Running Into Trouble--Again

Twelve years after being acquitted of the murders of his former wife and her male friend, in a trial that still resonates today, football hero-turned-pariah Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson faces prison once again.

Simpson and five others were charged on ten felonies by Nevada police including kidnapping and armed robbery, allegedly for attempting to steal back sports memorabilia (which Simpson says originally belonged to him) at a Las Vegas casino hotel. If convicted, Simpson could get up to 60 years in prison.

The families of the victims, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, have been on Simpson's case since the verdict, waiting for the $33.5 million that was due the Goldmans after winning a wrongful death lawsuit, as well as believing Simpson got away with murder. Which is why Simpson now resides in Florida, just to get away from them,

Before the arrest, the Browns and the Goldmans were all over TV debating the wisdom of publishing Simpson's book "If I Did It", whose rights now belong to the Goldmans. In the book, Simpson speculated on what would have happened if he really did kill Nicole and Ronald. The resulting firestorm of criticism caused Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to yank the book and Simpson's TV interview, firing the publisher in the process.

Up until the murder trial, Simpson was best known as a Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Southern California, a record-setting running back in the NFL, and an actor in movies and TV commercials. He's still in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and some say he shouldn't be there. If the various Halls of Fame cared more about its inductees' athletic credentials and less about their being solid citizens, Pete Rose, Michael Vick and Barry Bonds would have been voted in.

If the case goes to trial, the question will be: Can O.J. do it again? Will his team of attorneys be successful in getting an acquittal on armed robbery charges, just like they did in the murder trial? Sure, the situation and the locale are different, but things haven't changed much since the last time O.J. Simpson walked into a courtroom with his life on the line.