(CNN) It was an oddly familiar O.J. Simpson that for a little while filled TV screens across America on Thursday. 
 
 A Nevada parole board decided Simpson should be freed after the former NFL star apologized for his role in a 2007 armed robbery, said he'd been a model prisoner, and promised that he'd have no conflicts if released. 
 
 Simpson's appearance before the board garnered wall-to-wall coverage from cable news shows, coverage that recalled the "trial of the century," and the many months more than 20 years ago when it transfixed a nation. 
 
 "I've done my time," Simpson said. "I've done it as well and as respectfully as I think anyone can." 
 
 Now 70, Simpson's energy seemed little affected by his time behind bars. He was alert, engaged, and quick to smile, even letting out a hearty laugh when parole board Chairman Connie Bisbee accidentally said he was aged 90. "I feel like it," he said. 
 
 Simpson has served nine years of a nine-to-33-year sentence for an armed robbery and kidnapping in Las Vegas. He is expected to be released as early as October -- and said he plans to move to his home in Florida. 
 
 An entire generation of Americans has come of age since Simpson seemed an almost inescapable public figure. But for one afternoon, it felt like 1995 again. 
 
 That was the year he was acquitted of murder charges in the grisly slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. 
 
 Thursday's parole hearing followed renewed interest in his story, which was explored last year in the award-winning documentary "O.J.: Made in America" and the FX true-crime drama "The People v. O.J. Simpson." 
 
 Though it's been 22 years since the not guilty verdict, the murder trial's themes of criminal justice and race, trust in police, celebrity and domestic violence remain remarkably resonant in modern culture. "We talk about O.J. as though the story is O.J.," journalist Celia Farber says toward the end of the "Made in America" documentary. "The story is O.J. and us." 
 
 Parole board vote unanimous 
 
 For his part, Simpson seemed remarkably unaltered. He repeatedly avoided taking full responsibility for the Vegas crime. 
 
 At one point, he said he had lived a "conflict-free life," a statement that perhaps bemused anyone whose memory stretches back more than two decades. 
 
 "Juice," as he was known in his heyday, said associates misled him during the Vegas robbery and then turned on him in court. 
 
 One of those associates is Tom Riccio. Simpson testified that Riccio is the one who called him, persuading him to take part in the robbery. Simpson said Thursday he regretted ever taking Riccio's call. 
 
 But, according to Riccio, Simpson did a lot more than that. 
 
 "He should wish he didn't make all those calls after my call," Riccio told CNN. "After he took my call he did a lot of things he shouldn't have done." 
 
 Riccio added that Simpson was the one who orchestrated the robbery. 
 
 "He plotted it all and gathered up men with guns." 
 
 Simpson said Riccio avoided punishment by throwing him under the bus. 
 
 "Unfortunately, they got a get-out-of-jail-free card when they said 'O.J. told me (to do it),'" Simpson said. "Nothing I can do about that." 
 
 Sufficient remorse is not a relevant factor for parole, and Simpson ticked off several mitigating factors that made him a good candidate for release. He was discipline-free in prison, he has stable release plans, he has family and community support -- and, of course, he has no prior criminal convictions. 
 
 The four parole board members voted unanimously to grant him parole, and board member Tony Corda said he was graded a "low risk to reoffend." 
 
 Simpson smiled, said "thank you," and then put his head down for a few moments silently. 
 
 O.J. Simpson wins parole after serving nine years for armed robbery and kidnapping https://t.co/di9NLhRSI6 https://t.co/G3ECaWR0u2 — CNN (@CNN) July 20, 2017 
 
 'My best friend' 
 
 Simpson said in closing remarks that he had been a peacemaker in the prison and had been a model prisoner. 
 
 "I've spent nine years making no excuses about anything. I am sorry that things turned out the way they did. I had no intent to commit a crime." 
 
 The parole hearing featured testimony from Arnelle Simpson, the former football great's oldest daughter, who said her father was "my best friend and my rock." 
 
 Simpson also said he has taken two "Alternative to Violence" classes, which he said was "the most important course any person in this prison can take." 
 
