Maine

‘Thank God You're Out': O.J. Simpson's Former Lawyer on Parole Board Decision

“Thank God you’re out.”

That’s what F. Lee Bailey said he'd tell O.J. Simpson, if he ever gets the chance.

Simpson’s former attorney, who lives in Yarmouth, Maine, is applauding a Nevada parole board’s decision to grant Simpson his release. Bailey said Simpson should have never spent so long in prison.

“It’s tragic that he had to be in there for nine years,” Bailey said. “[His parole] is well-warranted and terribly belated.”

As a member of the “Dream Team” that got Simpson acquitted of murder, Bailey said it’s not an easy thing to defend, or vote in favor of, Simpson.

“[The parole board] stood tall,” he said. “There is the risk that if they vote for O.J., there is the risk that they’re going to have their houses stoned, paint thrown at, kids harassed in school. The rednecks want him in jail without knowing much about the case – except that they’re opinionated, stubborn, and many of them stupid.”

Bailey, now 83, has been disbarred from practicing law. But he has remained one of Simpson's most vocal supporters, and has never wavered in his insistence that the former NFL star is innocent in the killings of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.

“He couldn’t possibly have done it,” Bailey said. “O.J. is not a danger to a fly.”

Bailey said he hasn’t spoken to Simpson in years, and believes his former client was advised to cut off contact while in prison.

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