Disgraced ex-football star and celebrity, OJ Simpson has been granted parole by the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners on Thursday and could be released from prison as early as October after serving nine years of his 33 years sentence for robbery and kidnapping, stemming from an unlawful attempt to recover sports memorabilia from two collectors.
The Hall of Famer betrayed emotions and smiled as each of the four delivered their votes on whether he should be freed.
Simpson, 70, got the four votes he needed from the parole commissioners who heard his case.
In granting him parole, they cited his lack of prior conviction, the less likelihood he would commit another crime, his community support and his release plans.
During the more than hour-long hearing, Simpson said he regretted his action and pleaded for a second chance.
He said, “I’ve done my time. I’ve done it as well and respectfully as I think anybody can.”
At the hearing, one of the dealers Simpson robbed, Bruce Fromong, said the former football great never pointed a gun at him during the robbery, saying that it was one of the men with him who did.
Fromong expressed the view that Simpson deserved to be released. “He is a good man. He made a mistake,” he said, adding the two remain friends. And that if released, he was ready to pick him up from prison if he called him.
Before him, Simpson’s eldest child, 48-year-old Arnelle Simpson, also testified on his behalf, saying her father is not perfect but that he realizes what a mistake he made and has spent years paying for it.
“We just want him to come home, we really do,” she said.
Simpson himself told the commissioners how he has spent his time in prison mentoring fellow inmates, often keeping others out of trouble, and believes he has become a better person during those years.
A thunder-bolt running back, nicknamed “The Juice,” Simpson won the Heisman Trophy as the nation’s best college football player in 1968 and later went on to become one of the NFL’s greatest stars.
He was also a “Monday Night Football” commentator and had built a Hollywood career, featuring in the “Naked Gun” comedies and other movies.
But his world crashed with his arrest in the 1994 for allegedly murdering his wife and her boyfriend.
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