 In addition, robbery victim Bruce Fromong testified that he had forgiven Simpson for the crime at that Las Vegas hotel room, and advocated for his release. 
 
 Simpson had also been described by authorities as a model prisoner at Lovelock Correctional Center, a medium-security prison in the Nevada desert. 
 
 The robbery 
 
 Simpson and an associate were convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon for attempting to steal pieces of Simpson sports memorabilia at gunpoint. 
 
 At his 2008 sentencing, the Hall of Fame running back said he went to the room in the Palace Station Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to reclaim family heirlooms and other personal items that had been taken from him. He also claimed he didn't know his associates were armed. 
 
 "I wasn't there to hurt anybody," Simpson said. "I just wanted my personal things, and I realize now that was stupid of me. I am sorry." 
 
 The case, which featured a colorful cast of seedy characters, secret recordings and a Las Vegas heist, read like a low-budget parody of "Ocean's Eleven," CNN wrote at the time 
 
 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson O.J. Simpson reacts after learning he was granted parole at Lovelock Correctional Center on Thursday, July 20, in Lovelock, Nevada. Simpson is serving a nine-to-33-year prison term for a 2007 armed robbery and kidnapping conviction. Click through the gallery to see moments from the notable life of the former football and media star. Hide Caption 1 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson As a University of Southern California running back, Simpson accepts the Heisman Trophy in December 1968. Hide Caption 2 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Simpson, pictured in 1974, was a running back for the Buffalo Bills from 1969 to 1977. Hide Caption 3 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Simpson with his wife, Marguerite Whitley, his daughter Arnelle and son Jason, circa 1974. The couple were married from 1967 to 1979. They had another daughter, Aaren, who died as a toddler in a drowning accident. Hide Caption 4 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Simpson in action during a Buffalo Bills game against the New York Jets. Hide Caption 5 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Simpson married Nicole Brown Simpson in 1985. Here the couple appears at a Los Angeles nightclub around 1976. Hide Caption 6 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Coach Lou Sabin and O.J. Simpson Hide Caption 7 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Simpson branched out into acting. He appears with Bill Murray, left, Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris in a "Saturday Night Live" skit in 1978. Hide Caption 8 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson As a running back for the San Francisco 49ers, Simpson carries the ball against the Oakland Raiders during a preseason game circa 1978. Hide Caption 9 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Simpson becomes a commentator on ABC's "Monday Night Football" in the mid-'80s. He appears with Joe Namath, left, and Frank Gifford. Hide Caption 10 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Simpson and his children attend Nicole Brown Simpson's funeral in June 1994. Hide Caption 11 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Ronald Goldman was slain with Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson on June 12, 1994. Hide Caption 12 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson In footage seen on TV screens around the world, police chase a white Ford Bronco with a fugitive Simpson inside on the Los Angeles freeways on June 17, 1994. The Bronco eventually returned to Simpson's home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, and he surrendered to police on murder charges in the deaths of his ex-wife and Ronald Goldman. Hide Caption 13 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Simpson's mug shot after his arrest on murder charges. Hide Caption 14 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Fans leave signs of support outside Simpson's house in June 1994. Hide Caption 15 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Lead defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. and prosecutor Marcia Clark face off during a hearing in the murder trial that riveted a nation. Hide Caption 16 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit" was defense attorney Cochran's mantra during the trial. Here, Simpson tries on a leather glove tied to the crime scene at his murder trial on June 15, 1995. Hide Caption 17 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Simpson cheers with his attorneys F. Lee Bailey, left, and Johnnie Cochan Jr. on October 3, 1995, after being found not guilty of killing Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Though cleared of criminal charges, a civil jury later slapped the former football star with a $33 million wrongful death judgment, and attorneys for the Goldman family have doggedly pursued his assets. Hide Caption 18 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Simpson continued to encounter legal problems, including a "road rage" trial in the Miami area in October 2001. He was found not guilty on charges stemming from a traffic altercation with another motorist. Hide Caption 19 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Simpson appears in court with attorneys Gabriel Grasso, left, and Yale Galanter before sentencing in the sports memorabilia case in December 2008 in Las Vegas. Simpson contended he was retrieving personal items that had been stolen from him and were being sold as memorabilia. He later accused Galanter of having a conflict of interest and failing to mount an effective defense. Hide Caption 20 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson The Palace Station hotel room, the scene of Simpson's reported confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers, is displayed on a monitor during Simpson's trial in September 2008. Hide Caption 21 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Simpson embraces his sister, Carmelita Durio, while his friend Tom Scotto looks on in court after a guilty verdict was reached in October 2008. Simpson was convicted of leading a group of associates into a room at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino and using threats, guns and force to take back items from two dealers. Hide Caption 22 of 23 Photos: The rise and fall of O.J. Simpson Disgraced football star O.J. Simpson appears in court on May 13, 2013, seeking to get his robbery, assault and kidnapping convictions thrown out after spending more than four years in prison. He argued that bad legal advice led to his arrest and conviction in a confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers. His 2008 conviction came 13 years after his acquittal on murder charges in the deaths of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Hide Caption 23 of 23 
 
