Former American football star O. J. Simpson was granted parole on Thursday after serving nine years of a maximum 33-year prison sentence for armed robbery.
His 2008 conviction in the case marked the latest chapter in a spectacular fall from grace that began with his 1994 arrest in the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman.
Here are the key dates in Simpson’s long tale of legal woes:
June 13: Police find the bloodied bodies of Simpson’s ex-wife and Goldman outside her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Brentwood. They had been stabbed to death. Simpson returns from Chicago, where he had flown the previous night.
June 16: Simpson attends his ex-wife’s funeral, accompanying the couple’s two children, Sydney and Justin.
June 17: Simpson is charged with two counts of homicide. Before surrendering, the former football star leads police on a surreal chase on LA’s freeways that was broadcast live around the world.
June 15: Simpson, in court, tries on an infamous bloody glove found at Brown Simpson’s house. “They’re too small,” he tells the jury.
October 3: Simpson is found not guilty on all charges, in a verdict that shocks many and divides the country along racial lines.
February 4: A jury finds Simpson responsible for the two murders and orders him to pay $33.5 million to the families of the victims.
September 13: Simpson and a group of men are accused of the armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas hotel.
October 3: Thirteen years to the day after his acquittal on murder charges, Simpson is found guilty for his role in the Las Vegas robbery and jailed for nine to 33 years.
July 31: Simpson is granted partial parole on some of the charges linked to the robbery case. He is ordered to serve at least four more years behind bars for using a weapon during the 2007 robbery.
July 20: Simpson is granted parole and is set to be freed as early as October 1 from the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada.
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