Mark Fuhrman dies at 74: How did former LA cop, convicted of lying during OJ Simpson murder trial, died; check cause of death

Mark Fuhrman Cause of Death: Mark Fuhrman, a former Los Angeles police detective known for his role in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, has died at the age of 74. He was among the first two detectives dispatched to investigate the 1994 killings of Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles. He was later convicted of perjury for lying during his testimony in the case.

Lynn Acebedo, chief deputy coroner in Kootenai County, Idaho, confirmed that Mark Fuhrman died on May 12. In keeping with county policy, officials did not release the cause of death or specify where he died. Fuhrman’s manager, Lynda Bensky, later revealed that the cause was throat cancer, The New York Times reported.

During the Simpson murder investigation, Fuhrman reported discovering a bloody glove at O.J. Simpson’s home. His credibility, however, came under heavy scrutiny at trial as the defense raised allegations of racial bias.


Under cross-examination, Fuhrman testified that he had never made anti-Black racial slurs in the past decade, but a recording showed he had done so repeatedly. Alan Dershowitz, a prominent lawyer and law professor who was a legal strategist on Simpson’s defense “Dream Team,” said Fuhrman was a “much better detective than he was a witness.”

“He’s very smart, and you know, a very, very aggressive detective. Ultimately his actions helped us win the O.J. case because of his use of the ‘n’ word,” Dershowitz said on Monday evening (May 18, 2026), news agency AP reported. “I got to know him later, after it was all over, and we had a cordial relationship.”

After O.J. Simpson’s 1995 acquittal, Mark Fuhrman retired from the Los Angeles Police Department. He later relocated with his family to Idaho, where he established a 20-acre farm raising chickens, goats, sheep, and llamas.

In 1996, Fuhrman was charged with perjury and entered a no-contest plea. He went on to work as a television and radio commentator and authored Murder in Brentwood, a book about the Simpson case.

A criminal-court jury found Simpson, a former star NFL running back and actor, not guilty of murder in 1995, but a separate civil trial jury found him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to relatives of Brown and Goldman. He served nine years in prison on unrelated charges and died in Las Vegas of prostate cancer in 2024 at the age of 76.

Fuhrman’s father left when he was 7 years old, and Fuhrman often cared for his younger brother while his mother worked. As an adult, he joined the Marines and then the Los Angeles Police Department.