Simpson trial begins

LAS VEGAS (AP) — O.J. Simpson went on trial on charges of kidnapping and robbery Monday with a judge determined to find a jury unaffected by his long-ago “Trial of the Century.”

“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,” Judge Jackie Glass 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 re-litigate 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 case debuted as a pale postscript to the murder trial that riveted America in the 1990s when Simpson was charged with murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.