The long ordeal is finally over. O.J. Simpson was granted parole Thursday after almost 9 years in prison for a bungled heist of sports memorabilia that he clamed had been stolen from him.
Simpson, now 70, was sentenced to a 9-33 year term in prison. In October, he will have served the minimum 9 years of that sentence. The vote to grant him parole was unanimous.
Simpson continued to emphasize that he was only trying to “get [his] stuff back” and never meant to hurt anyone. He acknowledged that recovering his items, though, “just wasn’t worth it.”
More than a few observers have said that his sentence of 9-33 years was way out of proportion to the crime. OJ was being punished, they said, for being acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
One of the memorabilia dealers Simpson robbed, a man named Bruce Fromong, appeared before the parole board and backed up Simpson’s claims that he never pointed a gun at him during the confrontation. He said Simpson deserved to be released.
