Today (Thursday, July 20, 2017) is the day that O.J. “The Juice” Simpson is going before the Nevada Board Of Parole Commissioners on live television. O.J. has been locked up in Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada for the past nine years (since 2008) for the 2007 kidnapping, assault, and armed robbery charges at a Las Vegas hotel. He was sentenced to 9 to 33 years in the pen,’ after he and two accomplices entered a L.V. hotel room and stole his own own sports memorabilia back from some guys who say they were held up at gunpoint.
Since his jail term began, correctional officers at the prison have described 70 year old retired NFL’er as a model prisoner. He’s never gotten into trouble and does what he’s supposed to do.
Today’s parole hearing will be his second. In 2013 O.J. was granted parole for some, but not all of the kidnapping, armed robbery, and assault charges. He’s maintained that he had no idea his accomplices had guns on them during the incident. Here’s what he told the board members at that time:
“I wasn’t there to hurt anybody. […] I just wanted my personal things, and I realize now that was stupid of me. I am sorry. I just wish I had never gone to that room. I wish I had just said, ‘Keep it,’ and not worry about it. […] All I can do about it since I’ve been here is be as respectful and as straightforward as I could be.”
After news spread of O.J.’s sentencing in 2008, many voiced that his time was way too steep for the crime and now O.J. is expected to have a dude many least expected to speak up for him at his hearing today.
His Unexpected Help For New Parole Hearing
Bruce Fromong, one of the victims in the armed robbery incident, who pressed charges against O.J., says he will be there to testify on O.J.’s behalf to help get him out of prison. Bruce said that although he felt O.J. should have gotten some type of punishment for the crime, he was shocked about the length of time he was given and believes it was payback from his 1994 acquittal in the murder trial of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman:
Via CNN: “It wasn’t about justice,” Fromong said in “O.J.: Made in America.” “They wanted the guy that got away with murder in 1994.”
Bruce Fromong and O.J. have now become friends after the 2007 incident:
Via CNN: Fromong has said he plans to testify at the parole hearing to advocate for Simpson’s release. “I’m not doing it because he’s my friend, which he is. I am doing (it) because (it’s) the right thing to do,” Fromong told CNN.
O.J.’s Other Surprise Help For Parole Hearing
Another surprise we may be seeing at today’s parole hearing is a blast from the past- O.J.’s eldest daughter, Arnelle Simpson. We haven’t seen her in years because she pretty much flies under the radar, but CNN has reported that she may be testifying on behalf of her father as well.
According to experts, O.J. has a very good chance of being granted parole because he’s a model prisoner and is 70 years old. He can still be denied though, but if he is granted parole, he won’t be released until October 2017.
O.J.’s parole airs at 1p.m. eastern time on ESPN and other cable networks and it’s stirring up a bunch of hype. Will you be watching?
