O.J. Simpson Conspiracy Theory: Knife Investigation Comes As The Juice Is Eligible For Parole In 2017

Reports that the Los Angeles Police Department is conducting forensic tests on a knife found on O.J. Simpson’s former property in connection with the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were made public Friday, just months before the former football star is up for parole from an unrelated conviction. Simpson, who was famously acquitted of murder, will be eligible for parole in Nevada in October 2017.

The former football star known as “The Juice” shocked the nation when he was declared a free man after his defense team successfully argued that there wasn’t enough evidence he killed his ex-wife. Simpson has been serving time at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada for a kidnapping and armed robbery conviction in 2008. He was sentenced to up to 33 years after he and an armed group of men attacked two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas hotel in 2007. Simpson has said he was trying to recover personal items that were stolen from him.

Simpson has re-emerged as a popular figure after the FX miniseries, "American Crime Story: The People Vs. O.J. Simpson" began airing last month. He hasn't watched the show. The prison where he is serving time doesn't get the channel, Inside Edition reported.

Some journalists and social media users questioned Friday the timing of the investigation. A construction worker reportedly found the knife buried on the property of Simpson’s former Brentwood estate “some years ago.” The worker gave the knife to an unidentified Los Angeles Police Department officer, who was working nearby as an extra on a movie set. The officer kept the knife for years before turning it over to the team investigating the Simpson and Goldman murders because he was approaching retirement.

"It is my understanding that double jeopardy would be in place, so we could not charge Mr. Simpson with the homicides because he's already been acquitted," Capt. Andrew Neiman, a LAPD spokesman, said during a press conference Friday.

The case remains unsolved. Simpson once vowed to search for "the real killers." Americans' opinion of the case has largely been divided along racial lines, with blacks more likely than whites to claim he was innocent.