O.J. Simpson, currently awaiting a parole hearing on his armed robbery conviction, should "admit" his "sins," according to the prosecutor who tried him for murder 22 years ago.
"I like the photographs of O.J. in handcuffs more than I like the photographs of O.J. with a golf club in his hands," former prosecutor Christopher Darden said on NBC's "Today" show Thursday, just hours before the hearing.
Darden argued, "The fact that he's a model prisoner doesn't mean he's a model citizen," and that Simpson is "saying what he needed to say and doing what he needs to do to get out of prison."
Simpson, who was acquitted in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman in 1995, was convicted in 2008 of orchestrating the armed robbery of sports-memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel in Sept. 2007, according to NBC News. He was sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison.
Darden said he hopes the board asks him one question about the murders for which he was accused: "Did you kill Ron and Nicole? ... That's the one question everybody would like to ask," Darden said.
"Let's move this discussion forward," he continued, saying to Simpson: "Admit your sins."
Darden himself remains certain that Simpson committed the murders, despite the not guilty verdict.
"We have yet to extract from him the punishment that he deserves," he said. "Justice ain't killing two people, butchering two people and getting away with it."