The jury in the O.J. Simpson kidnapping case have taken the unusual step of speaking out, giving a press conference to deny their guilty verdict was to punish the former American football star for ‘past wrongs’.

Sitting in the same courtroom where they convicted Simpson of armed robbery and kidnapping on Friday, seven members of the 12-person jury spoke out on Sunday.

The jurors said they did not trust the witness testimony and instead relied on recordings and other documented evidence to convict the former football star.

Mr Simpson, 61, was famously acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles. He was later found liable for the deaths in a civil case. He had claimed in the robbery case that he was trying to reclaim mementos stolen from him.

Mr Simpson and Clarence “C.J.” Stewart were convicted on Friday of robbing two memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room in September, 2007. Simpson faces life in prison when he is sentenced in December.

The jury foreman Paul Connelly said some of the witness testimony was untrustworthy.

It might have been a waste for prosecutors to give plea deals to several Simpson co-defendants in exchange for their testimony, since the jury did not rely on it, Mr Connelly said.

Fellow juror Michelle Lyons said they could not trust the credibility of witnesses who were given plea deals.

The jurors also denied they wanted to punish Mr Simpson for past wrongs.

Juror Teresa Owens said any suggestion that the jury found Simpson guilty because of the verdict 13 years ago was "terrible."

"There's reports right now that we've had some kind of vendetta against Mr. Simpson for ... 13 years ago," she said. "That in no way had anything to do with this case whatsoever."

Mr Connelly said the Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman murder trial "never came up" during their deliberations in the kidnapping case.

One panellist, Dora Pettit, said she prayed for Mr Simpson before and after the case.

“I think he's an ordinary man that made a bad decision,” she said. “I prayed for him and Stewart and the attorneys. I don't have any ill feelings, and if they walked out tomorrow, so be it.”

Ms Pettit also hit out at reports that the all-white jury was racially biased towards the two black defendants.

“We've been painted as an all-white jury who hates OJ, and that's just not true,” Pettit said.

Mr Simpson's lawyer Yale Galanter told the Associated Press that the former footballer is hoping for a new trial and a strong bid to reverse his conviction, but is feeling “disappointed and a bit melancholy” at his conviction.

He is being isolated from other prisoners in the Clark County Detention Centre for his own safety, and is allowed to see only family members and a few friends, Mr Galanter said.

Mr Simpson will be held in the detention centre until his sentencing in December and then is expected to be moved to state prison. Mr Galanter said he will pursue a request for Simpson to be released on bond during the appeals process.

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