SIMPSON PAROLE HEARING | Simpson asks parole board to set him free

LOVELOCK, Nev. (AP) — A gray-haired O.J. Simpson pleaded with a Nevada parole board today to set him free after more than eight years in prison for a Las Vegas hotel room heist, insisting – as he has all along – he was only trying to retrieve mementos stolen from him and never meant to hurt anyone.

The former football star, looking trimmer than he has in recent years, walked briskly into the hearing room dressed in jeans, a light-blue prison-issue shirt and sneakers. He laughed at one point as the parole board chairwoman mistakenly gave his age as 90.

Simpson, 70, said he never pointed a gun at anyone nor made any threats during the crime that put him in prison, and he forcefully insisted that nearly all the memorabilia he saw in two dealers' hotel room belonged to him.

"In no way, shape or form did I wish them any harm," he added, saying he later made amends with those in the room.

He said he has spent his time in prison mentoring fellow inmates, often keeping others out of trouble, and believes he has become a better person during his time behind bars. He said he took an alternative-to-violence course in prison.

'I've done my time," he said. "I've done it as well and respectfully as I think anybody can."

A vote in his favor would enable Simpson to get out as early as Oct. 1. By then, he will have served the minimum of his nine-to-33-year armed-robbery sentence.