Simpson back in the hot seat

The San Jose Mercury News has a column by Linda Deutsch about the new trial of OJ Simpson:

O.J. Simpson went on trial for kidnapping and robbery Monday with a judge determined to find a jury unaffected by his long-ago Trial of the Century. "What happened then, happened then," Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass told prospective jurors. "If you are here and think you are going to punish Mr. Simpson for what happened in 1995, this is not the case for you," she said, urging them to confess if they had such a motive. All stayed silent. While asking many questions about the past, the judge stopped short of asking the big question that Simpson's lawyer wanted: Do they consider Simpson a murderer?
"My determination is no, we are not going there," Glass told lawyers outside the prospects' presence. "We are not here to relitigate that case. The jury reached a verdict in that case and people have strong feelings about it. This case is about what happened here in Las Vegas last year."
The new case debuted as a pale postscript to the murder trial that riveted America in the 1990s when Simpson, the former football hero, was charged with murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, and ultimately acquitted. Missing were the crowds that surrounded the courthouse when Simpson was arrested last year for allegedly robbing two sports collectibles dealers in a hotel room, and the media throng that has followed him over the years was dramatically diminished. Simpson has a co-defendant this time, Clarence "C.J." Stewart, an old friend who went along on an ill-fated mission which Simpson claims was intended to reclaim personal property.
Simpson and Stewart have each pleaded not guilty to twelve charges, including felony kidnapping, armed robbery, conspiracy, burglary, coercion, and assault with a deadly weapon. Simpson, now living in Miami, maintains he didn't ask anyone to bring guns to the hotel room and that he didn't know anyone in the room was armed. The stakes are high—a robbery conviction would mean mandatory prison time, and a kidnapping conviction carries the possibility of life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said more than 472 print, photo, video and radio journalists were credentialed for the trial, but some national networks were waiting for jury selection to be completed. Simpson's murder trial had a strong racial component and Stewart's lawyer raised the point that the Las Vegas jury pool for this case is predominantly white with only a few African-Americans. He told the judge the jury pool is not diverse enough to provide a representative panel for two black defendants. The judge said she would allow lawyers to question some prospects but did not want to explore their feelings about Simpson's acquittal. "We're not going to be here examining their psyches," she said.
But when she asked if prospects who followed Simpson's first trial could put their opinions behind them, two said they could not and were dismissed. A dozen others were excused because of scheduling and other problems.
The judge noted she is worried about "stealth jurors" who may have ulterior motives for getting on the jury.
"If you're looking here to become famous and write a book and be on TV," she told them, "This is not the case for you."
Prosecutor David Roger told the judge outside jurors' presence he's worried about reports that in Las Vegas bets are being taken on the trial's outcome. He worried aloud that someone might try to bribe a juror to win a bet.

Rico says he hopes they get the bastard this time...