Former NFL star O.J. Simpson granted parole
O.J. Simpson will be released from prison in October after being granted parole.
A four-person panel for Nevada Board of Prisons ruled unanimously on Thursday that former NFL star Simpson – who was famously acquitted of the 1994 double murder of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman – would receive parole for his 2008 conviction for armed robbery/kidnapping.
The parole hearing saw Simpson speak to the board, but more notably it saw his daughter, Arnelle Simpson, simply ask for her father back.
“We just want him to come home,” she said. “We really do, we want him to come home and I know in my heart that he is very humbled throughout the situation.”
But it may have been even more striking that one of Simpson’s victims of the 2007 incident, Bruce Fromong, actually appeared in court and spoke on the former Buffalo Bills running back’s behalf.
He said Simpson never “held a gun on me” and that if Simpson was released he would be there tomorrow for him.
“We’ve heard from you and from your victim, the question here as with all parole hearings is whether or not you have served enough time in prison in this case,” one member of the board said.
“Considering all of these factors my vote is to grant your parole effective when eligible.”
Simpson is set to leave prison on October 1, meaning he will have served the minimum in prison for the crime he was convicted of in 2008.
He is serving a conviction that could have spanned as long as 33 years for robbery, assault and kidnapping with a deadly weapon stemming from a 2007 incident in which the former USC star took back his own memorabilia in a Las Vegas hotel room.
The board in 2013 granted Simpson parole on the burglary count, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of robbery, but he was not eligible for parole on other counts related to use of a deadly weapon until 2017.
