O.J. Simpson ‘completely free man’ after early release from parole

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Fallen football legend and accused murderer O.J. Simpson is officially a “completely free man” after early release from parole supervision stemming from his 2008 armed robbery and kidnapping conviction in Las Vegas. 

Simpson, convicted in October 2008, served nine years in prison after leading five men — including two with guns — into a confrontation with several sports collectible dealers trying to sell some of his items and mementos, which the former NFL star claimed had been stolen. 

Simpson was released in October 2017, and moved back to Vegas, per CBS News. 

He was scheduled to be released from his parole requirements in February 2022, but with good behavior credits, the parole board discharged him early. 

“Mr. Simpson is a completely free man now,” Malcolm LaVergne, his Las Vegas attorney, told the Associated Press.

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Simpson was infamously acquitted of the grisly murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in 1995. The case, which riveted America for months, became known as “The Trial of the Century.” 

In a 2019 interview with the Associated Press, Simpson said he and his children don’t speak about that June night.

“We don’t need to go back and relive the worst day of our lives,” he said as the killings’ anniversary approached. “The subject of the moment is the subject I will never revisit again. My family and I have moved on to what we call the ‘no negative zone.’ We focus on the positives.”

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While Simpson was acquitted of murder charges, he was never seen as innocent in the eyes of many, including the families of the victims. Kim Goldman told AP of her brother: “I don’t suffocate in my grief. But every milestone that my kid hits, every milestone that I hit, you know, those are just reminders of what I’m not able to share with my brother and what he is missing out on.”

The Goldman and Brown families won a wrongful death judgment against Simpson in 1997. He was ordered to pay $33.5 million to the families, but while much of Simpson’s property was seized and auctioned, the full financial debt remains unpaid. 

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