A juror who helped acquit O.J. Simpson of murder thinks “it’s obvious” the former NFL star will be granted parole this week after serving time for robbery and kidnapping.
“I don’t have any feelings one way or the other, other than I guess it’s obvious that he’s probably going to get parole,” Lionel “Lon” Cryer, the juror remembered for his raised-fist salute of Simpson at the end of the 11-month People v. O.J. Simpson trial, told Page Six on Tuesday.
“I would only hope that Mr. Simpson would realize that he’s been blessed. He’s been given a gift especially with the fact that he wasn’t convicted for killing his wife [Nicole Brown Simpson] and Ron Goldman.
“I would hope that he would actually try to come out and do something productive with his life. Make an obvious effort to try to help somebody else or something like that. Try to change his own image if he could. I think that that would work better for him. If possible, try to stay out of the limelight,” Cryer said.
On Tuesday, Cryer appeared on a panel in advance of “The Jury Speaks,” a four-part true crime series on Oxygen that revisits high-profile cases including O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, George Zimmerman and Robert Durst through the jury’s eyes.
“I am a little amazed at the magnitude,” Cryer said of the renewed interest in the case that took place more than 20 years ago. “I’m amazed at the interest in me that everyone has. My whole purpose with doing these kinds of events though is to disprove any misunderstandings that people had about us as jurors and try to give a perspective and humanize the fact that this was something that we did and we did it reluctantly but we did it fairly.”
Simpson, now 70, was acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife and her friend Goldman, following what was dubbed the “Trial of the Century.” In 2013, he was sentenced to nine-to-33 years for armed robbery and kidnapping in an attempt to steal sports memorabilia.
Simpson’s parole hearing will be televised beginning Thursday at 1 p.m. ET.
The four-part series “The Jury Speaks” airs on Oxygen July, 22 at 9 p.m. ET.