Former US football star and actor OJ Simpson has been granted parole by the parole board after nine years in a Nevada prison.
Simpson, who was acquitted for a double murder in 1995, is serving time for armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and 11 other charges.
The sentence, which carries a maximum of 33 years, stems from a 2007 confrontation at a Las Vegas hotel.
The 70-year-old had said he was only trying to reclaim his possessions.
The former Hall of Fame running back was found guilty in 2008 – exactly 13 years to the day after he was famously acquitted for the killings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.
He was convicted in October 2008 on a litany of charges, including armed robbery, assault and kidnapping, and sentenced to at least nine years in prison, and a maximum 33-year term.
Some observers, including Simpson’s lawyer, described the jury’s decision as “payback” for the 1995 acquittal.
As part of the process of obtaining the money they were owed from the civil case, the Goldman family was in 2007 awarded the rights to If I Did It, Simpson’s controversial ghost-written book describing how he would have committed the murders, had he been responsible.
They republished it with new commentary but significantly shrank the size of the word “if” on the cover, and added the subtitle Confessions of the Killer.
And while the 1994 murders remain unsolved, that is how many Americans see “OJ” today.
