CARSON CITY, Nevada - O.J. Simpson was granted parole on Thursday and will be released from a Nevada prison in October, following an emotional hearing that centered on the botched armed robbery of his own mementos at a Las Vegas hotel that landed him behind bars for nine years.

A four-member panel of the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners voted unanimously to release the 70-year-old former NFL star turned actor, who is now best remembered as the defendant in a sensational double-murder trial that gripped America two decades ago.

Simpson participated by video feed from Lovelock Correctional Center, about 100 miles from the parole board's offices in Carson City, sitting at a wooden table next to his attorney dressed in a prison-issue denim shirt and dark pants.

A smiling Simpson, with close-cropped gray hair and looking thinner than he did at his last parole hearing in 2013, testified along with his daughter and one of the two robbery victims. He offered a rambling account of his actions, sounding defensive at times and apologetic at others.

A board spokesman said that Nevada law does not require an expression of remorse as criteria for winning parole, though he said it could be noted as a mitigating factor.

Simpson bowed his head and appeared to be in tears as the board voted unanimously to grant him parole, then stood and thanked the commissioners repeatedly, hands clasped.

"I've done my time, I've done it as well and respectfully as anyone can," Simpson said during the hearing. "None of this would have happened if I'd had better judgment."

Among reasons the commissioners gave for their decision was that Simpson had complied with prison rules during his incarceration, had no prior criminal convictions and posed a minimal safety risk to the public.

Simpson, known during his football career as "The Juice", said he was ready to spend time with his children and friends and could handle the public attention he would get.

"I'm not a guy that has conflicts in the street, I don't expect to have any when I leave here," he told the commissioners.

Reuters

(China Daily USA 07/21/2017 page2)