Beginning with a statement aimed at overcoming a litany of physical evidence cited by the prosecution Tuesday, Johnnie Cochran called the trial "this search for justice, this search for truth" and the jurors "the conscience of this community."
Simpson is charged in the June 12 slashing deaths of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
"The evidence will show that O.J. Simpson is an innocent man wrongfully accused," Cochran told the jurors. "This case is about a rush to judgment, an obsession to win at any cost."
Minutes earlier, Superior Court Judge Lance Ito accepted Court TV's apology for accidentally broadcasting the face of an alternate juror during filming of the trial Tuesday. Ito said he will allow only a single, static shot of the courtroom until other physical limitations on the camera can be installed.
Ito said he was summoning the alternate juror to ask her whether the incident would interfere with her ability to be fair. The alternate would be shown the tape of the brief moment during which the camera accidentally broadcast her face during a prosecutor's opening statements.
The move cleared the way for the defense to present its opening statement on live international television.
The postponement of the defense's opening statements had been a blow, denying Cochran the opportunity to immediately counter the prosecution's case and present the defense's theory in detail for the first time.
In their presentation Tuesday, prosecutors unveiled a case packed with physical evidence. They alleged that Simpson literally left a trail of blood from the bodies to his Bronco to the foot of his bed. Prosecutors essentially confirmed months of news reports about lab tests. Among their allegations:
?A pair of dark socks found near O.J. Simpson's bed contained blood that matched Nicole Simpson's.
?The glove found behind O.J. Simpson's mansion held a cocktail of incriminating evidence: a blood mixture that matched the blood of O.J. Simpson and both victims; hairs like Goldman's and fibers similar to those on his shirt.
?A blood stain in O.J. Simpson's Bronco matched Nicole Simpson's blood.
?Blood drops at the crime scene matched O.J. Simpson's blood.
?And a set of bloody footprints -- size 12, the same as O.J. Simpson's -- were found leading away from the bodies.
For emotional punch, the prosecution showed the jury photos -- many of them projected on a large overhead TV screen -- of the slashed, crumpled bodies of Nicole Simpson and Goldman.
The prosecution contended Simpson killed out of jealousy after his ex-wife broke off their relationship for good.
The prosecution left two major questions unanswered: Where's the murder weapon? And where are the clothes that would have been bloodied during the violent knife slayings?
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