http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/the_juice_speaks_freely_5AE9YSL0m68rJRnV5tnDVN
O.J. Simpson talks about prison life, plans after he's released
By PHILIP RECCHIA
Last Updated: 11:35 AM, May 19, 2013
Posted: 2:20 AM, May 19, 2013
After 4 1/2 years behind bars, battling weight gain and depression,
O.J. Simpson is hopeful freedom is just around the corner.
In a series of exclusive jailhouse conversations, including a 30-minute video chat last week, an upbeat Juice told a Post source he was cautiously optimistic and ready to start a new life on the outside.
In a move sure to infuriate the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, whom Simpson was acquitted of killing after a spectacular trial, that new life will include a planned college speaking tour to earn money.
The tour will address both the murder case and the 2008 conviction for kidnapping and armed robbery of a sports-memorabilia dealer, a decision Simpson blames on racism.
“I feel like I’m back in the ’50s — a black man in a white justice system,” he said of the Nevada jury. “I looked into their eyes and I knew they would convict me.”
Last week, the NFL Hall-of-Famer and onetime actor held up his shackles during a video phone call from the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas. “I don’t like this vibe. I feel like I’m back on ‘Roots’!” he told The Post source.
As early as tomorrow, Judge Linda Marie Bell could overturn Simpson’s conviction for attacking a memorabilia dealer and order a retrial, or even set him free with credit for time already served.
“I like Judge Bell. She’s not trying to be a movie star,” Simpson said, in a dig at Judge Jackie Glass, who sentenced him to up to 33 years in prison after his 2008 trial and then went on to host the syndicated TV show “Swift Justice.”
“She [Bell] is straightforward business, so I feel I’ll get a fair shake.”
Life behind bars
Friends say that since being tossed into Lovelock Correctional Center near Reno, Simpson, now 65, has turned to anger management, religious texts, fantasy football and two “odd couple” cellmates to deal with despair, racial tensions and tabloid rumors.
He fumed at the storm surrounding the memoir, “If I Did It: Confessions of a Killer,” which sparked a huge uproar in 2006, prompting publisher Regan Books to ax the project before publication.
“I didn’t write that damn book. I was just paid not to dispute it,” Simpson told The Post source.
During the first two months of his incarceration, inmate No. 1027820 was segregated from other prisoners as a safety precaution.
“That period really depressed O.J.,” attorney Craig Brand, who visited Lovelock on several occasions — and will represent Simpson going forward — told The Post.
“He was shell-shocked and went through all the classic grieving stages.”
When Simpson was moved to an 80-square-foot cell in the general population, things didn’t get much better.
In April 2009, his younger sister, Carmelita, died, leaving him distraught about being unable to attend her funeral.
Equally disturbing was his bigoted bunkmate.
“The guy’s a white supremacist,” Simpson’s daughter, Arnelle, griped to a Post spy at the time.
But within months, the former NFL superstar had turned things around, becoming pals with his bunky. :barf10:
Their relationship hit a high note after the cellmate began poring over legal documents from Simpson’s 2008 case — alerting the double-murder acquitee to trial errors that could be the key to gaining his freedom.
“It was the white supremacist who first pointed out to O.J. that Yale Galanter had done him wrong,” Simpson’s longtime promoter, Norman Pardo, told The Post.
Galanter was fired by Simpson last year after representing him for 12 years.
Among the allegations in last week’s hearing are that the attorney’s incompetence and conflicts of interest made it impossible for Simpson to get a fair shake in his 2008 trial.
Girth is ‘all muscle’
Meanwhile, Simpson has been stewing about last week’s media reports mocking his girth.
“I gained weight eating all those beans, but just because I can’t get enough fruits and vegetables,” he said. “My family’s been bugging me to stop with the beans.”
Those beans would be the baked variety — with pork — and Simpson buys them canned at the commissary at Lovelock.
His bean binge is part of a bodybuilding regimen in which he loads up on the protein- and carb-rich dish and works out vigorously to convert fat into muscle.
“If you ask O.J., he’ll tell you it’s all muscle,” said the source.
“Look at his arms — they’re ripped.”
One of the bright spots of Simpson’s early days in prison was a TV in his cell, which is anything but standard-issue.
His friends and relatives took up a collection to buy him one at the commissary.
He’s been able to follow his former football teams, the USC Trojans and the Buffalo Bills, along with such professional wrestling fare as “WWE Superstars.”
Simpson’s TV would also help further the affection of fellow inmates.
In February, he held a Super Bowl bash in his cell and a slew of them crammed in to catch the game.
“He’s like the Godfather of the prison,” said Pardo.
He’s also taken on the role of coach on Lovelock’s recreational baseball team.
To help find spiritual strength, Simpson prays every night like his late mother, Eunice — whose photos were among the artifacts he was out to retrieve during the Vegas heist — taught him.