 Simpson's legal team argued that the nine-to-33-year sentence did not match the crime and that it was, in fact, a form of payback for his controversial acquittal in the deaths of Brown and Goldman. Even Bruce Fromong, a victim in the robbery, agreed. 
 
 "It wasn't about justice," Fromong said in "O.J.: Made in America." "They wanted the guy that got away with murder in 1994." 
 
 Simpson has always denied he killed Brown and Goldman. Their families won a wrongful death civil judgment against him in 1997. 
 
 At a parole hearing in 2013, Simpson said he regretted the Las Vegas kidnapping and robbery. 
 
 "I just wish I had never gone to that room. I wish I had just said, 'Keep it,' and not worry about it," he said. ||||| Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Christopher Darden's book "In Contempt" was published last year. It was published in 1996 and re-released in 2016. 
 
 (Reuters) 
 
 O.J. Simpson will soon be a free man. Again. A four-member parole board in Carson City, Nev., voted unanimously Thursday to curtail his 33-year prison sentence for kidnapping and armed robbery, stemming from a confrontation over sports memorabilia in Las Vegas in 2007. 
 
 The football legend, now 70 years old, could be released as soon as Oct. 1 into a world that’s still fascinated by his plummet from grace. 
 
 As the proceedings got underway, a smiling Simpson entered the hearing room at the Lovelock Correctional Center dressed in a light blue shirt with billowy sleeves, his hair splotched with white, his voice gravelly. Seated at a desk with his attorney, Simpson was by turns affable and testy, humbled and defiant. 
 
 “I always thought I’ve been pretty good with people,” Simpson told the board by video link, “and have basically spent a conflict-free life.” 
 
 The board did not press him on that assertion, despite allegations of domestic abuse against Simpson (he pleaded no contest to spousal abuse in 1989), and its members made clear that they were not re-litigating his trial and acquittal for the 1994 killings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. 
 
 (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post) 
 
 Simpson’s eldest daughter, Arnelle Simpson, and one of Simpson’s victims from the Vegas case testified in support of his release. 
 
 “I’ve known O.J. for a long time,” said Bruce Fromong, a memorabilia dealer whom Simpson confronted with five other men, two of whom were armed. “I don’t feel that he’s a threat to anyone out there. He’s a good man. . . . I feel that it’s time to give him a second chance.” 
 
 The networks and cable-news stations devoted live coverage to the case throughout the day, enlisting key players from Simpson’s murder trial. 
 
 [O.J.’s last defender — F. Lee Bailey — is broke, disbarred and working above a hair salon] 
 
 “The circus is back in town,” declared Mark Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles detective whose racist remarks were weaponized in 1995 by Simpson’s defense team, in an essay for FoxNews.com. “O.J. Simpson is getting exactly what he loves — attention.” 
 
