Jackie Glass, the retired Clark County district judge who handed former football star O.J. Simpson a decades-long prison term in 2008 and later fronted the syndicated courtroom series “Swift Justice,” died August 28, 2026, in Las Vegas. She was 70.
Her daughter Rachel Wolfson, a comedian and stuntwoman, announced the death on Facebook alongside a photograph of the two of them. “Rip my rock, I don’t know how I’ll do this life without you,” Wolfson wrote, posting several more pictures of herself with her mother in the hours that followed.
No cause of death has been made public. Her husband, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, survives her, as do two daughters: Rachel, and Rebecca Wolfson, who sits as a Las Vegas Municipal Court judge.
The Sentencing That Defined Her Public Image
Across the country, Glass was best known as the judge who put Simpson behind bars. She imposed a term of up to 33 years, with parole possible after nine, at a December 5, 2008, hearing inside the Clark County Regional Justice Center. The armed robbery and kidnapping counts grew out of a September 2007 confrontation at the Palace Station casino, where Simpson and five other men had burst into a hotel room in an attempt to take sports memorabilia he said was his.
From the bench, Glass brushed aside the apology Simpson offered, told him his conduct had been arrogant as well as ignorant, and sent him to prison in shackles. “It was much more than stupidity,” she said.
It was not their first confrontation. Simpson breached the terms of his release in January 2008, and Glass responded by doubling his bail to $250,000 and rebuking him in open court, asking aloud whether arrogance, ignorance or some mix of the two explained his behavior.
Simpson won parole in 2017 and died of prostate cancer in April 2024 at 76.
From the Newsroom to the Bench
Born in New York in 1956, Glass arrived in Las Vegas in 1978, carrying a journalism degree from the University of Georgia and a reporting job at KORK-AM, 920. Crime coverage and anchor duties came next when KTNV-TV, Channel 13, hired her, and that beat pointed her toward the law.
She finished her law degree at the University of San Diego School of Law in 1984 and gained admission to the State Bar of Nevada that same year. Eighteen years in private practice followed, built on personal injury and criminal defense work; 12 of those years came at Wolfson & Glass, the firm she launched with her husband in 1990 and stayed with until 2002.
Voters elected her to Nevada’s Eighth Judicial District Court in 2002. Seated in 2003, she worked civil and criminal dockets for eight years before stepping down in 2011. Her most lasting mark may have been institutional. Glass helped establish the Clark County Mental Health Court in December 2003 and pulled together a task force on competency to stand trial, work that created the Clark County Competency Court on November 16, 2005. The National Association of Counties honored the competency program with an Achievement Award in 2007. In her final year on the bench she also oversaw the district’s drug and alcohol treatment courts. Craig Titus, a onetime professional bodybuilder, and his wife, Kelly Ryan, faced a murder prosecution that landed on her caseload.
A Second Act in Syndication
Glass traded the courtroom for a television studio in 2011, succeeding former Georgia prosecutor Nancy Grace as host of “Swift Justice,” the CBS syndicated show that resolved real small-claims disputes through arbitration. Grace had fronted Season 1, and Season 2 relocated the production from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Executive producer John Terenzio told reporters at the time that he was eager to introduce audiences to another original voice, and he predicted viewers would take to her. The series began its run in 2010 and ended in April 2012.
Tributes Pour in Across Nevada
Her husband, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, spoke publicly about her death for the first time during an interview at his office on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. He described Glass as a wife, mother and mediator who, he said, “loved helping people.”
A legal career that touched five decades drew tributes from around Nevada over the weekend. Former Clark County District Attorney David Roger, who prosecuted the Simpson case in Glass’ courtroom, said in a statement that she was a respected jurist and, more meaningfully, a warm and friendly person.
On X, Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley described herself as heartbroken and said she felt as though she had lost a sister. She and Glass had entered the legal profession around the same time, Berkley noted, and she had marveled at everything Glass achieved. The mayor extended the city’s condolences to Steve Wolfson and to her municipal court colleague, Rebecca Wolfson.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said the news left her stunned and grieving. On X, she called Glass an inspiring role model who devoted her life to seeking justice for others and whose light was extinguished too soon.
A statement from Clark County described Glass as a pillar of the legal community who helped shape southern Nevada’s justice system, but said that above all she was a beloved wife and mother. The Nevada Broadcasters Association & Foundation described her legacy as an extraordinary one reaching across broadcasting, journalism, law and public service, and said her career touched countless lives.