Imprisoned O.J. Simpson is “sweating” that his July 20 parole hearing will be an unprecedented media circus, and that officials could deny his release because of the press scrutiny. 
 
 The former football star, 70, has served more than eight years of a nine-to-33 year sentence in a Nevada jail after he was found guilty in 2008 of armed robbery, kidnapping and other charges stemming from a confrontation with memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas casino. 
 
 The hearing will be held before a panel of four parole commissioners sitting in Carson City, Nev. 
 
 The Juice will be beamed in via video conference from Lovelock Correctional Center, where he has been serving his stretch. If granted parole, he could be released on Oct. 1. 
 
 But unlike his first parole hearing in 2013, where there was no pre-hype or press permitted, this time arrangements are being made for a media circus at both locations. 
 
 Jeffrey Felix, a former Lovelock prison guard who describes it as a “cruise ship with barbed wire” and himself as O.J.’s “prison BFF,” self-published a book titled “Guarding the Juice” and still talks to sources inside with O.J. 
 
 He told Page Six, “The Juice is sweating it over the parole hearing. He’s been told there will be media tents outside, pool reporters in his room and the Carson City hearing room, and cameras sending a live feed to the media outside. He is asking why they are fostering a circuslike environment for his hearing.” 
 
 Felix continued, “O.J. thinks he deserves his parole — he’s been clean for nine years, hasn’t had any write-ups, took all the programs and classes they told him to take — but he thinks all this media hype is going to screw with the parole board and put pressure on them to keep him locked up. The media still portrays him in a negative light because he was acquitted of the murders [of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman].” 
 
 The parole board says it expects to announce its Simpson decision on the same day as the hearing, which we are told “has never happened before.” 
 
 Reps for Nevada’s Department of Corrections and Parole Board didn’t comment. Simpson’s attorney in Vegas, Malcolm LaVergne, didn’t get back to us. ||||| For the first time since 2013, the public will see O.J. Simpson live next week when he appears at a televised parole hearing. 
 
 The hearing will take place at 10 a.m. PT on Thursday, July 20, from Nevada and will be broadcast in a video pool, with networks including ESPN airing it live. 
 
 The televised Trial of the Century back in 1995, in which Simpson was acquitted in the double murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, captivated the nation. All eyes will no doubt be on the former USC and Buffalo Bills football star once again, though Simpson, who just turned 70, will look very different. 
 
 Also Read: OJ Simpson Turns 70: How His Trial of the Century Created the Kardashians 
 
 Understandably, the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners stated that there has been “overwhelming media and public interest” in Simpson’s possible parole. 
 
 ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap will anchor a special 90 minute “Outside the Lines” on Thursday about the events surrounding the hearing. Earlier this year, the network won its first Oscar for the highly-accalimed “30 for 30” event series, “O.J.: Made in America,” directed by Ezra Edelman. 
 
 Also Read: 'OJ: Made in America' Is Longest-Ever Oscar-Winning Movie 
 
 The hearing will be streamed from the Lovelock Correction Center, where Simpson has been a resident since 2008. The former football star was sentenced to nine to 33 years for armed robbery and kidnapping following a scheme to break into a room at the Palace Station hotel in Las Vegas to steal sports memorabilia. 
 
 Simpson denied that he broke into the room and that he held people at gunpoint, but did admit to taking the items, which included memorabilia that he said belonged to him. 
 
 He was sentenced exactly 13 years after he was acquitted on charges of murdering his ex-wife Nicole and Goldman. 
 
 Also Read: Marcia Clark on America's Ongoing Fascination With the OJ Simpson Trial 
 
 Simpson was granted parole on some of the armed robbery convictions in 2013, but still had to serve at least four more years due to assault with a deadly weapon charges and other weapon-related charges. 
 
 If paroled, he won’t see the outside of the prison until October 2017. 
 
 Tony Maglio contributed to this report. ||||| O.J. Simpson Parole Hearing Could Lead To His Release From Prison 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Ethan Miller/AP Ethan Miller/AP 
 
 O.J. Simpson will find out on Thursday if he soon will be released from the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada. He has been held there for nearly nine years for convictions on armed robbery and other charges. 
 
