Carson City, NV — (Breaking news update posted at 2:55 p.m. ET) A Nevada parole board granted O.J. Simpson parole Thursday. “You are low risk to re-offend on our guidelines,” parole board member Tony Corda said. Simpson was sentenced in 2008 to up to 33 years in prison for kidnapping, armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. He could be released as early as October.
(Breaking news update posted at 2:15 p.m. ET) O.J. Simpson’s parole hearing has ended. The former football star is asking to be released from prison. Simpson has served nine years of a nine-to-33-year sentence for an armed robbery and kidnapping in Las Vegas in 2007. The parole board members are deliberating.
(Breaking news update posted at 1:58 p.m. ET)
Arnelle Simpson, O.J. Simpson’s oldest daughter, said her father was “my best friend and my rock” on Thursday at his parole hearing.”My dad recognizes that he took the wrong approach and he could have handled the situation differently,” she said. “Throughout this ordeal we have remained close, we have stayed strong.”
(Breaking news update posted at 1:54 p.m. ET)
O.J. Simpson at his parole board hearing apologized to the people of Nevada and said he has been humbled by his nine years behind bars. Simpson also said that he had missed his children’s birthdays and graduations, and did not expect to have any issues if released on parole.
“I’m not a guy that has conflicts on the street,” he said. “I’m not expecting to have one when I leave here.”
(Breaking news update posted at 1:32 p.m. ET)
O.J. Simpson gave a lengthy explanation of his 2007 armed robbery and kidnapping, deflecting blame and saying that his associates should have served time in prison for bringing a weapon.
“Unfortunately, they got a get-out-of-jail-free card when they said ‘O.J. told me (to do it),'” Simpson said. “Nothing I can do about that.”
Simpson also said he has taken two “Alternative to Violence” classes, which he said was “the most important course any person in this prison can take.”
(Breaking news update posted at 1:25 p.m. ET)
O.J. Simpson qualifies for a number of mitigating factors that would support his early parole and has been discipline free during imprisonment, parole board Chairman Connie Bisbee said Thursday.
Among the mitigating factors, she said, was that Simpson appears to have a stable post-release plan. An aggravating factor, she said, was that at the time of his offense, his victims said they were in fear for their safety.
Bisbee then opened the floor for panelists’ questions. Panel member Tony Corda asked Simpson about the crime: “What were you thinking?”
(Breaking news update posted at 1:13 p.m. ET)
O.J. Simpson’s parole hearing has begun as the former football star asks to be released from prison. Simpson has served nine years of a nine-to-33-year sentence for an armed robbery and kidnapping in Las Vegas in 2007.
Simpson appeared alert, engaged, and quick to smile, letting out a hearty laugh when Parole Board Chairman Connie Bisbee accidentally said he was aged 90. “I feel like it,” he said, laughing.
(Original story posted at 12:14 p.m. ET)
O.J. Simpson is scheduled to appear before a parole board in Nevada on Thursday in a hearing that will decide whether one of America’s most notorious prisoners will be released.
“Juice,” as he was known in his heyday, is nine years into a nine-to-33-year sentence after being convicted in a 2007 kidnapping and armed robbery at a Las Vegas hotel.
But Simpson is best known for his infamous 1995 acquittal in the grisly slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in what was known as the “trial of the century.”
If paroled, Simpson could be released as early as October, spokesman for the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners David Smith said.
Now 70 years old, the former NFL great and movie star has been described by authorities as a model prisoner at Lovelock Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in the Nevada desert.
“Simpson has stayed out of trouble there,” said Brooke Keast, spokeswoman for the Nevada prisons system. “We haven’t heard much from him.”
Thursday’s parole hearing comes amid renewed interest in Simpson’s story, which has been explored in the award-winning documentary “O.J.: Made in America” and the FX true-crime drama “The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
Though it’s been 22 years since that not guilty verdict, the murder trial’s themes of criminal justice and race, trust in police, celebrity and domestic violence remain remarkably resonant in modern culture.
“We act as if the story is O.J.,” journalist Celia Farber says toward the end of the “Made in America” documentary. “The story is O.J. and us.”
The robbery
Simpson and an associate were convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon for attempting to steal pieces of Simpson sports memorabilia at gunpoint.
At his 2008 sentencing, the Hall of Fame running back said he went to the room in The Palace Station hotel to reclaim family heirlooms and other personal items that had been taken from him. He also claimed he didn’t know his associates were armed.
The case, which featured a colorful cast of seedy characters, secret recordings and a Las Vegas heist, read like a low-budget parody of “Ocean’s 11,” CNN wrote at the time.
Simpson’s legal team argued that his sentence did not match the crime and that it was, in fact, a form of payback for his controversial acquittal in the deaths of Brown and Goldman.
Simpson has always denied that he killed Brown and Goldman. Their families won a wrongful death civil judgment against him in 1997.
At a parole hearing in 2013, Simpson said he regretted the Las Vegas kidnapping and robbery.
“I just wish I had never gone to that room. I wish I had just said ‘keep it’ and not worry about it,” he said. “All I can do about it since I’ve been here is be as respectful and as straightforward as I could be.”
How the parole hearing works
Simpson’s minimum sentence was nine years, so this year is the first that he could be released on parole. In the 2013 hearing, he was granted parole on 5 of the 12 counts against him. At Thursday’s hearing, set for 1 p.m. ET, he will have to make parole on the other seven counts in order to be released.
He will speak for about 30-45 minutes via video-conference from prison with four parole board commissioners who are in Carson City. Those members will then leave to deliberate.
If the four parole board members do not unanimously agree, then two other commissioners from Las Vegas will be called to vote. Simpson needs a simple majority vote to be granted parole. If the vote splits 3-3, parole will be denied and another hearing will be held in six months.
The parole board scores an inmate on several factors — the higher the total score, the greater the risk involved in releasing them. A person with a score of zero to five points is deemed low risk; six to 11 points, medium risk; and 12 or more, high risk. In 2013, Simpson scored three points overall.
Should Simpson again be judged a low risk, the board still has the latitude to deny him parole. Should that happen, Simpson would go before the parole board again before 2020, Smith said.
Bruce Fromong, a victim in the robbery and kidnapping, has said he plans to testify at the parole hearing to advocate for Simpson’s release. “I’m not doing it because he’s my friend, which he is. I am doing because the right thing to do,” Fromong told CNN.
