July 26, 2017
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The Portland Observer
O.J. Simpson attends his parole hearing at Lovelock Correctional Center Thursday in Lovelock, Nev.
Simpson Granted Parole
Release may come as early as Oct. 1
(AP) — O.J. Simpson was
granted parole Thursday after
more than eight years in prison for
a Las Vegas hotel heist, success-
fully making his case in a nation-
ally televised hearing that reflect-
ed America’s enduring fascination
with the former football star.
Simpson, 70, could be a free
man as early as Oct. 1. By then,
he will have served the minimum
of his nine-to-33-year armed-rob-
bery sentence for a bungled at-
tempt to snatch sports memorabil-
ia and other mementos he claimed
had been stolen from him.
He got the four votes he need-
ed from the parole commissioners
who heard his case. In agreeing to
release him, they cited his lack of
a prior conviction, the low risk he
might commit another crime, his
community support and his re-
lease plans.
During the more than hour-long
hearing, Simpson forcefully insist-
ed — as he has all along — that he
was only trying to retrieve items
that belonged to him and never
meant to hurt anyone. He said he
never pointed a gun at anyone nor
made any threats during the crime.
“I’ve done my time. I’ve done
it as well and respectfully as I
think anybody can,” he said.
Inmate No. 1027820 made his
plea for freedom in a stark hearing
room at the Lovelock Correction-
al Center in rural Nevada as four
parole commissioners in Carson
City, a two-hour drive away, ques-
tioned him via video.
Simpson, gray-haired but look-
ing trimmer than he has in recent
years, walked briskly into the
hearing room dressed in jeans, a
light-blue prison-issue shirt and
sneakers. He laughed at one point
as the parole board chairwoman
mistakenly gave his age as 90.
The Hall of Fame athlete’s
chances of winning release were
considered good, given similar
cases and Simpson’s model be-
havior 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 two murders he was acquitted
of during his 1995 “Trial of the
Century” in Los Angeles, the stab-
bings of ex-wife Nicole Brown
Simpson and her friend Ronald
Goldman.
Before the hearing conclud-
ed, one of the dealers Simpson
robbed, Bruce Fromong, said the
former football great never point-
ed a gun at him during the con-
frontation, adding that it was one
of the men with him who did so.
Fromong said Simpson deserved
to be released.
Simpson’s
eldest
child,
48-year-old Arnelle Simpson, also
testified on his behalf, saying her
father is not perfect but 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 said that he has spent
his time in prison mentoring fel-
low inmates, often keeping others
out of trouble, and believes he has
become a better person during
those years.
Asked if he was confident he
could stay out of trouble if he’s
released, Simpson replied that he
learned much during an alterna-
tive-to-violence course he took
in prison and that in any case he
has always gotten along well with
people.
“I had basically spent a con-
flict-free life,” he said — a remark
that lit up social media with scorn-
ful and sarcastic comments given
the murder case and a raft of alle-
gations he abused his wife.
In a final statement to the board
he apologized again.
“I’m sorry it happened, I’m sor-
ry, Nevada,” he said. “I thought I
was glad to get my stuff back, but
it just wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t
worth it and I’m sorry.”
Several major TV networks and
cable channels — including ABC,
CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox, MSNBC
and ESPN — carried the proceed-
ings live, just as some of them did
two decades ago during the Ford
Bronco chase that ended in Simp-
son’s arrest, and again when the
jury in the murder case came back
with its verdict.
Simpson said if released he
plans to return to Florida, where
he was living before his incarcer-
ation.
“I could easily stay in Nevada,
but I don’t think you guys want
me here,” he joked at one point.
“No comment, sir,” one of the
parole board members said.
An electrifying running back
dubbed “The Juice,” Simpson
won the Heisman Trophy as the
nation’s best college football play-
er in 1968 and went on to become
one of the NFL’s all-time greats.
The handsome and charismatic
athlete was also a “Monday Night
Football” commentator, sprinted
through airports in Hertz rent-
al-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 slay-
ings 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 cam-
eras in the courtroom.
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