O.J. Simpson goes to trial, dogged by his past

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Prosecutors say Beardsley and Fromong were lured to the room and held against their will at gunpoint. Defense lawyer Yale Galanter say prosecutors overreached for charges against Simpson. He called the witnesses against him "a cast of very nefarious characters" with credibility problems and a financial incentive to twist their stories.

Some believe the new trial will be shadowed by the past.

"For the public, it's justice delayed," said Jerry Reisman, a Garden City, N.Y., attorney who represented Simpson on business matters before the murder case.

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"I think the public is going to see and hear what they want to and hope that he is convicted," Reisman said. "It's going to be difficult for O.J. to get a fair trial. A lot of the public believes he was guilty of the crimes he was charged with back then and he got away with it."

The challenge for Simpson's attorneys will be to keep the focus on the current charges, he said.

Ian Weinstein, a professor of criminal law at Fordham University who has followed Simpson's legal travails over the years, said the "celebrity factor" may weigh in favor of Simpson if jurors are old enough to remember his triumphs as well as his downfall.

"Some of us have a longer view of him," Weinstein said. "My students in our law school know him only as a celebrity with legal problems. But to me he's still the guy running through the airport in the Hertz commercials."