OJ Simpson to be released on Nigerian independence day after being granted parole in Nevada

FORMER football star and actor OJ Simpson has been granted parole by the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners after serving nine years in prison for a variety of offences including armed robbery and kidnapping.

Once a doyen of the US entertainment industry, Simpson fell from grace in 1995 after he was arrested for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole and her partner Ron Goldman. Although he was found innocent of the murder, he became a pariah and was arrested again in 2007 after a sting operation during which he was apprehended for trying to recover sports memorabilia from two collectors.

He was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to jail for 33 years after being found guilty of 12 offences including kidnapping and armed robbery. Earlier today, four members of the parole board, two make and two female, ruled that he will now be allowed to leave prison on or after October 1.

After the ruling, Simpson reacted emotionally and with a smile as each of the four delivered their votes on whether he should be freed after serving nearly nine years of his sentence. An apologetic Simpson, who has not been publicly seen since being granted parole in a 2013 hearing on lesser charges, appeared far slimmer and more fit than he did then, wearing dark slacks and a blue button-up shirt over a white T-shirt.

Simpson said: “I’ve come here and spent nine years making no excuses about anything. I am sorry things turned out the way they did and I tell inmates all the time don’t complain about your grind, just do your time.

"I believe in the jury system and I have done my time and I’d like to get back to my friends. Believe it or not I do have some friends and I don’t think anyone could have honoured this institution better.”

In addition to his lawyer, Malcolm LaVergne, his elder daughter, Arnelle, attended the hearing, along with his sister, Shirley Baker and his friend Tom Scotto. Bruce Fromong, who described himself as a friend of 27 years, was one of the victims of the crime and read a statement on Simpson’s behalf, pointing out that it was time for him to go home to his family and friends.

Answering questions about the sting incident that resulted in his incarceration, Simpson stressed that the men he was with were armed and that he was not. He also stated that he had taken a course during his time in prison on alternatives to violence and told one commissioner that he had been asked many times to mediate situations involving his fellow inmates.