December 14, 2021
-Forbes
OJ Simpson was discharged early from a five-year parole sentence tied to his role in a 2007 Nevada robbery, leading Simpson’s lawyer to call the former running back a “completely free man.”
KEY FACTS
Simpson—who was famously acquitted in 1995 after being charged with killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman—was sentenced in 2008 to 33 years in a Nevada prison for armed robbery, though he was let out on parole after just nine years in 2017 for good behavior.
Simpson, 74, was set to be discharged from parole in 2022, but he was let off early effective December 6, the Nevada State Police told the Forbes Tuesday.
Simpson’s early release was granted because of good behavior, the Associated Press reported.
Forbes has reached out to Simpson’s lawyer, Malcolm LaVergne.
TANGENT
Before Simpson was released on parole, he told officials he planned to move to Florida, though he told the AP in 2019 that friends later “persuaded” him to stay in Las Vegas. However, Florida’s then-Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) said she did not want the former felon serving his parole in Florida. LaVergne declined to comment to the AP as to whether or not Simpson will remain in Nevada.
KEY BACKGROUND
After Simpson’s acquittal on murder charges, he was found guilty in a 1997 civil case from Goldman’s family over the deaths. Simpson was ordered to pay the victims’ families $33.5 million, and sold many of his belongings in order to do so. In 2007, he led a group of men to rob a sports memorabilia dealer in Las Vegas, prosecutors said. Simpson claimed his intention was to take back belongings that had been “stolen” from him after his acquittal. In June, LaVergne said Simpson owes at least $60 million related to the 1994 deaths, a sum Simpson intends to keep fighting in court.
SURPRISING FACT
In August, Simpson told The Athletic that he has trouble being in his former hometown of Los Angeles because he “might be sitting next to whoever did it,” referring to Brown Simpson and Goldman’s deaths.
