O.J. Simpson was granted parole by four members of the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners on Thursday afternoon. Simpson will be eligible for release from Lovelock Correctional Facility in Lovelock, Nevada on or after October 1, 2017. 

Simpson was eligible to be released from prison after being sentenced to a minimum of nine years and a maximum of 33 years for charges stemming from a 2007 hotel room robbery in which he tried to recover memorabilia from two collectors. He had previously been granted parole on five counts (burglary, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of robbery) in July 2013, but the use of a deadly weapon count was upheld until at least 2017, and was the subject of Thursday's hearing. 

In addition to Simpson and his lawyer, also attending the hearing were his daughter, Arnelle, his sister, Shirley Baker, his friend Tom Scotto, and Bruce Fromong, who described himself as Simpson's friend of 27 years, and who was one of the victims of the crime. Fromong stated that it was "time for him to go home for his family and friends."

Arnelle Simpson stated that her father is "like my best friend and my rock. As a family, we recognize that he is not a perfect man but has done his best to be true to his character. … The choices he made nine years ago were clearly wrong and … counterproductive. … My dad recognizes that he took the wrong approach and could have handled the situation differently. …

"We just want him to come home and I know in my heart that he is very humbled."

Simpson himself expressed remorse for his crime, but also made some rather curious statements about the way he's lived his life that drew raised eyebrows (to put it lightly) from viewers streaming the hearing on the internet. 

After deliberating for 30 minutes, the Board of Parole Commissioners returned and cast a 4-0 vote in favor of granting parole. 

After his release, Simpson will need to meet regularly with a parole officer, obtain permission to travel out of state, and submit to periodic searches of his person, car and home. Any violations of the conditions of his parole will result in his going back to prison. 

Simpson, of course, is most well-known at this point for being acquitted of another crime, the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in the Trial of the Century in 1995. Two years after his acquittal, the families of Brown and Goldman won a judgment in a wrongful-death civil suit against Simpson.