LOVELOCK (NEVADA): OJ 'The Juice' Simpson, one of the greatest basketball players, is all set to walk out of prison in three months after convincing a Nevada parole board that the hotel-room heist he pulled 10 years ago was a monumental error in judgement and one he does not intend to repeat. Stressing that he was only trying to retrieve his personal property when he barged into a hotel room with five other men in September 2007, he also added that it was something he should have never done.
Following a nationally televised hearing, four parole commissioners unanimously voted to release him. “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,” he old the board. During the hearing, held in a small room of the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada, OJ chuckled with parole board chairwoman Connie Bisbee began the hearing by giving his age as 90 before quickly correcting herself. OJ, 70, quickly quipped “Feels like it though” to a room full of laughter.
When asked what he intended 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. He also said that he never meant to hurt anyone during the 2007 confrontation, never pointed a gun and didn't make any threats during the hold-up of two sports memorabilia dealers. “These were friends of mine, actually guys who helped me move and store some of this stuff,” OJ said about dealers Bruce Fromong and the late Alfred Beardsley. Simpson's defenders argued 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.
His eldest of four children, Arnelle Simpson told the board, “We recognise that he is not the perfect man” but he has been a “perfect inmate, following all the rules and making the best of the situation.”