 The former NFL hero, TV pitchman and movie star, now 70, stands a good chance of being granted parole when he appears before the Nevada Parole Board via video link. No one has registered to testify against him. He will likely try to persuade the board of his good behavior behind bars. 
 
 If paroled, Simpson would be released from prison no sooner than Oct. 1. 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption AP/Nevada Department of Corrections AP/Nevada Department of Corrections 
 
 As with all things O.J., there has been a tremendous media interest in the parole hearing. Thirty media organizations will be on-site in Carson City and at Lovelock Correctional Center, and many outlets will be streaming it live. 
 
 Ordinarily, the parole board's decision would be announced a few weeks after the hearing. But the board announced that it will rule in Simpson's case the same day as the hearing, saying that it has been a "disruption" and the board wants to "return to normal as soon as possible after the hearing." 
 
 It's not the way many Americans imagined he'd do time. The fame and adulation he once enjoyed are hard to overestimate. But it's also hard to overestimate how shocked his fans were when he was arrested in 1994 in the brutal slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. 
 
 He was acquitted of the murder charges in what became known as "the trial of the century." But years later, he couldn't beat the more mundane criminal charges stemming from a burglary gone wrong. 
 
 In 1995, when Simpson was acquitted in the brutal stabbing deaths of his ex-wife and her friend, opinions on the verdict broke down largely along racial lines. Many African-Americans believed that the verdict was fair, but most whites thought he'd gotten away with murder. 
 
 Two award-winning 2016 television productions provided reminders of how shocking the murder charges, trial and verdict were at the time: ESPN's documentary O.J.: Made in America and FX's The People v. O.J. Simpson. 
 
 Simpson had been a Heisman Trophy winner while playing football in college. He made the NFL Hall of Fame. After retiring from sports, he became a commentator and actor. He starred in commercials for Hertz Rental Cars that showed him hurdling obstacles in an airport the way he once hurdled defensive linemen. He proved himself a decent comic foil in the popular Naked Gun movies. He was glamorous and rich. 
 
 But after all his glory and his infamy, he was convicted of a botched 2007 burglary in a cheap Las Vegas hotel. Along with a handful of accomplices, the former star broke into the room of a couple of sports memorabilia dealers. They had some items that Simpson believed belonged to him and that he wanted back. A couple of guys with Simpson brought guns. 
 
 Simpson was later convicted on 12 criminal counts including armed robbery, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to nine to 33 years. 
 
 In his 2013 parole hearing, Simpson told the Nevada Parole Board that he wished he'd never gone into the hotel room. 
 
 "I wish I'd said, 'Keep it and not worry about it,' " Simpson said. 
 
 He also argued to the parole board that he'd been a model prisoner. When he'd arrived at Lovelock, "I gave [prison officials] my word that I would try to be, or would be, the best prisoner they ever had here. And I think for the most part, I've kept my word on that." 
 
 He spoke via video conference from prison, while the parole board met in Carson City more than 100 miles away. That same procedure will be followed Thursday. 
 
 In making parole decisions, the state of Nevada uses a scoring system to evaluate the risk a prisoner might pose to the community. The categories include an inmate's behavior in prison, as well as age. 
 
 "He deserves parole. It's as simple as that," says Yale Galanter, one of Simpson's defense attorneys in the armed robbery case. 
 
 Galanter believes that the Las Vegas jury was dishing out some payback, not so much for Simpson's murder acquittal 13 years earlier, but for a 2007 book that Simpson co-authored called, If I Did It. 
 
 Galanter says he could hear the jury's anger over the book when he questioned them. And he didn't blame them. 
 
 "How do you write a book that your children are going to see called 'If I killed your mother?' and 'If I killed your mother's friend?' I thought that was a totally, socially disgusting act." 
 
 In 1997, two years after his acquittal, Simpson was found liable for the deaths of Brown and Goldman in a civil suit brought by their families. He was ordered to give control of the book to the Goldman family as partial payment of the civil judgment, and they changed the name to If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. ||||| O.J. Simpson could get out of prison later this year, if a pivotal parole hearing goes his way. 
 
