O.J. Simpson a free man, after being discharged from his parole

    (CNN) — O.J. Simpson was granted an early parole discharge last week, according to a statement from the Nevada Department of Public Safety.

Simpson had been on parole after being released from prison in 2017 for a Las Vegas kidnapping and armed robbery in 2007.

His parole had been scheduled to end on February 9.

On November 30, the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners held an “early discharge hearing” for Simpson, after receiving a written recommendation from the Nevada Division of Parole and Probation, the news release said.

A statement from the Board of Parole Commissioners and State Police, Parole and Probation Division said the “decision to grant early discharge from parole was ratified on December 6.”

In July 2017, the parole board voted unanimously to release Simpson after he served about nine years of a 33-year sentence. He was released in October of that year.

During the robbery in 2007, he was part of a group that raided a hotel and casino to steal sports memorabilia at gunpoint. Simpson, who starred for the Buffalo Bills in the 1970s and is the 21st leading rusher in NFL history, said the items belonged to him.

Simpson spent a lifetime in the limelight, first for his athletic prowess in college and the NFL, then as an actor and pitchman, then as a murder suspect in the 1994 killing of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.

His murder trial in Los Angeles was dubbed “the trial of the century” and sparked years of debate over race and the justice system.

Simpson pleaded “100% not guilty” and assembled a team of famous local and national lawyers. He was eventually acquitted in 1995, but two years later lost a civil trial. He was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages.