Murder is less time than theft

Prison for O.J. - The Top 10 Everything of 2008 - TIME

(The weird thing about this is that I know of a guy in prison for murder eligible for parole in seven years.)

The crime that sent O.J. Simpson to prison seems petty compared to the accusation that history will remember him for: the brutal 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in Brentwood, Los Angeles. The ex-sports star, once one of the most popular athletes in the country, was acquitted of those killings in a trial that divided a tabloid-obsessed nation along racial lines. (He would later lose a 1997 "wrongful death" suit which awarded millions of dollars to the Goldman and Brown families.) But, in October 2008, he was found guilty of several felonies as part of a 2007 break-in in a Las Vegas hotel. The case involved sports memorabilia and personal mementoes he claimed were still his — but were the property of two dealers. In December 2008, a judge imposed a complex series of penalties on Simpson. He could spend as many as 33 years in prison but is eligible for parole in nine.

View the full list for "The Top 10 Everything of 2008"