Simpson gets parole, could be freed in Oct

Los Angeles, July 21

Disgraced American football legend OJ Simpson, whose 1995 acquittal for double murder polarised the nation, was granted his release from prison after serving nearly nine years behind bars for armed robbery. A four-member parole board in the western US state of Nevada voted unanimously to free the 70-year-old Simpson after a tense public hearing broadcast live by news networks.

An emotional Simpson, who bowed his head and mouthed “thank you” to the parole commissioners, could walk free as early as October 1. “I’ve done my time, you know?” he told the parole board, which deliberated in private for just 30 minutes before announcing its decision. “I’ve done it as well and as respectfully as I think anybody can.”

Simpson was found not guilty in 1995 of the grisly murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a male companion, Ron Goldman, in a racially charged case that transfixed America and became known as the “Trial of the Century”.  — AFP