The family of Ron Goldman spoke out Thursday morning just hours before O.J. Simpson is set to appear before his parole hearing that could grant him an early release from prison.
Speaking with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America, Goldman’s father, Fred, and his sister, Kim, said they felt some reprieve with Simpson behind bars. But that may soon come to an end.
“What’s troubling to me is not only him but the whole system gives second chances to violent felons, for that matter, anyone in jail,” Goldman’s father said in the interview. “Ron doesn’t get a second chance.”
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Simpson will plead his case for parole inside a Nevada prison, nine years after he was jailed for a botched armed robbery in which he attempted to steal memorabilia from his sports career.
“We lived our life with him walking the streets and sharing the same roads we did and with him being locked up it’s been a chance for us to kind of reclaim some control over our life and have some semblance of sanity,” Kim Goldman said. “I’m preparing myself for that to be changing come October.”
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In 1994, Simpson was charged with the killing of his ex-wife, Nicole, her friend Goldman. Simpson was acquitted of murder in 1995 but was later found civilly liable for the deaths. The former football player was ordered to pay over $33 million in damages to the victims’ families, much have which has gone unpaid.
Fred Goldman told ABC News the parole board should take Simpson’s history of violence into consideration when deciding whether he should be released from prison early.
“I think his whole history of violence, ignoring the law, no respect for the law, no remorse for virtually anything he’s ever done, is an indication of who he is as a person,” the father said. “I don’t think there is any reason to think that he is going to be a decent human being in society. I think he’s proved otherwise.”
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Exactly 13 years after his acquittal, Simpson was found guilty of storming into a Las Vegas hotel room with four others to retrieve at gunpoint items that he claimed were rightfully his from two sports collectibles dealers.
“Well, I understand that our two cases are not linked — the murder case and what he did in Las Vegas,” Kim Goldman said. “I think it’s interesting to point out that he stormed a hotel room with goons and guns to steal property. Not a lot of people would do that, but that was where we went. His propensity is to be violent. His propensity is to go above and beyond in what the law dictates he’s supposed to do. Our society afforded him his freedom back in ’95 when they acquitted him. I want them to be remembered, that his go-to is violence and not to be respectful to the law that gave him his freedom.
If Simpson is granted parole, he could be freed as early as October.
–with a file from The Associated Press
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