O.J. Simpson's latest parole hearing reportedly set for July 20
The Washington Post
June 21, 2017 18:41 MYT
June 21, 2017 18:41 MYT
Nine years into the 15-year sentence he received in 2008 for a bizarre armed robbery attempt to recover sports memorabilia in Las Vegas, O.J. Simpson is again facing parole.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Simpson, who is serving his time at Lovelock Correctional Center, will remotely be interviewed by the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners on July 20 in Carson City, Nevada. If the board decides Simpson satisfied the necessary requirements to be granted parole, THR reports the former football star could be released in October.
Simpson, who was infamously found not guilty in 1995 of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, sat for his first parole hearing in 2013. Describing himself as a model prisoner at the time whom other inmates come to for guidance, Simpson was granted parole on two of his 12 charges stemming from the botched heist that saw Simpson hold up two sports memorabilia dealers with guns to retrieve personal mementos in their possession.
While that parole hearing win shaved a few years off Simpson's sentence, it still left him with a mandatory four years, the last of which the 69-year-old is serving as he awaits next month's hearing.
Meanwhile, media attention on the upcoming hearing will reportedly be high thanks to a pair of television series that renewed interest in Simpson's story last year.
"We've had close to 50 different requests for media access to this hearing," Nevada hearings examiner David Smith told THR on Tuesday.
The hearing will only take place on closed-circuit television, however images from it will likely make the media rounds. Smith told THR that a pool feed to reporters will be available.
As for Simpson's chances, well, that's up for debate.
"I've seen [inmates] with no issues turned down. I've seen others where I've thought 'no way' get to go home early," a Nevada Department of Corrections employee told Sports Illustrated in February. "They make up their own minds."
For its part, however, Sports Illustrated counts Simpson's chances for early release as better than average. Basing their assessment on the purported points system the parole board uses in Nevada that assigns scores to inmates based on what they say are "11 largely objective factors," reporters Michael McCanna and Jon Werthum conclude Simpson is likely to be deemed an even lower-risk candidate for parole than he was in 2013.
"Indications are strong that this will be the year O.J. Simpson will be released from prison," the pair wrote in SI. "As for just how free he will be, that's another matter entirely."
#armed robbery attempt
#Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners
#Nicole Brown Simpson
#O J Simpson
#Ron Goldman