LOS ANGELES -- A jury of eight blacks, two Hispanics, one white and one person of mixed native American and white ancestry has been sworn in to try O.J. Simpson on charges that he murdered his ex-wife and her friend by stabbing them to death.


The football legend has pleaded innocent.


The panel consists of eight women and four men, ranging in age from 22 to 52 years old.


It was chosen after the prosecution and defence had each exercised 10 peremptory challenges to dismiss jurors without having to give a reason.


Immediately after the jury was selected, they stood, raised their right hands and were sworn in.


"The O.J. Simpson jury," Superior Court Judge Lance Ito said after they had been empaneled Thursday. "I want to welcome you to the league of judges because that's what you are now ... I know you can do a good job in this case and I trust you, each and every one of you."


Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola University in Los Angeles, who has followed the case closely, said she felt the panel would favor the defence.


Recent polls have shown that twice as many blacks as whites sympathize with Simpson, at a ratio of 68 percent to 34 percent. In addition, 37 percent of blacks believe Simpson is innocent compared to 10 percent of whites, and nearly half of blacks surveyed said they felt Simpson could not get a fair trial.


"The jury the way it is, is a very pro-defence jury," Levenson said.


A further 15 alternate jurors, whom Ito said he wanted to back up the primary panel, will be selected starting on Tuesday from the remaining seven jurors who were not challenged plus a second pool of 118 prospective jurors.


Alternates sit through the trial but do not deliberate the verdict unless a juror becomes ill or cannot deliberate for some other reason.


Simpson, 47, a football legend who moved from the football field to a successful career as a sportscaster, actor and commercial pitchman, has pleaded not guilty to the June 12, stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and her friend Ronald Goldman, 25.


The intense publicity surrounding the case has made jury selection a difficult and lengthy process. It began Sept. 26 with 94 prospective jurors.


Ito has indicated he does not expect the jury to hear opening arguments until January.