A somber O.J. Simpson told a Nevada parole board he’s missed his sister’s funeral and his two daughter’s college graduation over the last five years he’s been held at a state prison after being convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery and other charges for busting into a Las Vegas casino and trying to reclaim items he felt were rightfully his.
Simpson often choked back tears as he spoke of his incarceration, describing it as “somewhat illuminating at times and painful a lot of times," according to news reports.
The 66-year-old NFL Hall of Famer is now up for parole and could learn his fate in as little as two weeks, when the parole board is expected to come back with its decision on reducing his term. Even if a majority of the seven board members vote in his favor, the former USC star will still have to serve at least four more years of his up to 33 year sentence before being released.
Simpson portrayed himself as a model inmate since his arrival, saying he had promised prison officials "I would be the best prisoner they have ever had here, and I think, for the most part, I've kept my word on that."
Simpson further distinguished himself from current inmates by telling parole board members: "The difference between all of their crimes and mine is that they were trying to steal other people's property, they were trying to steal other people's money. My crime was trying to retrieve, for my family, my own property."
Nearly 20 years after the killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, and his subsequent acquittal on murder charges, Simpson still remains a polarizing figure.
His conviction in the Las Vegas case came on the 13th anniversary of the yet-unsolved California murders.
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