O.J. Simpson was charged with first degree murder in the state court in California. The jury found him "Not Guilty." A "not guilty" verdict means the state failed to prove the charges "beyond a reasonable doubt", which is the standard of proof in all criminal prosecutions. Criminal cases are brought on behalf of the citizens of a particular state or federal district, not by the victims or their families.
After O.J. Simpson was found not guilty in the criminal case, the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman sued him in the state (not federal) court in California for wrongfully causing their deaths. Civil lawsuits for wrongful death are tried for money damages, not to put the defendant in prison. Civil cases are brought in the name of individuals, not in the name of the State.
Different evidence was introduced in the O.J. Simpson civil and criminal trials. For example, although O.J. Simpson denied it, evidence was presented in the civil trial that O.J. Simpson owned a pair of Bruno Magli shoes that matched shoeprints left at the murder scene.
O.J. Simpson exercised his constitutional right against self-incrimination and chose not to testify in the criminal trial. All defendants in criminal cases have this right. In the civil trial, O.J. no longer had such a right because he had been found not guilty of murder and could not be tried again for it. He had to testify when the opposing side called him as a witness. Thus, the jury in the civil case got to hear O.J's testimony while the criminal jury did not.
In the criminal case, the jury got to see that the glove left at the scene of the crime did not fit O.J. Simpson. This experiment was not repeated for the civil jury. The jury in the criminal trial got a far stronger portrayal of the problems with the DNA and other scientific evidence in the case, and the poor management of the crime scene, than did the civil jury. And the criminal jury got to hear the false testimony of Los Angeles police officer Mark Furman, who later admitted lying and pleaded guilty to perjury.
Finally, the burden of proof in criminal and civil cases is different. In criminal cases, the standard is "proof beyond a reasonable doubt." There is also a presumption of innocence that stays with the defendant until and unless the jury returns a guilty verdict. In civil cases, the standard of proof is "by a preponderance of the evidence," which essentially means "more likely than not," or put another way, proof by 51% or more.
The jury's verdict in the civil case was not that O.J. Simpson was guilty of murder, but that he was liable for (which essentially means responsible for causing) the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
In light of the different evidence presented, burdens of proof and ultimate issues the juries were called upon to decide, the verdicts in the criminal and civil trials were not really all that inconsistent.
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