OJ Simpson released from parole two months early in kidnapping and armed robbery case

Decision to grant the former footballer an early discharge was ratified on 6 December

File: OJ Simpson’s lawyer says he ‘is a completely free man now’ (Getty Images)

OJ Simpson is now a “completely free man” after authorities decided to discharge him from parole supervision two months early for good behaviour.

A statement released by the Nevada Department of Public Safety and the Division of Parole and Probation on Tuesday said Mr Simpson’s parole supervision, scheduled to finish on 9 February next year, ended early on 1 December instead.

The 74-year-old former athlete’s lawyer Malcolm LaVergne told the Associated Press (AP) that “Mr Simpson is a completely free man now.”

The statement said that on 30 November, the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners held an “early discharge hearing” for Mr Simpson after a written recommendation.

The statement said the “decision to grant early discharge from parole was ratified on December 6.”

The decision came a day after he had appeared before the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners.

Kim Yoko Smith, a spokeswoman for the state police, said that as of 1 December Mr Simpson “was granted his full freedom after four years of supervised release.”

“The board awarded credits in an amount equal to the time remaining on the sentence to reduce the sentence to time served,” Nevada state police said.

Mr Simpson was put on parole after he was discharged from prison in October 2017 for a 2007 Las Vegas kidnapping and robbery case. He had served nine years of his 33-year sentence and was released in 2017 after a vote by the parole board.

Mr Simpson had made headlines after he was controversially acquitted for a murder trial that he had faced for the 1994 killings of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

The murder trial was labelled as “the trial of the century” and had sparked massive debates on racial and criminal justice across the country.