OJ Simpson is to appear today (July 20) before a Nevada parole board that will decide whether he will be released from prison.
Simpson has served nine years of a nine-to-33-year sentence for armed robbery, kidnapping, and assault stemming from a confrontation with sports-memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2007. A decision from the board’s commissioners is expected on the day of the hearing. The former NFL great, who is being held at Lovelock Correctional Center, will be connected to the hearing in Carson City via video conference.
How to watch the hearing online and on TV
• The hearing will be broadcast live by ESPN at 1pm US eastern time as part of an expanded, 90-minute edition of Outside the Lines. ESPN will pick up a pool video feed from inside the hearing room to transmit on TV and online for subscribers.
• At least five local TV stations (KTVU, KTVN, KOLO, KRNV, KSNV) and ABC News will also plan to offer live streams on their websites. The law and crime news blog Law Newz will also stream it online, or you can watch the stream in the player above.
• Side note: Mark Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles police detective whose testimony ended up damaging the prosecution’s case during Simpson’s 1995 murder trial, is set to appear on the Fox News channel as part of its hearing coverage. In 1996, Fuhrman pleaded no contest to a charge of perjury for lying at the trial about his use of a racial slur. The Fox News website published an opinion piece on July 17 that stated “If the Nevada Parole Board has a conscience, it will never set him [Simpson] free. He is a threat to society and will always be so.”
What you should know about the parole hearing
• Deliberations usually take 20 minutes to 30 minutes.
• Simpson could be released as soon as Oct. 1 if he is granted parole.
• The Nevada Department of Corrections approved 240 media credentials for the hearing.
• The Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners has established a webpage for information regarding the hearing.
What you should know about the case in which Simpson was convicted
On Oct. 3, 2008—exactly 13 years after Simpson was acquitted in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in Los Angeles—a Nevada jury convicted Simpson in the Las Vegas case.
Simpson claimed that he was attempting to reclaim memorabilia that had been stolen from him. (Some of the items may have been auctioned in 1999 after Simpson was sued by Goldman’s family and needed money to satisfy a $33.5-million wrongful-death award. He still owes tens of millions of dollars.)
In 2013, Simpson appeared before a Nevada parole board regarding five out of 12 counts. He was granted parole on all five but remained imprisoned on the other charges. On Thursday, Simpson is seeking parole on the remaining seven counts.
How the parole board makes its decision
Experts tell Sports Illustrated they believe Simpson will be released. In Nevada, eleven factors regarding his background and criminal history will be weighed and reviewed by members of the board. In 2013, Simpson was rated in the “low risk” category that allows conditional release.
Lawyers familiar with the Nevada system say he has a good chance of being rated in that category on the remaining counts. Most bettors on offshore sites such as 5Dimes.com and Bovada.lv concur—they have been wagering that the commisioners will release him from prison, SI.com reports.
Read next: Here’s the data tool that shows OJ Simpson is likely to be granted parole
This post has been updated.