O.J. Simpson Says His Lawyer Misled Him, Wants Retrial

O.J. Simpson wants a retrial. It’s been a while since we’ve heard from him, despite the fact that this week marks 20 years since his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, was found murdered, as reported earlier in Inquisitr.

Many will remember the images of O.J. Simpson driving his white Ford Bronco, leading authorities on a chase for hours before he was taken into custody as a suspect in the murder. O.J. was eventually found not guilty in the murder case, though he later lost a wrongful death civil case brought by her family. Wisely, O.J. Simpson has not asked for a retrial in the Nicole Brown Simpson case.

Simpson was later charged – and eventually found guilty – of kidnapping and armed robbery in a bizarre case that involved sports memorabilia that the former Buffalo Bills running back claimed belonged to him. O.J. is currently serving nine to 33 years for that crime, according to a report on Fox. It’s for this case that O.J. Simpson is requesting a retrial, claiming his lawyer misled him.

Simpson has made repeated attempts to get out of prison, claiming that he doesn’t want to die in prison like ‘jailhouse scum.’

In one of the weirder incidents – if a Hall of Fame football player breaking into someone’s hotel room to steal sports memorabilia or the countless oddities of the Nicole Brown Simpson murder case aren’t weird enough – O.J. was caught stealing cookies while in prison. Apparently, his larcenous habits aren’t limited to valuable sports paraphernalia – or maybe the cookies belonged to him, too, and those facts just haven’t come out yet.

O.J.’s latest attempt to get out of prison early comes in the form of claiming that his lawyer lied to him and asking for a retrial on that basis. This isn’t the first time Simpson has attempted this type of strategy. According to a BBC report from 2013, O.J. requested a retrial on the basis that his lawyer had botched the case.

While it can be tempting to read that as “we lost, so I want a re-do,” there is more to it, and judges do sometimes allow a retrial if a lawyer has shown gross incompetence or has otherwise failed to give a spirited defense. That wasn’t destined to be the case for Simpson, as the judge said, “All grounds in the petition lack merit and, consequently, are denied.”

At the time, Yale Gallanter, his former lawyer – the one previously accused of botching the O.J. Simpson armed robbery and kidnapping case and now being accused of lying to or misleading Simpson – had this to say:

“As OJ’s lawyer and confidante, it was gut-wrenching for me to have to be in a position to defend my strategy and efforts on his behalf as his lawyer and testify against my client”

His current lawyer, Patricia Palm, vowed to continue fighting, saying, “We’re confident that when we get to the right court we’ll get relief because he deserves relief, because he didn’t get a fair trial.”

If O.J. is denied a retrial – or loses a retrial – he faces at least three and a half more years in prison, and quite possibly, considerably more. It remains to be seen whether O.J. Simpson has found “the right court” to demand a retrial.