LOS ANGELES, Nov 27 — A US judge rejected yesterday a request by jailed former sports star O.J. Simpson for a retrial over his conviction for a 2007 casino robbery, reports said.
The 66-year-old former American footballer and actor testified in court in May, giving a blow-by-blow account of the events of the alleged robbery in Las Vegas.
Simpson, who acknowledged that he had been drinking heavily ahead of the September 13, 2007 incident, sought a retrial on grounds that his longtime lawyer Yale Galanter had botched his defence.
Yesterday Clark County Judge Linda Marie Bell, who heard his testimony over five days in May, refused his petition for a retrial, according to the Las Vegas Sun and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“Mr. Simpson failed to establish that appellate and trial counsel were ineffective or that any deficient performance by counsel resulted in prejudice.
“Given the overwhelming amount of evidence, neither the errors in this case, nor the errors collectively, cause this court to question the validity of Mr. Simpson's conviction.”
Simpson is serving nine to 33 years in a Nevada state penitentiary, after being convicted in October 2008 of armed robbery, assault and kidnapping over the robbery, which was infamously caught on security camera footage.
He was famously acquitted in the murder trial of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, who were slain in 1994. — AFP
