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Board grants O.J. Simpson parole in robbery case

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Four members of the Nevada Parole Board voted on Thursday to grant former football star O.J. Simpson parole in his 2008 conviction on charges including kidnapping and armed robbery.

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Simpson is expected to leave the Lovelock Correctional Center this fall after nine years behind bars, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The decision came down Thursday after Simpson, 70, appeared before the Nevada Parole Board. The board voted unanimously to grant Simpson's parole.

Simpson had no disciplinary issues in prison and took numerous classes, according to testimony before the parole board. Nevada Board of Parole commissioner Susan Jackson held up thick stacks of letters at Thursday's hearing, some of the hundreds of letters she said the board had received from Simpson's supporters and detractors.

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Parole board commissioner Connie Bisbee said Simpson plans to resettle in Florida, where he was living before his 2008 conviction on charges including kidnapping and armed robbery.

Simpson was sentenced to 33 years behind bars for his part in a 2007 armed robbery at a Las Vegas hotel room. He was found guilty on a dozen charges, including kidnapping.

Simpson claimed he confronted a pair of memorabilia collectors, Bruce Fromong and

Alfred Beardsley, in 2007 in an attempt to recover memorabilia and mementos that had been stolen from him, according to The Associated Press. Among the memorabilia were family photos and his first wife's wedding ring.

Fromong spoke Thursday in favor of Simpson's release.

"We all make mistakes," Fromong said. "O.J. made his. He's been here and from what I've been told he's been a model inmate. He's been an example to others."

Simpson in 2013 was granted parole on the armed robbery conviction. Thursday's hearing addressed the other 11 charges from his 2008 conviction, according to USA Today.

Simpson, a former football star who has appeared in nearly two dozen movies and television shows, was found not guilty of murder in 1995 after his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ron Goldman, were found stabbed to death outside her Los Angeles townhouse. The case, which captivated TV audiences around the globe, was dubbed the "Trial of the Century."