The Nevada Board of Parole is scheduled to consider releasing Ruggs.

[Rabidraider]

https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/nev ... ZDDy4Pr98L

[Attyla]

Ruggs is one of many examples that rich murderers do less time than poor thieves.

This has more to do with procedural errors than anything else. Nevada chain of command was broken by law enforcement. But we don't know if he made parole yet so he is still in jail as of right now.

[Viper]

This has more to do with procedural errors than anything else. Nevada chain of command was broken by law enforcement. But we don't know if he made parole yet so he is still in jail as of right now.

Generally speaking, I would say my statement still stands

[Attyla]

Generally speaking, I would say my statement still stands

Sentencing laws and guidelines still apply. Also, this is a first offense for the guy so he is not a repeat or habitual. Surprisingly vehicular crimes by and large do not carry that huge a sentence. It really is hard to get a vehicular homicide charge, far easier for vehicular manslaughter. I get it, that the optics say that rich and famous get off a lot of the time but first offenders in general get off a lot of the time. Ruggs being in jail is a good thing. He needed to go. But if you take a life, regardless of the circumstances and your money/fame you are going to go to jail. OJ is a notable exception. Hernandez, Carruth and Phillips all went to jail before Ruggs. I believe it is more about the money than anything. Money gets you a better attorney. Better representation gets better results. I actually think being famous can backfire on you. Juries see famous people as entitled and it is fun to knock down an entitled person.

On a side note, a friend of mine was Lance Ito's research assistant during the OJ trial. For good or bad, he wrote a paper for his degree in which he defended how Ito ran his courtroom during the trial. It was actually OJs defense team coupled with the inept prosecution that were the big factors. Mark Fuhrman gets most the blame for the outcome but the prosecution was horribly botched prior to and after his testimony. OJs team just knew how to leverage that into the final verdict.

[RunOverByHubbard]

Sentencing laws and guidelines still apply. Also, this is a first offense for the guy so he is not a repeat or habitual. Surprisingly vehicular crimes by and large do not carry that huge a sentence. It really is hard to get a vehicular homicide charge, far easier for vehicular manslaughter. I get it, that the optics say that rich and famous get off a lot of the time but first offenders in general get off a lot of the time. Ruggs being in jail is a good thing. He needed to go. But if you take a life, regardless of the circumstances and your money/fame you are going to go to jail. OJ is a notable exception. Hernandez, Carruth and Phillips all went to jail before Ruggs. I believe it is more about the money than anything. Money gets you a better attorney. Better representation gets better results. I actually think being famous can backfire on you. Juries see famous people as entitled and it is fun to knock down an entitled person.

On a side note, a friend of mine was Lance Ito's research assistant during the OJ trial. For good or bad, he wrote a paper for his degree in which he defended how Ito ran his courtroom during the trial. It was actually OJs defense team coupled with the inept prosecution that were the big factors. Mark Fuhrman gets most the blame for the outcome but the prosecution was horribly botched prior to and after his testimony. OJs team just knew how to leverage that into the final verdict.

OJ had a super legal team and the prosecution made errors but it didn’t matter. I distinctly remember a juror being interviewed after the trial was over saying explicitly there was no way she was going to find him guilty regardless of any evidence presented at the trial. As someone mentioned in a post above this was payback — ostensibly for a corrupt and racist LA police department.

[Hellbound]

Ruggs will have missed 4.5 seasons of football. There's a good chance that he just couldn't even make a roster again. It's hard to get back to NFL level with that much time away from the game. My dog also has way better moves in open space.

Well shoot...my greyhound can easily outrun him too! Not looking good for Ruggs

[Attyla]

OJ had a super legal team and the prosecution made errors but it didn’t matter. I distinctly remember a juror being interviewed after the trial was over saying explicitly there was no way she was going to find him guilty regardless of any evidence presented at the trial. As someone mentioned in a post above this was payback — ostensibly for a corrupt and racist LA police department.

Certainly there were undertones that played a role and I agree.

[RunOverByHubbard]

Certainly there were undertones that played a role and I agree.

The Rodney King incident/riots was 1992 and it was repeatedly referred to in the media during and after the OJ trial. The woman juror was clear -- and I remember she was wearing a mustard colored dress as the whole thing stuck with me because of how blatant she was-- in effect, they could have had a video of OJ with a knife in the backyard, wearing the shoes and the gloves and some would have said it was a set-up/fake done by the corrupt LAPD. And, they were corrupt and racist so there is that.

Anyway, back to Ruggs. I remember that Warren Wells left football for a year to be in rehab and deal with legal problems. He had four incredible years before that averaging over 23 yards per reception. After the layoff, he tried to make a comeback with the Raiders and maybe Houston? but he had lost it and failed. And he was out just one year. I bet it was not just his body that failed him but his mind for football at the NFL level. Then there was Scott Davis, a 1st round pick who was having a great start to his career (including 10 sacks his 3rd season) and then he lost the drive to play and took two years off. He came back and made the team but did not do much, got injured, and retired.

