New Yorkers captivated, divided by O.J. parole decision
More than two decades have passed since his infamous murder trial, but O.J. Simpson is still capable of captivating and dividing the public.
“Wow,” exclaimed Wayne Carson, 60, who was having a drink at The Long Room in Midtown when a Nevada parole board said Simpson could be released after serving nine years in prison on an armed-robbery conviction.
“I think he should’ve stayed in. He’ll be in the talk shows now.”
But George Lopez, 26, who was sitting in the same restaurant, disagreed.
“If he was a model citizen, it shows he really wanted to get his parole. Everyone should get an opportunity to get better at life,” Lopez said. “He looked good. He looks like he’s better [and can] go back and reform himself.”
Mike Starr, 43, of Westchester, reminisced about Simpson’s 1995 murder trial, when the world seemed to stand still every time O.J. was on TV.
“Back then, when the first trial was actually going on, the day stopped almost every day when they televised it,” he said.
“Whatever you were doing, you would drop it, and there were 30 people huddling around the TV. It was a phenomenon.”
Starr said Simpson’s conviction wasn’t “fair.”
“Free The Juice! Free O.J.! It’s more fun when he’s out,” Starr said.
But his brother, Danny Starr, 49, of New Jersey, had a different take.
“I think he should sit in prison for the rest of his life,” he said. “The reality is he should have gotten justice for killing his wife so I think it’s perfectly fair for him to be in jail. Everyone knows he did it.”
At the Pig ‘N’ Whistle pub on West 48th Street, one man ran around the premises shouting, “The Juice is loose! The Juice is loose!” after the board’s vote was announced.
“After all this time, we need to just let him go already,” said Nelson Martino, 47, who was also at the bar.
“He’s so old and this whole thing is done. Let’s just move on. Leave him alone at this point. Enough’s enough already.”
Matt Franjola, 48, said he thinks Simpson will make good on his vow not to violate parole.
“He’s 70 years old — what’s he going to do now?” he said. “If he was your average Joe, he would’ve gotten four years.”
Franjola also remembered where he was when Simpson was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.
“I was waiting for the Long Island Rail Road to come home and the bartender wouldn’t put it on.”
Franjola hopped on a train — and a conducter delivered the verdict over a loudspeaker.
“We [pulled] into Woodside station and the conductor said, ‘Not guilty’ and the whole train reacted,” he recalled.
Franjola said he’s eager to see Simpson be interviewed after his release.
“I think he’s gonna be a big, big interview,” he said. “He’s so crazy and you want to hear this narcissistic lunatic babble.”
Additional reporting by Danika Fears