A Nevada judge set the stage Friday for former football star O.J. Simpson to testify for the first time in the Las Vegas armed robbery and kidnapping case that resulted in his conviction and lengthy prison sentence.
Simpson appeal lawyers Patricia Palm and Ozzie Fumo said following a brief date-setting hearing in Las Vegas that they anticipate Simpson will take the stand to testify that he was so poorly represented by his trial attorneys that he should be freed and get a new trial.
"He looks forward to defending himself," Fumo said.
Simpson wasn't in the courtroom as Clark County District Court Judge Linda Marie Bell set the evidentiary hearing for May 13.
Simpson, now 65, was convicted at trial in 2008 of leading five men, including two with guns, in a September 2007 confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers and a middleman in a cramped room at a Las Vegas casino-hotel. He was sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison.
Simpson maintained he was trying to retrieve personal mementoes, photos and other items stolen following his 1995 acquittal in the Los Angeles slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
