O.J. Simpson was granted parole Thursday after more than eight years in prison for a Las Vegas hotel heist, successfully making his case in a nationally televised hearing that reflected America’s fascination with the former football and movie star.
Simpson, 70, has served almost nine years of a nine-to-33-year prison sentence for the 2007 armed robbery and kidnapping in Las Vegas. He appeared before the four-member Nevada Parole Board via video link.
In the 1990s, Simpson, a Heisman Trophy winner and NFL star who parlayed his sporting fame to movies, television, and commercials, went from one of American’s best-known figures to one of its most notorious. He captured international headlines following his dramatic arrest in 1994 following the slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson, his former wife, and Ron Goldman, her friend. Simpson was acquitted of the killings the next year, following an 11-month trial dubbed the “trial of the century.”
Tom Tolbert joined us in studio and gave his take on Simpson and why the American public is still so fascinated with him.
“This guy never goes away,” Tolbert said regarding Simpson. “He’s in prison for nine years and he still doesn’t go away. You see how many channels the parole hearing was on? I mean it’s unbelievable. I mean the first time around, the double-murder case and the trial, that was just fascinating for a bunch of different reasons. Parole hearing not fascinating one bit.”