*O.J. Simpson is about to be a free man.
At age 70, Simpson – aka Inmate No. 1027820 – was granted parole after pleading with the four member board Thursday to set him free.
The four-member panel who voted unanimously for Simpson’s release cited his support in the community and stable plans after life in prison.
Simpson could be released as early as October 1 after serving 9 years behind bars for armed robbery in a hotel room heist. By then, he will have served the minimum of his nine-to-33-year sentence.
“I’ve done my time. I’ve done it as well and respectfully as I think anybody can,” Simpson told the board in the nationally televised hearing, which lasted just over an hour.
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Looking thinner than in previous court appearances and dressed in a light-blue prison-issue shirt and sneakers, Simpson said he never pointed a gun at anyone nor made any threats during the robbery that put him in prison, and he insisted that nearly all of the mementos he saw in the two memorabilia dealers’ hotel room belonged to him.
“In no way, shape or form did I wish them any harm,” he said, adding that he later made amends with the two victims.
His supporters have argued that his sentence did not fit the crime and that he was being punished for the double murder he was acquitted of during his 1995 case involving the stabbing deaths of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Arnelle Simpson, O.J. Simpson’s oldest daughter, said her father was “my best friend and my rock” at the parole hearing.”My dad recognizes that he took the wrong approach and he could have handled the situation differently,” she said. “Throughout this ordeal we have remained close, we have stayed strong.”
Simpson said that should he be paroled, he plans to return to Florida, where he was living before his incarceration.
The hearing was streamed live right here on EURweb and several TV networks and cable channels also carried the hearing live, including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox, MSNBC and ESPN.
