O.J. Simpson Asks Parole Board For Leniency

O.J. Simpson regrets the night that he robbed a Las Vegas hotel room for some sports memorabilia.

The former football player appeared in front of a parole panel today to plea for leniency. Simpson, who has been at the Lovelock Correction Center since 2008, told the panel that he wished he had “never went in that room.”

Simpson, who was sentenced the 33 years for charges like kidnapping, robbery and burglary, is trying to get the board to reduce his sentence. Simpson won’t be getting out anytime soon but it is possible that the board will allow Simpson to serve his sentences concurrently instead of one at a time.

H. Leon Simon, who is handling the appeal, told Yahoo News: “It doesn’t open the cell door… He’d just start serving the consecutive sentences.”

Simpson told the board that he has been a model inmate and has even by mentoring the other prisoners. Simpson also said that his crime was different because he was trying to steal his own posessions and not other people’s belongings.

Simpson said: “The difference between all of their crimes and mine is, 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… Make no mistake I would give it all back to these guys. They can have it all to get these five years of my life back.”

If the board rules against Simpson he will still have a chance of early release. The former football player is hoping to get a re-trial on the grounds that his lawyer, Yale Galanter, had a conflicting interest in the case.

Do you think O.J. Simpson is “different” than the other prisoners?