OJ Simpson granted parole
OJ Simpson, the disgraced former American Football star, was overcome with emotion last night after he was granted parole by a Nevada panel, having served almost nine years of his 33-year sentence for armed robbery. Simpson, 70, may be free by October.
OJ SIMPSON last night shed tears of joy as he was granted parole by a panel in Nevada, having served almost nine years of his 33-year sentence for armed robbery.
Simpson, 70, struggled to compose himself as the four-person panel delivered their verdict, before looking up to smile at his daughter Arnelle and friend Bruce Fromong – who both spoke to defend the fallen sports star. He will walk free possibly as soon as October.
Simpson, perhaps the most famous prisoner in the US, told the Nevada hearing that he had lived “a conflictfree life” and said he deeply regretted the September 2007 incident when, believing that he was reclaiming stolen property, he led a group of armed men into a budget hotel room in Las Vegas – raging back into the headlines over a decade after he was sensationally acquitted for murder.
But Mr Fromong, the victim of the robbery, said that he and Simpson had been friends for 27 years and told the panel that he had made his peace with the former American football star.
He said that Simpson had never pulled a gun on him, and it was one of his associates who acted with violence.
“We all make mistakes. OJ made his,” said Mr Fromong. “It’s time for him to go home to his family and his friends. This is a good man who made a mistake.
“And if he called me tomorrow and said: ‘Bruce, I’m getting out – will you pick me up?’ I would be there.”
Mr Fromong turned to Simpson, sitting behind him in his denim prison shirt and jeans, wiping away tears. “I mean that, buddy,” he added.
Simpson depicted himself as a model prisoner, having “done my times as well and as respectfully as anyone here. I have not complained for nine years,” he said.
“All I have done is tried to be helpful, to tell people in here to bide their time and not do anything to aggravate their situation.”
He told the hearing in Lovelock, Nevada that he had been unfaithful, but that he always considered himself “a good guy”.
“If I had made a better judgment back then none of this would have happened,” he said. “I am not making excuses.
But I should never have allowed these alleged security guys to get involved.”
He apologised to the state of Nevada, and begged to be allowed to return to live with his family – two children with his first wife, Marguerite Whitley, and
‘I have done my times as well and as respectfully as anyone here. I have not complained for nine years’
two with Nicole Brown, who was murdered in 1994 with Ron Goldman. Simpson’s trial for the murders, and subsequent acquittal, was described as “the trial of the century”.
His eldest daughter Arnelle, 48, pleaded with the court to release him.
“As a family, we know he is not the perfect man,” she said. “But the last nine years he has been the perfect inmate, and made the best of the situation… we just want him home.”
Simpson told the panel he is planning to reunite with his two youngest children, Sydney and Justin, in Florida.