Sunday, December 7, 2008

O.J. Simpson trial and sentence

O J Simpson who was acquitted of double murder in 1995 was sentenced Friday to up to 33 years in prison for robbing two memorabilia dealers.

He will not be eligible for parole before 2017 and that means atleast nine years behind the bars.

Simpson delivered a tearful five-minute apology to a packed courtroom. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of it," Simpson said.

Simpson, 61, told the judge that he went to a down-market Las Vegas hotel on Sept. 13, 2007, to recover family heirlooms—including his slain ex-wife's wedding ring—to pass down to his children.

"This was the first time I had an opportunity to catch the guys red-handed who had been stealing from my family," said O J the NFL Hall of Fame running back, dressed in navy jail garb.

"In no way did I mean to hurt anybody, to steal anything from anybody. I just wanted my personal things," he said. When Simpson finished, his shoulders slumped and his face fell.

According to O.J.Simpson's lawyer what O J was doing truly was a retrieval of his own property. What it was was a highly emotional, stupid act that violated the law.

"Stupidity," he added, "is not criminality."

But the judge Jackie Glass had other ideas and said,"When you take a gun with you and you take men with you in a show of force, that is not just a 'Hey, give me my stuff back.' That's something else, and that's what happened here,"

The Judge Glass also made is clear that the sentencing of O. J. Simpson was not "payback" for the double-murder acquittal that devided the Americans into for and against O.J.Simpson camps.

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