does it have any enduring significance for students of law and the criminal justice system? This study offers an analysis of a sample of introductory criminal justice textbooks and results of 236 self-administered surveys given to a sample of criminal justice students at the University of Memphis, an urban metropolitan university in the South. The evidence suggests that the cultural legacy of the O.J. Simpson trial may be dissipating sooner than most scholars would have expected. KEY WORDS: celebrity trials, cultural icons, O.J. Simpson
