He is one of America’s most notorious criminal defendants, a self-confessed wife-beater, convicted robber and kidnapper. Last night OJ Simpson, 70, was granted early release from a maximum 33-year prison sentence after convincing a parole board that he is a “good person” who had lived a “conflict-free” life.
“I’m pretty much a guy who’s always gotten along with everybody,” the former American football hero and film star told the hearing in Carson City, Nevada.
“I’ve basically spent a conflict-free life. I’m not a guy who lived a criminal life,” he said, appearing via video link from the jail where he has served nine years for storming a Las Vegas hotel room with armed accomplices to snatch property that he said belonged to him from two memorabilia dealers.
Simpson was acquitted of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and her boyfriend Ron Goldman, 25, after an 11-month trial in 1995 that was one of the most-watched events in US history.
After the bungled prosecution Simpson was held liable for the couple’s deaths following a civil trial brought by their families, during which the court heard tapes of Simpson confessing that he beat his wife “black and blue” during their stormy seven-year marriage.
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He attracted further public scorn when he penned a bizarre book If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer in which he delivered what he described as a “hypothetical” account of how he might have committed the murder.
Simpson’s lawyer, Malcolm LaVergne, emphasised that the murder case had no bearing on the robbery conviction and consideration for parole — a fact acknowledged by the parole board.
“There was a 10,000lb elephant in that room and I think we were very successful in making sure that the elephant was asleep and that it was washed and it was clean and it never started rearing its head and knocking things around,” Mr LaVergne said.
Simpson, known to fans as “The Juice”, will be freed on October 1 and plans to return to live in Florida, where state bankruptcy laws mean that any financial assets he amasses cannot be seized by the Brown and Goldman families.
Yesterday’s hearing on the 2007 robbery case featured about 40 minutes of chat from Simpson as he answered questions from the parole board including: “What were you thinking?”
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Members noted that he had no prior criminal convictions, had behaved well in prison, attended classes including one on how to avoid violence, and had a low risk of re-offending.
He had missed 36 birthdays among his four children over nine years, he lamented, and just wanted to spend time with family and friends. “Believe it or not, I do have some friends,” he said, laughing.
His daughter Arnelle, 48, wept as she told the hearing: “We recognise that he isn’t the perfect man but he’s remorseful and we just want him to come home.”
Paul Callan, an attorney for Ms Brown Simpson’s family, said after the hearing that the parole board had “failed to consider the danger he poses to other women on his release, given his record on domestic violence”.
He alleged that Simpson had lied when he told the parole board that he had been unaware that his robbery accomplices had guns, citing testimony from Simpson’s own lawyer.