OJ Simpson granted Oct release

Disgraced star ‘a better person’ after 9 years behind bars

Disgraced American football legend OJ Simpson, whose 1995 acquittal for double murder polarized the nation, was granted release from prison on Thursday after serving nearly nine years behind bars for armed robbery.

A four-member parole board in the western US state of Nevada voted unanimously to free the 70-year-old Simpson after a tense public hearing broadcast live by news networks.

An emotional Simpson, who bowed his head and mouthed “thank you” to the parole commissioners, could walk free as early as October 1.

Simpson was found not guilty in 1995 of the grisly murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a male companion, Ron Goldman, in a racially charged case that transfixed the US and became known as the “Trial of the Century.”

But the former National Football League running back and actor was sent to prison in 2008 for his role in an armed robbery the previous year of two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas resort.

Simpson claimed at his trial that he was just seeking to recover personal items from the dealers and he repeated that explanation on Thursday.

“It was my property,” he said. “I wasn’t there to steal from anybody.”

Simpson initially did not express any remorse for his actions but eventually offered to the parole board that he was “sorry that things turned out the way they did.”

“I had no intent to commit a crime,” he said. “If I would have made a better judgment back then, none of this would have ever happened.”

Simpson appeared before the parole board by videoconference from Lovelock Correctional Center, the mediumsecurity prison where he has been serving his sentence.

Seated behind a plain wooden table, he was wearing standard-issue blue jeans, a light blue button-down shirt, a white T-shirt and white sneakers.

“My commitment to change is to be a better person,” Simpson said.

“Right now I’m at a point in my life where all I want to do is spend time, as much time as I can, with my children and my friends,” he said, before adding jokingly, “believe it or not I do have some real friends.”

Simpson was convicted in October 2008 of armed robbery, assault, kidnapping and other offenses after he and five associates – two of whom were armed – ambushed the two sports memorabilia dealers in a casino hotel room.

He was sentenced to a minimum of nine years in prison and a maximum of 33 years.