LOS ANGELES -- O.J. Simpson was acquitted Tuesday of murdering his ex-wife and her friend, a suspense-filled climax to the courtroom saga that obsessed the United States. With two words, "Not guilty,'' the jury freed the football legend to try to rebuild a life thrown into disgrace.


Simpson looked toward the jury and mouthed, "Thank you," after the panel was dismissed. He turned to his family and punched a fist into the air. He then hugged his lead defense attorney, Johnnie Cochran Jr.


Then he boarded a minivan and was whisked from the courthouse to freedom.


"Mr. Simpson is ecstatic and he wants to get on with his life,'' Cochran said. He added that the defense won the case by demonstrating reasonable doubt in the prosecution's case.


Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and her friend Ronald Goldman, 25, were stabbed to death June 12, 1994 outside Ms. Simpson's Los Angeles condominium. Americans dubbed the courtroom drama that ensued "the trial of the century," and few national issues gripped the U.S. public as much as the Simpson case.


President Bill Clinton took a break from working in the Oval Office to watch the verdict in his secretary's office, where there is a television set, said presidential spokesman Mike McCurry.


Clinton then wrote a statement, which said: "The jury heard the evidence and ren tioned panelists that reporters would seek them out. Jurors said they didn't want to talk to attorneys or the media.


Later, Simpson's lawyers and relatives addressed reporters in the courtroom. "Me and my family want to thank God, without whom, I don't know where we'd be,'' Jason Simpson said. He then read a statement from Simpson:


"I'm relieved that this incredible part of this nightmare of June 12, 1994, is over. My first obligation is to my young children, who will be raised the way Nicole and I had always planned.


"When things have settled a bit, I will pursue as my primary goal in life the killer or killers that have slaughtered Nicole and Mr. Goldman. They are out there somewhere.''


Fred Goldman, in a statement, said, "Last June 13th, '94, was the worst nightmare of my life. This is the second."


Hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse as the verdicts were read. Simpson's supporters cheered.


Simpson, 48, faced a maximum term of life in prison without parole if he had been convicted of the murders.


But as his trial progressed, it often seemed irrelevant that two young people were slashed to death.


The case wasn't just about murder. It was about fame and wealth, love and hate, fragile egos and racism. Simpson is black; his ex-wife and her friend white.


The prosecution case consumed nearly six months. Without a known eyewitness or a murder weapon, prosecutors spun a circumstantial evidence case built on the theory that Simpson had the motive and opportunity to kill, and left a literal trail of blood from the crime scene to his house.


At the crime scene were bloody footprints in his shoe size and blood drops bearing his genetic markers. Near the bodies was a glove in his size -- of a style identical to that of gloves his ex-wife bought him. At Simpson's house was the glove's apparent mate, smeared with incriminating evidence: blood with his genetic markers and those of the two victims. Also on it was a hair similar to Ms. Simpson's and fibers almost identical to those in the carpeting of Simpson's utility vehicle, a Bronco.


Simpson's blood was in his driveway and foyer, and a pair of bloody socks was in his bedroom. The blood contained O.J. and Ms. Simpson's genetic markers.


In his Bronco, there was more blood: on the steering wheel, the door, the center console and the carpeting.


The defense was simple: O.J. didn't do it. Just who did do it -- and why so much evidence pointed to Simpson -- was more problematic. His camp crafted a two-pronged defense: he was a victim of a frame-up and mishandling.


The defense argued that the glove at Simpson's house was planted by a racist rogue cop named Mark Fuhrman, who has wanted to nail Simpson since 1985, when Fuhrman -- an alleged hater of interracial couples -- responded to a domestic violence call at the Simpsons'.


The black-majority jury was urged to acquit Simpson to send a message that police corruption and racism would not be tolerated.