O.J. Simpson to be released

Disgraced American football star O.J. Simpson, whose racially charged 1995 murder trial riveted the nation, is expected to be released from prison as early as Monday after nine years behind bars for armed robbery.

Simpson, 70, plans to relocate to Florida following his release from the Lovelock Correctional Center, the medium-security prison in Nevada where he has been serving his sentence, said his lawyer Malcolm LaVergne.

“He is getting very, very excited,” LaVergne told KTNV-TV in Las Vegas. “He’s feeling very upbeat.”

Simpson was granted parole at a hearing in July and his earliest release date was set for October 1. Since that falls on a Sunday, Simpson is expected to be freed no earlier than Monday, according to his lawyer and media reports.

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 case that transfixed the country and became known as the “Trial of the Century.”