 1 of 18 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × O.J. Simpson is released from prison View Photos O.J. Simpson has been freed on parole after nine years in prison for robbery to retrieve sports memorabilia in Las Vegas. A Nevada parole board decided in July to release the 70-year-old former football, TV and movie star after serving his minimum term for the armed robbery and assault with a weapon. Caption O.J. Simpson has been freed on parole after nine years in prison for robbery to retrieve sports memorabilia in Las Vegas. A Nevada parole board decided in July to release the 70-year-old former football, TV and movie star after serving his minimum term for the armed robbery and assault with a weapon. Oct. 1, 2017 Hall of Fame football player O.J. Simpson signs documents before leaving Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nev. Simpson, whose racially charged 1995 murder trial riveted the nation, was released from jail on parole today, after nine years behind bars for armed robbery. Nevada Department of Corrections/AFP/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 On the “Today” show Thursday morning, Christopher Darden, one of the prosecutors for Simpson’s murder trial, was asked what he would say to Simpson if he was on the Nevada parole board. 
 
 “Well, ‘Did you kill Ron and Nicole?’ ” said Darden, illustrating how Simpson remains inextricably linked to the earlier crime. 
 
 “But of course that’s not legally relevant” to the Las Vegas case, said NBC host Savannah Guthrie. 
 
 “Well that’s the one question I’d like to ask,” Darden said. “I think that’s the one question everybody would like to ask.” 
 
 It probably is. O.J. Simpson is perhaps the only story that could force cable news to cut away from merry-go-round coverage of President Trump, Russia and the health-care meltdown in Congress. 
 
 Sex, violence, wealth, power, hubris, race, fame, Kardashians, law and order — the Simpson case had it all in 1994 and 1995, and still does. 
 
 “It is one whale of a good story,” ABC’s Ted Koppel said at the time. The murder trial, broadcast by courtroom cameras and covered gavel to gavel by CNN, would come to represent a coarsening of public debate and an acceleration of the 24-hour news cycle. 
 
 “When a tabloid tornado begins to spin . . . even the best among us tend to get caught up in it,” CBS anchor Dan Rather told the Los Angeles Times after the verdict, which polarized blacks and whites anew after the 1992 Los Angeles riots. “Before you know it . . . your standards have just broken open and you’re not applying the same rules that you do to other stories.” 
 
 People born between Simpson’s arrest and acquittal are old enough to drink legally, and the ’90s have receded far enough to trigger waves of nostalgia. American culture was due for a reminder and a reckoning, and television provided two major rehashings of the saga just last year: a 10-episode FX miniseries starring Cuba Gooding Jr., and a 7½-hour, Oscar-winning documentary — in which erstwhile confidants professed their belief in Simpson’s guilt, defense attorneys admitted to hoodwinking the jury, and one juror stated that the verdict was payback for the police beating of Rodney King. 
 
 Simpson, meanwhile, was where many people thought he should’ve been in the first place: prison. Public perception of Simpson’s guilt has increased over time. A majority of both black and white people now agree that he was at least “probably guilty” of the murders, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted last year. 
 
 Nevada's Lovelock Correctional Center, where Simpson has been incarcerated since 2008. (Terry Chea/AP) 
 
 Simpson participated in Thursday’s hearing by video conference from the medium-security Lovelock Correctional Center, a cropping of white buildings in the vast beigeness of northwestern Nevada. He’s lived there as Inmate 1027820 since he was convicted and sentenced in 2008. The families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman drew a direct connection between their 1994 killings and the incident at the Palace Station hotel in Vegas. 
 
 “Allowing wealth, power and control to consume himself, he made a horrific choice on June 12, 1994, which has spiraled into where he is today,” Nicole’s sister Denise Brown said in a statement after the conviction, which came 13 years to the day after Simpson was acquitted for the murders. The Goldmans had already won a $33.5 million wrongful-death lawsuit against Simpson, which they believed drove him to reclaim valuable memorabilia. 
 