[Rabidraider]

Going down a deeper hole, regarding OJ the one piece of evidence I would of highlighted to the jury was the arterial spray on his socks. Guilty alone on that one piece of evidence.

A corrupt cop could drip blood on a sock, but only an arterial spray could be shot between the fibers of the sock.

But at least he got years in prison for stealing his own football. Karma at its best.

[mstrbass2000]

The Rodney King incident/riots was 1992 and it was repeatedly referred to in the media during and after the OJ trial. The woman juror was clear -- and I remember she was wearing a mustard colored dress as the whole thing stuck with me because of how blatant she was-- in effect, they could have had a video of OJ with a knife in the backyard, wearing the shoes and the gloves and some would have said it was a set-up/fake done by the corrupt LAPD. And, they were corrupt and racist so there is that.

Anyway, back to Ruggs. I remember that Warren Wells left football for a year to be in rehab and deal with legal problems. He had four incredible years before that averaging over 23 yards per reception. After the layoff, he tried to make a comeback with the Raiders and maybe Houston? but he had lost it and failed. And he was out just one year. I bet it was not just his body that failed him but his mind for football at the NFL level. Then there was Scott Davis, a 1st round pick who was having a great start to his career (including 10 sacks his 3rd season) and then he lost the drive to play and took two years off. He came back and made the team but did not do much, got injured, and retired.

i remember the rodney king decision vividly ...i worked at boys market as a butcher, our night guy called in sick and i had to wait til the replacement arrived, thank god he got their in 15 min and i left right away...everybody was on teh streets waiting on the verdict, i was on the corner where reginald denny got his head caved in, i was lucky teh light went green and i got thru or else who knows what would have happened...the shopping center where i worked was burnt to the ground, except for the b of a ...autozone,burger king,boys market,fish fry place,video store all of it burnt to the ground ...i remember my cousin rushing over to my house with guns,rifles and shotguns cause the mobs were a mile away and looting stores as police did nothing except sit on teh borders of beverly hills

[LayneStaley]

Ruggs should never play in the NFL again imo. I do believe in second chances but I don’t think he deserves to become a millionaire again after serving a few years. I would never support him playing in Vegas and I don’t think ownership would either.

[Attyla]

Ruggs should never play in the NFL again imo. I do believe in second chances but I don’t think he deserves to become a millionaire again after serving a few years. I would never support him playing in Vegas and I don’t think ownership would either.

I doubt he gets out the first time up. But I also doubt he can get reinstated onto a team in the NFL

[BoJacksonRules]

Regardless of what side of this you are on, a lot of you are forgetting how he was on an elite trajectory and if this issue hadn’t of ever happened he would definitely be in the current top 10 WR conversation.

[55Barndoor]

Regardless of what side of this you are on, a lot of you are forgetting how he was on an elite trajectory and if this issue hadn’t of ever happened he would definitely be in the current top 10 WR conversation.

Really??? Aside from the long TD against the Chiefs, what else did he do that moved the needle?

[Hellbound]

Regardless of what side of this you are on, a lot of you are forgetting how he was on an elite trajectory and if this issue hadn’t of ever happened he would definitely be in the current top 10 WR conversation.

He was? What one of his two career (one in each season) 100 yd games and one game with a career high 5 catches indicated he was on an elite trajection?

[Sir Raider Duck, OMS]

OJ had a super legal team and the prosecution made errors but it didn’t matter. I distinctly remember a juror being interviewed after the trial was over saying explicitly there was no way she was going to find him guilty regardless of any evidence presented at the trial. As someone mentioned in a post above this was payback — ostensibly for a corrupt and racist LA police department.

OJ's defense team made a couple of huge errors as well, not that it made a difference, given the incompetence of the prosecution:

1) Robert Huizenga testified for the defense that OJ was old and broken-down and couldn't possibly have overpowered a young guy like Ron Goldman, only to reverse himself during cross-examination and admit that OJ could indeed have overpowered both Ron and Nicole in a small, confined area like the one they were murdered in.

2) The defense called someone OJ had made an exercise video with who also testified how busted up OJ's body was, blah blah blah. On cross-examination, the prosecution played an outtake from the video that not only showed OJ bouncing up and down on a small trampoline just fine, but also joking that the great thing about a trampoline was that you could punch your wife in the face, then explain her black eye away by saying she'd fallen off the trampoline and hit herself.

I'm not joking, BTW. He literally made that (spectacularly unfunny) quip on camera.

As for Judge Ito: Years later, Robert Kardashian relayed the horror he'd felt at having two people brutally murdered, with his client and friend on trial for his life, but having Judge Ito make the jury waste time sitting in the jury box while Ito was in chambers, showing the prosecution and defense lawyers the latest "Dancing Itos" skit from the previous night's Tonight Show. Ito was an incompetent moron who managed to bungle both high-profile cases he presided over in his career.

Now, onto Ruggs: I wish him the best, as long as he's haunted the rest of his life by the memory of the innocent woman he killed because he couldn't be bothered to call a bleeping Uber.