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O.J. Simpson will face a parole board Thursday regarding several remaining counts from a 2007 incident at a Las Vegas casino, for which he was sentenced to 33 years in prison. If the court decides in his favor, Simpson could be released from prison by October.
The hearing is unrelated to the 1994 killing of Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman, of which he was acquitted in 1995. That much more high-profile case returned to public attention last year when two prestigious TV projects dug into the trial and the attention it commanded.
Simpson, 70, was convicted in 2008 on 12 charges of attempted armed robbery and kidnapping stemming from a 2007 confrontation in a casino hotel room over sports memorabilia. As the New York Times reported at the time, Simpson burst into the hotel room of memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley on September 13, 2007, brandishing a gun. The dealers said they were led to believe someone was coming to browse the goods with the intent to purchase them and were confronted and threatened by Simpson and four other men. According to the Times, Simpson said his intent was to “retrieve” the items on offer, which he said were personal keepsakes and included photos of his family and a ceremonial football.
Simpson has been behind bars for the past eight and a half years, since going to prison in December 2008. After he vowed to appeal his conviction, his bid for a new trial was rejected in 2013 — though he was paroled that same year on five of the 12 counts for good behavior. He remained in prison for the rest of the charges.
How Simpson’s parole will be decided
Simpson will appear in front of the Nevada Parole Board in Carson City via videoconference from the Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nevada. The hearing is scheduled for 1 pm Eastern.
The Nevada Parole Board states that “all decisions to grant or deny parole require a majority of the Board,” which is made up of four members. Simpson will face the same four parole board members who were present at his 2013 parole hearing. If the panel is not unanimous, two additional commissioners will be tapped to weigh in, and the final decision will be announced on Thursday. Deliberations are expected to take no more than 20 to 30 minutes.
How to watch Simpson’s parole hearing
The Nevada Parole Board has created an official website to share information about Simpson’s parole hearing. It features several live-stream links, a public Dropbox for photos and notes, and several Q&A documents outlining the official procedures and expectations for the hearing.
You can live-stream the hearing via KTVU or NBC, or on Facebook.
