Former NFL football star O.J.
Simpson appears with his attorney,
Malcolm LaVergne, left, via video
for his parole hearing at the
Lovelock Correctional Center in
Lovelock, Nev., on Thursday, July
20, 2017. Simpson was convicted in
2008 of enlisting some men he barely
knew, including two who had guns, to
retrieve from two sports
collectibles sellers some items that
Simpson said were stolen from him a
decade earlier. (Jason Bean/The Reno
Gazette-Journal via AP, Pool)
O.J.
Simpson
is
triumphant,
others
are
devastated
as he
gets
parole
By KEN
RITTER
ap.org
LOVELOCK,
Nev. -
Barring
any
last-minute
snafus,
O.J.
Simpson
will
walk out
of
prison a
free man
in about
three
months,
having
persuaded
a Nevada
parole
board
the
bungled
hotel-room
heist he
pulled
nearly
10 years
ago was
a
monumental
error in
judgment
and one
he will
never
repeat.
Although
he still
adamantly
maintains
he was
trying
to
retrieve
his
personal
property
when he
barged
into a
hotel
room
with
five
other
men in
September
2007, he
acknowledged
repeatedly
Thursday
that it
was
something
he never
should
have
done.
"I
thought
I was
glad to
get my
stuff
back,
but it
just
wasn't
worth
it," he
told the
board.
"It
wasn't
worth
it, and
I'm
sorry."
After a
nationally
televised
hearing
that
clearly
revealed
the
public's
fascination
with
Simpson
continues,
four
parole
commissioners
voted
unanimously
to
release
him.
"Thank
you,
thank
you,
thank
you," he
said
quietly
as he
buried
his head
on his
chest
with
relief.
Then, as
he was
led down
a hall
and back
to
prison,
the Hall
of Fame
athlete
and 1995
murder
defendant
raised
his
hands
over his
head in
a
victory
gesture
and
said:
"Oh,
God,
oh!"
Some two
hours
earlier,
Simpson,
gray-haired
but
looking
trimmer
than he
has in
recent
years,
had
walked
stiffly
into a
small
hearing
room of
the
Lovelock
Correctional
Center
in rural
Nevada
dressed
in
jeans, a
light-blue
prison-issue
shirt
and
sneakers.
He
chuckled
as
parole
board
chairwoman
Connie
Bisbee
began
the
hearing
by
mistakenly
giving
his age
at 90
before
quickly
correcting
herself.
"Feels
like it
though,"
Simpson,
70, said
as
laughter
erupted.
Bisbee
and
three
other
parole
board
commissioners
were
gathered
in
another
hearing
room
about
two
hours
away in
Carson
City,
the
state's
capital.
They
questioned
Simpson
via
video.
Several
major TV
networks
and
cable
channels
-
including
ABC,
CBS,
NBC,
CNN,
Fox,
MSNBC
and ESPN
-
carried
the
proceedings
live,
just as
some of
them did
two
decades
ago
during a
famous
Ford
Bronco
chase
over
Southern
California
freeways
that
ended in
Simpson's
arrest
and
again
when a
jury in
his
murder
trial
returned
with its
not
guilty
verdict.
During
Thursday's
hearing,
the
charisma
and
charm
that
once
made
Simpson
one of
the most
popular
figures
in
American
pop
culture
was
clearly
on
display.
By turns
remorseful,
jovial
and
defensive,
he
heatedly
insisted
the
items he
and five
others
took
during
the
armed
robbery
in a Las
Vegas
hotel
room in
September
2007
were "my
stuff."
Asked
what he
planned
to do if
released,
Simpson
said he
would
move to
Florida
to be
close to
two of
his four
adult
children.
"I could
easily
stay in
Nevada,
but I
don't
think
you guys
want me
here,"
he
joked.
At one
point,
he set
off a
storm of
sarcasm
and
mockery
on
social
media
when,
assuring
commissioners
he would
stay out
of
trouble,
he said:
"I've
basically
spent a
conflict-free
life,
you
know."
He also
insisted
he never
meant to
hurt
anyone
during
the 2007
confrontation,
never
pointed
a gun
and
didn't
make any
threats
during
the
holdup
of two
sports
memorabilia
dealers.
"These
were
friends
of mine,
actually
guys who
helped
me move
and
store
some of
this
stuff,"
he said
of the
dealers,
Bruce
Fromong
and the
late
Alfred
Beardsley.
Fromong
testified
that was
true,
adding
it was
one of
the men
accompanying
Simpson
who
pointed
a gun at
him.
"He is a
good
man. He
made a
mistake,"
Fromong
said of
Simpson,
adding
that if
Inmate
No.
1027820
asks him
for a
ride
from
prison
when he
is
released
he will
be
there.
"I mean
that,"
he said
turning
to face
Simpson.
Simpson
was
widely
expected
to win
parole,
given
similar
cases
and his
good
behavior
behind
bars.
His
defenders
have
argued,
too,
that his
sentence
was out
of
proportion
to the
crime
and that
he was
being
punished
for the
murders
he was
acquitted
of in
Los
Angeles
in 1995,
the
stabbings
of
ex-wife
Nicole
Brown
Simpson
and her
friend
Ronald
Goldman.
Arnelle
Simpson,
at 48
the
eldest
of
Simpson's
four
children,
told the
board,
"We
recognize
that he
is not
the
perfect
man."
But she
said he
has been
"a
perfect
inmate,
following
all the
rules
and
making
the best
of the
situation."
Simpson
said he
has
spent
his time
in
prison
mentoring
fellow
inmates,
often
keeping
them out
of
trouble,
and that
he has
become a
better
person
during
those
years.
"I've
done my
time.
I've
done it
as well
and
respectfully
as I
think
anybody
can," he
told the
board.
Asked if
he was
confident
he could
stay out
of
trouble,
he
replied
that he
learned
a lot
from an
alternative-to-violence
course
he took
in
prison
and that
in any
case he
has
always
gotten
along
well
with
people.
An
electrifying
running
back
dubbed
"The
Juice,"
Simpson
won the
Heisman
Trophy
as the
nation's
best
college
football
player
in 1968
and went
on to
become
one of
the
NFL's
all-time
greats.
The
handsome
and
charming
athlete
was also
a
"Monday
Night
Football"
commentator,
sprinted
through
airports
in Hertz
rental-car
commercials
and
built a
Hollywood
career
with
roles in
the
"Naked
Gun"
comedies
and
other
movies.
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 a
bloody
glove
that
didn't
fit and
stirred
furious
debate
over
racist
police,
celebrity
justice
and
cameras
in the
courtroom.
Two
years
after
his
acquittal
Simpson
was
found
liable
in civil
court
for the
killings
and
ordered
to pay
$33.5
million
to
survivors,
including
his
children
and the
Goldman
family.
Last
year,
the case
proved
to be
compelling
TV all
over
again
with the
ESPN
documentary
"O.J.:
Made in
America"
and the
award-winning
FX
miniseries
"The
People
v. O.J.
Simpson:
American
Crime
Story."
The long
prison
sentence
that
resulted
from the
hotel-room
stickup
brought
a
measure
of
satisfaction
to some
of those
who
thought
Simpson
got away
with
murder.
Among
them
were Ron
Goldman's
sister,
Kim, and
their
father,
Fred.
"The
Goldmans
are
devastated,"
family
spokesman
Michael
Wright
said of
Thursday
ruling.