'I could have been a better Christian,' O.J. Simpson says at parole hearing
O.J. Simspon testifes before a parole board in Nevada. July 20,2017
A parole board on Thursday was considering whether to release O.J. Simpson after serving nearly nine years of a 33-year-sentence for assault with a deadly weapon and armed robbery.
“I realize in my nine years here, that I was a good guy on the street," the 70-year-old Simpson told the panel of parole board commissioners in Carson City, Nevada. “I was always a good guy, but I could have been a better Christian.”
Simpson was convicted in 2008 in Las Vegas after he and five other men who were carrying guns, confronted two sports memorabilia dealers and took pieces of memorabilia from them. He has said many times that he never knew his accomplices were carrying guns and that he would never pull a gun on someone. He repeated that theme throughout his lengthy testimony.
While Simpson's parole hearing involved in Nevada conviction, the country was set on edge in the 1990s, when the former football star was acquitted of the 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman.
“I’ve done my time. I’ve honored by verdict," he said. "I’ve not complained for nine years.”