O.J. Simpson appeal in hands of Nev. Supreme Court

LAS VEGAS - O.J. Simpson's appeal for release from a Nevada prison is now up to the state's Supreme Court.

Simpson lawyers argue in a final brief to the Nevada high court that a lower court judge was wrong to deny the former football star a new trial in his 2008 kidnapping and armed robbery conviction for a hotel room heist in Las Vegas.

The filing, submitted Friday, came after prosecutors last month submitted documents saying there's no need for another trial.

Simpson argues that his trial lawyer, Yale Galanter, botched his case and had conflicting interests.

Galanter denies any conflict existed.

Simpson is serving nine to 33 years in a northern Nevada prison after a jury found him guilty of multiple felony charges for leading a group of men in a September 2007 confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas hotel. Two of the men testified they brought guns, at Simpson's request.

Simpson didn't testify at trial, but claimed he was trying to retrieve items that had been stolen from him after his 1995 acquittal in Los Angeles in the stabbing deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. He testified in May 2013, when Clark County District Court Judge Linda Marie Bell heard his claims of ineffective counsel, that he never knew any of the men with him were carrying guns.

His lawyers now argue that his trial would have had a different outcome if the issues raised now had been raised then. They argue that Simpson's multiple convictions and sentences for assault with a deadly weapon and robbery with use of a deadly weapon constitute double-jeopardy; that his lawyer should have challenged his multiple convictions and punishments; and that the jury should have been given a chance to consider lesser kidnapping and theft offenses when they deliberated.

The Supreme Court denied a previous Simpson appeal in 2010.