Simpson out of jail after 8 years
UNITED STATES: OJ Simpson was granted parole on Thursday and will be released in October following an emotional hour-long hearing that centered on a botched armed robbery in a Las Vegas hotel room that sent him to prison for nine years.
A four member Nevada parole board voted to release 70-year-old former star athlete, who was acquitted in a sensational double-murder trial that gripped America two decades ago.
Simpson participated by live video feed from Lovelock Correctional Center, about 161km from the parole board’s office in Carson City, in the hearing that included testimony from his daughter and one of the robbery victims.
He bowed his head and appeared to be in tears as the four-member board voted unanimously to grant parole. He then stood and clasped his hands as he thanked them repeatedly.
‘‘I’ve done my time, I’ve done it as well and respectfully as anyone can,’’ Simpson said during his testimony. ‘‘None of this would have happened if I’d had better judgment.’’
Among reasons the board gave for its decision was that Simpson had complied with prison rules during his incarceration, had no prior criminal convictions and posed a minimal safety risk to the public.
Simpson said he was ready for life outside prison, to spend time with his children and friends and could handle the public attention he would get.
“I’m not a guy that has conflicts in the street, I don’t expect to have any when I leave here” he told the parole board.
Board members heard testimony from Simpson’s adult daughter, Arnelle, and from Bruce Fromong, one of two sports memorabilia dealers he was convicted of robbing at gunpoint on September 13, 2007.
Fromong said Simpson was “a good man” who made a mistake and should now be released as he deserved “a second chance.”
The board said it had received hundreds of letters in support of, and opposing, Simpson’s parole.
The board stressed it did not take into consideration the notoriety still surrounding Simpson’s acquittal for charges he murdered his wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman and a civil court decision that found him liable for the deaths and ordered him to pay US$33.5 million in damages.
Simpson, whose on-field nickname was ‘‘The Juice,’’ was an ideal candidate for parole, based on his conduct in prison and other typical factors, according to legal experts.
Simpson won the Heisman Trophy, the award for the top college football player, in 1968 while attending the University of Southern California. He played more than a decade in the National Football League, becoming the first player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season.
Following his playing career, Simpson became known for his work as a pitchman in television commercials for companies like Hertz and for roles in movies like the comedy The Naked Gun.
All of that came crashing down with his arrest in the 1994 slayings and his trial, a gavel-to-gavel live-TV sensation that transfixed viewers with its testimony about the bloody glove that didn’t fit and stirred furious debate over racist police, celebrity justice and cameras in the courtroom.
Last year, the case proved to be compelling TV all over again with the ESPN documentary OJ: Made in America and the award-winning FX miniseries The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story.
In 1997, Simpson was found liable in civil court for the two killings and ordered to pay $33.5 million to survivors, including his children and the Goldman family.
A decade later, he and five accomplices — two with guns — stormed a hotel room and seized photos, plaques and signed balls, some of which never belonged to Simpson, from two sports memorabilia dealers.
Simpson was convicted in 2008, and the long prison sentence brought a measure of satisfaction to some of those who thought he got away with murder.
A Goldman family spokesman said Goldman’s father and sister, Fred and Kim, would not be part of the hearing and feel apprehensive about ‘‘how this will change their lives again should Simpson be released.’’
The now-retired district attorney who prosecuted Simpson for the heist, David Roger, has denied Simpson’s sentence was ‘‘payback’’ for his murder acquittal.
AP