OJ Simpson's Parole Ends Early

OJ Simpson is a free man. The 74-year-old former football star, acquitted California murder defendant, and convicted Las Vegas armed robber was granted good behavior credits and discharged from parole effective Dec. 1, Nevada State Police spokeswoman Kim Yoko Smith said Tuesday. "Mr. Simpson is a completely free man now," said Malcolm LaVergne, Simpson’s lawyer in Las Vegas. Simpson declined an immediate interview, LaVergne said, and the attorney declined to talk about Simpson’s future plans, including whether he intends to remain in Nevada, the AP reports.

Simpson had told parole officials before his Oct. 1, 2017, release from prison that he planned to move to Florida. He instead moved to a gated community in Las Vegas, where he plays golf and frequently takes to Twitter to offer opinions about college and pro sports, especially football. Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of the double slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman—but was found liable for the deaths in 1997 by a California civil court jury that ordered him to pay $33.5 million to victims’ families. In a separate case more than a decade later, Simpson was convicted by a jury in Las Vegas and sentenced to prison for leading five men, including two with guns, in a 2007 confrontation with two sports collectibles dealers at an off-strip Las Vegas casino hotel.

Simpson served nine years in a Nevada prison for armed robbery. His original parole discharge date was Sept. 29, 2022. By last summer, that date had been moved up for good behavior to Feb. 9. The Nevada Board of Parole majority that ultimately granted his early discharge after a Nov. 30 hearing cut his term by about three more months for good behavior. While on parole, in 2019, Simpson sued a Las Vegas Strip resort that banned him two years earlier. He alleged unnamed employees defamed him by telling a celebrity news site he had been drunk, disruptive, and unruly. The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas argued Simpson couldn’t be defamed because his reputation was already tarnished by his criminal and civil trials. The two sides reached a March 31 out-of-court settlement. (More OJ Simpson stories.)