A board has voted unanimously that OJ Simpson should be released from prison.
The 70-year-old actor was at a parole hearing on Thursday in Nevada and could be a free man by October.
In 2008, he was convicted of 12 charges, including armed robbery, and was handed a 33-year sentence. However, good behaviour and his work as a coach in the prison gym means this time was halved.
Associated Press says that the former American footballer player smiled and said “thank you,” as the vote to grant parole was read aloud.
“I’ve spent nine years making no excuses about anything. I am sorry that things turned out the way they did,” Simpson said during the hearing. “I had no intent to commit a crime… I’ve done my time. I’d just like to get back to my family and friends.”
He also cited his children as motivation to wanting to go home.
“I do have four kids,” Simpson had said. “I’ve missed a lot of time with those kids – like 36 birthdays with my children.”
Daughter Arnelle Simpson had also spoken in support of her father. “He’s like my best friend and my rock,” she said, adding that while he was “not the perfect man,” nevertheless she just wanted “him to come home”.
Simpson also had a highly publicised murder trial in 1995 after being arrested for the 1994 killings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. He was found not guilty.
The trial became a hypnotic real-life court-room drama for millions around the world.
In 1997, he was found liable in a civil court for the deaths of Nicole and Ronald, and he was ordered to pay $33.5 million to his children and the Goldman family.
The Goldmans believe Simpson got away with Ms Simpson’s killing, and a spokesman for the family said this week that if OJ was released, it would “change their lives again”.