 The hearing will likely take place in July, according to David Smith, spokesman for the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners. Depending on the outcome, the “Juice” could be loose as soon as Oct. 1. Previous ratings of Simpson have scored him in the low-risk category for release. 
 
 Simpson — who was famously acquitted in 1995 in the slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman — has been serving out a nine-to-33-year sentence for his role in a 2007 incident that unfolded in a Las Vegas hotel room. 
 
 He and armed associates allegedly confronted memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley and took pieces of Simpson’s memorabilia from them. Simpson was convicted on charges including kidnapping, armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. 
 
 The former college and pro football star said at his sentencing that he was trying to reclaim family heirlooms and other personal items that had been stolen from him, and claimed that he was unaware his associates were carrying guns. 
 
 Simpson’s lawyers in the Nevada case argued that the crime did not justify the time. They said that Simpson, 69, was getting a dose of payback from the Nevada justice system after his acquittal in the Brown and Goldman murders. 
 
 Simpson has always denied that he was their killer, though the Brown and Goldman families won a wrongful death civil judgment against him in 1997. 
 
 Since 2008, Simpson has been at Lovelock Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in a remote desert town of the same name. This summer, Nevada prison inmate #1027820 will have his first chance at freedom. It comes at a time when Simpson has vaulted back into the limelight with the documentary “O.J.: Made in America,” which captured the Academy Award for best documentary. 
 
 Ron Goldman’s father, Fred, told CNN he is not surprised Simpson may be released from prison in October. 
 
 “Simpson has proven over and over again, throughout his life, he has absolutely no concern for the law or authority,” Goldman said. 
 
 Simpson’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment. 
 
 At least four of seven commissioners will have to vote in Simpson’s favor in order for him to be released. Here’s how they will make their decision. 
 
 How Simpson could get parole 
 
 With a minimum sentence of nine years, this is the first year Simpson could be released. But he was granted parole on some of the counts against him at a 2013 hearing. This summer, he will only have to make parole on seven of the original 12 counts. Prosecutors declined to comment on the likelihood of Simpson being paroled. 
 
 Simpson’s prosecution in the deaths and civil suit loss will have no impact on his bid for parole, said Smith, the parole board spokesman. 
 
 The parole board scores an inmate on several factors — the higher the total score, the greater the risk involved in releasing them. A person with a score of zero to five points is deemed low risk; six to 11 points, medium risk; and 12 or more, high risk. 
 
 In 2013, Simpson scored three points overall. Little has changed for him since then, and he is likely to score similarly when he goes before the board again this summer. 
 
 In his favor: He will turn 70 years old in July, and people above the age of 41 are considered less likely to commit a crime (-1 point). Simpson was above the age of 24 at the time of his first arrest; he has never had parole or probation revoked; he is retired and is believed to have no gang ties; he is a medium custody inmate (all 0 points). 
 
 In 2013, he had no record of disciplinary action over the year before the hearing, earning him -1 point. Simpson has maintained a pattern of good behavior and is likely to have the same score again this summer. 
 
 Completing an educational, vocational or treatment program would also help him. Simpson scored zero in this category in 2013, but testified then that he was on the waiting list to get into a “commitment to change” program. If he got in, he will likely score -1 point this year. 
 
 Another factor in Simpson’s favor — one that no doubt enrages the Brown and Goldman families — is the fact that his risk assessment states “no prior conviction history.” 
 
 Working against him: He has a property crime conviction in the 2007 incident (2 points). In the “drug/alcohol use/abuse” category, Simpson’s 2013 parole documents cite a history of “frequent abuse, serious disruption of functioning.” (2 points) As men are statistically more likely than women to commit crimes, he also scores one point for his gender. 
 
 The severity of the crime is another factor for the commissioners to consider, outside of the risk assessment score sheet. Simpson received the highest level of offense severity for his kidnapping conviction in the hotel raid, during which the memorabilia dealers said they feared leaving the hotel room under threat from Simpson’s gun-wielding associates. 
 