 When he began his time at Lovelock, Simpson told the warden that he would try to be “the best prisoner they’ve ever had” — a sad echo of his bygone athletic prowess. During the ensuing nine years, Simpson mopped floors, disinfected gym equipment, coached inmate sports teams and led Bible study. He missed his children's’ graduations. He missed his sister’s funeral. He was commissioner of the prison’s softball league. He was wait-listed for a prison course called “Commitment to Change,” which he didn’t end up taking, and never enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous, though he admitted the Vegas incident was fueled by booze. Other younger inmates came to him for advice, Simpson claimed, and he has mediated and defused conflicts. His favorite course was called “Alternative to Violence.” 
 
 “I am sorry that things turned out the way they did,” Simpson said during the hearing, as the parole board weighed his risk to the public. “I had no intent to commit a crime. . . . I’ve done my time. I’d just like to get back to my family and friends — and believe it or not I do have some real friends.” 
 
 Americans now have Twitter and Facebook to offer their own armchair testimony in a cultural inquisition that may never end. 
 
 Photos of a battered Nicole Brown Simpson circulated on Twitter with the ironic quotation “conflict free life.” 
 
 “I don’t feel sympathy for O.J. Simpson,” former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe wrote on Facebook. “He left the black community a long time ago. If he gets out, I never want to hear his name mentioned again.” 
 
 “I thought his statements were self-justifying, self-pitying, showing no remorse, no understanding, no sense of reality about his own life,” said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin during the network’s breathless coverage. Simpson “is a deeply delusional and self-obsessed narcissist, and good luck to America once he’s out.” 
 
 Simpson was paroled on one set of charges in 2013, after apologizing to the board for the Vegas incident; the other set required an additional four-year term, at minimum, which ends this year. His maximum sentence of 33 years was viewed by some as retribution for his acquittal in 1995. 
 
 “It really made us all aware that, despite our best efforts, it’s very difficult to separate the California case from the Nevada case,” Simpson’s lawyer Yale Galanter said at the time. 
 
 Now, this chapter of the saga is ending. Simpson, who plans to move to Florida to be near family, could be golfing by the autumn. Darden published a best-selling memoir in 1996 titled “In Contempt.” Defense attorneys Johnnie Cochran and Robert Kardashian are dead. F. Lee Bailey, who famously cross-examined Fuhrman, is mostly broke and working above a hair salon in Maine. In September, the maligned lead prosecutor Marcia Clark was at the Emmy Awards ceremony in support of “The People vs. O.J. Simpson”; her eyes welled with tears when the actor Sarah Paulson took the stage and apologized on behalf of a judgmental nation. 
 
 But at the root of it all, still, is a double murder. On “Good Morning America” Thursday, the family of Ron Goldman vowed to continue pursuing Simpson’s assets, as a form of perpetual punishment. 
 
 “What’s troubling to me is [that] the whole system gives second chances to violent felons,” said Fred Goldman, Ron’s father. “Ron doesn’t get a second chance.” ||||| 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 big moment has arrived. A hearing is underway at which he is trying to convince members of the Nevada Board of Parole that he should go free. "I haven't made any excuses in the nine years that I've been here and I'm not trying to make an excuse now," said the 70-year-old Simpson early in the proceedings, per the AP. Later, he added, "I am sorry that things turned out the way they did. I had no intent to commit a crime." He also appeared to stifle a sob in his appeal to the board. Simpson has been imprisoned since 2008 over an armed robbery and kidnapping case, but he and many legal analysts think that the board will vote to release him. If so, he's expected to be out on Oct. 1. The televised hearing is being livestreamed at various sites, including CNN. Per CNN, one of the first questions posed to Simpson by a board member in regard to the robbery, in which he and other men entered a Vegas hotel room to reclaim sports memorabilia, was, "What were you thinking?" Simpson called it a "big mistake" and emphasized that he wasn't armed. "I would never pull a gun on anybody." He insisted that he learned only afterward that one of the men with him, who was "behind me," brandished a gun. Another board member noted that he hadn't taken an alcohol-abuse program as he promised he would at his last hearing. Other Simpson quotes: "I'm at a point in my life where all I want to do is spend as much time with my children." "I've basically spent a conflict-free life." Daughter Arnelle Simpson said her father is "remorseful," and she wants him to come home so they can "move forward," adding, "It's been hard."