O.J. Simpson, the former football player whose life was derailed following the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, told a Nevada court on Thursday he has “basically spent a conflict-free life.”
Simpson appeared before a Nevada Parole Board to testify over his involvement in an armed robbery at a Las Vegas hotel, for which he was convicted in 2008 and has already served the minimum nine years of a 33-year sentence.
The former football star was asked at the televised hearing about the victim empathy and alternative to violence courses he completed whilst incarcerated, and how those would benefit him in the future.
“I’ve always thought I’ve been pretty good with people,” Simpson replied, adding “I’ve basically spent a conflict-free life.”
Now that comment appears strange — if not wholly delusional — coming from Simpson. Although he was acquitted of the 1994 murders of ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman, three years later Simpson lost a civil suit and had to pay out $33.5 million in damages after he was found guilty of the victims’ wrongful deaths. During the widely publicized O.J. trial, he was accused by prosecutors of abusing Nicole for 17 years.
And that brings us to Simpson’s latest legal troubles — he was charged in 2008 with multiple felony counts for the Vegas incident, including kidnapping, assault, robbery and using a deadly weapon.
In his parole hearing, Simpson added that he is “not a guy that ever got in a fight on the street and with the public and everybody.”
Of the alternative to violence course, Simpson said “they give you a bunch of little tools about how to talk to people instead of fighting, instead of throwing punches. Tools I’ve used here — it’s how you talk to people, the tone you use.”
[image via screengrab]
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