 The “substantial financial loss” one of the memorabilia dealers incurred was also cited in 2013 as a factor that made Simpson’s crime more serious. 
 
 ‘A model prisoner’ 
 
 If Simpson does score as low risk in 2017, the board still has the latitude to deny him parole. Should that happen, Simpson would go before the parole board again before 2020, Smith said. 
 
 But Simpson fits the profile of a state prison inmate who receives parole at the first opportunity, Nevada defense attorney Dan Hill said. 
 
 “Simpson’s age, the fact that he was given parole on the first sentencing batch, weigh in his favor,” Hill said. “So does the fact that he was by all accounts a model prisoner, as does any acceptance of responsibility for his actions.” 
 
 In a video of the 2013 hearing, Simpson pleads with the parole commissioners. “My crime was trying to retrieve for my family my own property that was stolen from me,” Simpson tells the panel. “I just wish I had never gone to that room. I wish I had just said keep it and not worry about it.” 
 
 Simpson tells the board that he helps supervise in the prison gym, disinfects equipment, mops floors, coaches and umpires games. 
 
 “Because of I guess my age, guys come to me,” Simpson says. “I’m sure the powers here know that I advise a lot of guys. I’d like to feel I kept a lot of trouble from happening. Since I’ve been here by getting involved in some of the conflicts that some of the individuals here have had.” 
 
 The old-fashioned principle of remorse 
 
 Members of the parole board “work with the old-fashioned principal of wanting to hear the inmate is remorseful for their crime,” said Gabe Grasso, a veteran Nevada defense attorney who was part of the team representing Simpson in the Las Vegas kidnapping case. 
 
 Grasso, who stopped representing the former star running back eight years ago, has seen dozens of former clients go before the parole board. 
 
 “What O.J. has going for him is I don’t think Fromong will want to show up screaming and testifying against him,” the lawyer added. “He was upset, insulted, but I don’t think that he thought the price should be what it was.” 
 
 Fromong told CNN that he would testify in favor of Simpson’s release. “I told the district attorney at the time (of his conviction) that I only thought that O.J. Simpson deserved one to three years in state prison,” Fromong said. 
 
 “O.J.’s done his time, he’s been a model inmate,” he said. 
 
 The other victim, Alfred Beardsley, died in 2015. 
 
 “Something else that could help O.J., he did not set up the meeting in the hotel room,” Grasso added. 
 
 Tom Riccio, a Los Angeles man who had been convicted on stolen property charges before the 2007 incident, arranged the meeting between Simpson and the memorabilia dealers. 
 
 “I hope he does get his life together,” Riccio told CNN. “I hope he doesn’t take matters into his own hands anymore. I hope he has learned his lesson.” 
 
 “He was just trying to get his stuff back,” Riccio said. “A lot of memorabilia but also a lot of personal items, mementos. I don’t think a regular person would get nine to 33 years for these crimes. They were getting him for other things.”
– OJ Simpson's parole hearing in Nevada will be broadcast live at 1pm EDT Thursday and there's a strong chance that his path to freedom will be clear by the end of the afternoon. Nobody has registered to testify against the 70-year-old Simpson, who has been in prison for nine years on 12 convictions related to a Las Vegas robbery and will appear before the Nevada Parole Board via videolink, NPR reports. Thursday's hearing will cover four concurrent sentences for use of a deadly weapon and two consecutive sentences for assault with a deadly weapon, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Four board members will vote after the hearing and Simpson could be free by Oct. 1 if they are all in favor of parole. If Simpson is indeed released this fall—which appears almost certainly to be the decision—it will "renew the rabid curiosity" in the case and "produce a spectacle unlike anything we’ve seen since he went behind bars," Nancy Armour at USA Today predicts. There has even been talk that Simpson might end up with a reality TV show, but Armour wants Simpson to avoid the spotlight unless he wants to return to the "toxic mentality that landed him in prison in the first place." If the former NFL star does end up with a TV show, the money is likely to go to the families of murder victims Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, CBS News reports. He will still receive an NFL pension estimated at $25,000 per month.