LAS VEGAS, May 12 (UPI) — O.J. Simpson will be in Las Vegas this week for a hearing on his request for a new trial on robbery and kidnapping charges, his lawyers said.
The former football star will likely be on the witness stand Wednesday to answer questions about the 2007 incident at a Las Vegas hotel room that landed him in prison for 33 years.
“I think we have a lot of evidence in our favor,” lawyer Patricia Palm said. “I believe in my heart that he didn’t get a fair trial.”
Simpson was originally convicted of barging into a Las Vegas hotel room with a group of co-defendants in order to retrieve a collection of Simpson sports memorabilia. Two of Simpson’s companions were armed.
The Nevada Supreme Court in 2011 rejected Simpson’s effort to have the conviction overturned. His latest appeal is largely based on allegedly insufficient representation by his trial lawyer, the Las Vegas Sun said.
Simpson did not testify in his original trial, which he now contends was a mistake on his attorney’s part.
Simpson, 65, had been a free man at the time following his acquittal in a sensational trial on charges he killed his ex-wife, Nicole, and Ron Goldman outside her Los Angeles home in 1994.
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