
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 23, 1994                   TAG: 9407250060
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

`ABSOLUTELY, 100% NOT GUILTY'

No longer a morose, distracted man barely able to utter his own name, O.J. Simpson declared himself ``absolutely, 100 percent not guilty'' Friday in the slayings of his ex-wife and a friend of hers.

Standing tall and speaking firmly, the 47-year-old former football star entered his plea in a nationally televised arraignment, the latest step in what promises to be one of the most closely watched murder trials in U.S. history.

When he left the courtroom for a nearby holding cell, Simpson - who once said he couldn't bear to return to a similar lockup - gave a thumbs-up to friends. They smiled back.

Simpson's more confident demeanor was the latest signal that the defense is preparing an all-out legal offensive to prove that he is innocent and has been wrongly, perhaps maliciously, accused of murder.

To that end, Simpson added yet another high-profile lawyer to his legal team, Johnnie Cochran Jr. A gifted trial attorney, Cochran has represented such celebrities as Michael Jackson.

And, in a case that has taken on racial overtones, Cochran's addition gives the team its first black lawyer and someone with close ties to local black leaders.

Another player who entered the case Friday is Superior Court Judge Lance Ito, who was selected to preside over Simpson's trial. The 43-year-old Ito is no stranger to the limelight: He presided over the securities fraud trial of Charles Keating in the most notorious case to emerge from the nation's savings and loan debacle.

As expected, Simpson's arraignment before Supervising Superior Court Judge Cecil Mills was brief, with Simpson entering an anticipated innocent plea to double murder in the June 12 slashing deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and Ronald Goldman, 25. Prosecutors said they still haven't decided whether to seek the death penalty.

Mills set a pretrial hearing before Ito for July 29, the same day Simpson's friend Al "A.C." Cowlings will hear whether he faces charges for his role in Simpson's freeway flight from police June 17.

by CNB