Former NFL star OJ Simpson was released from prison early Wednesday morning.

Simpson served nine years of a 33-year sentence for a botched hotel room heist in which he attempted to steal sports memorabilia in Los Vegas in 2007. In 1995, Simpson was acquitted of the murder of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in a controversial trial which rocked the US.

Simpson was released from the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada shortly after midnight Sunday morning. The release took place in the middle of the night to avoid a media frenzy.

The Nevada Department of Corrections posted a video of the release on its Facebook page. In the video, a woman can be heard telling Simpson to "come on out" before the former sports superstar took his first steps as a free man in nine years,

The department wrote that it released Simpson shortly after midnight "to ensure public safety and reduce the potential for incident."

Simpson was granted parole earlier this year, and will remain under supervised parole, which could be reduced for good behavior, for the next five years.