Orenthal James "OJ" Simpson has officially been released from Lovelock Correctional Center in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017, at 12:08 AM after serving 9 years in prison. Rumors started to circulate about OJ getting released on Monday, but the prison was concerned with a media circus and therefore chose to quietly release OJ early this morning. OJ will be on supervised parole for the next 5 years.
On October 3, 2008, Simpson was found guilty of kidnapping and armed robbery for entering a Las Vegas hotel room with a group of men and stealing sports memorabilia at gunpoint. OJ admitted to taking the items but claimed that they were stolen from him by a known associate. OJ's co-defendants all took plea deals and he was sentenced to 33 years with a possibility of parole after 9 years. Many believed that OJ's harsh sentence was payback for being found not guilty of killing his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in the 1995 "Trial of the Century". According to polls, 83% of white Americans and 57% of black Americans felt that Simpson was actually guilty. Simpson went on to lose the wrongful death civil case with Ron Goldman's family, where the family was awarded $33.5 million. The family was unable to recover hardly any of that amount from OJ. The items in question that resulted in his recent jail sentence were allegedly hidden from Goldman's family to avoid the civil suit.
