Admittedly, due to my own small mindedness, whenever I’ve heard that a supposedly great historical personage owned slaves, I’ve shut down on said man and become unable to see him as anything other than a loser.

And I know that it would be totally magnanimous of me to be able to look beyond the slave owning towards the greatness and I do genuinely wish I had that ability.

You see, I understand that back when the American slave trade was at its apex, slavery was understood to be not only a respectable way to make and earn money, but biblically justified and—a stretch I know but—actually the work of the lord, civilizing, Christianizing and taking care of, as you will, those unable to rightly take care of themselves.

However, my belief has always been that a truly heroic historic personage would have done what was right at all times, regardless of what anyone else was doing.

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The fact that there were William Lloyd Garrisons even back when slavery was big business is evidence to me that not everybody was crazy and of course, for those that need it, it could be held as evidence that not all white people are inherently evil.

I’ve been shaking my head through my reading of John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Profiles in Courage because two of the guys that Kennedy has given ridiculously big ups to, Thomas Hart Benton and Sam Houston, were slave owners.

That, and the fact that Kennedy referred to certain Native American nations as “half-civilized”, has left me wondering why I expected better from our 35^th President.

I’ve always used the now dated analogy that trying to explain to certain people why I can’t see slave owners as heroes would be akin to trying to having a conversation with the same people about OJ Simpson with me concluding that Simpson was a great running back, a fair actor and a decent advertising pitchman.

When those people pestered me for more about OJ Simpson or what they perceived to be the “real” OJ Simpson, I’d strangely draw a blank because hey, whatever else OJ Simpson might have been, it certainly couldn’t have affected me.

LAS VEGAS — O.J. Simpson’s lawyer told a panel of Nevada Supreme Court justices Friday that the former football star’s conviction in a gunpoint hotel room heist amounted to prejudicial “payback” for Simpson’s 1994 double-murder acquittal.

“This was not a search for truth but became a search for redemption,” attorney Yale Galanter said as he pleaded for the court panel to overturn Simpson’s conviction and grant a new trial in the September 2007 confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers in Las Vegas.

Justices Mark Gibbons, Michael Cherry and Nancy Saitta won’t make an immediate ruling. A decision is expected later this year.

Text continues after gallery …

Neither Simpson nor convicted co-defendant Clarence “C.J.” Stewart were in court for the crucial oral appeals. Their attorneys previously filed lengthy briefs challenging their 2008 convictions and sentences but lost a bid for the same three justices to let Simpson and Stewart out of prison until the appeal is settled.

Simpson, an NFL hall-of-famer, actor and advertising pitchman who turns 63 next month, is serving nine to 33 years at a state prison in the northern Nevada town of Lovelock.

Stewart, 56, a former Simpson golfing buddy from North Las Vegas, is serving 7½ to 27 years at High Desert State Prison northwest of Las Vegas.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger says Simpson and Stewart’s September 2008 trial was contentious but fair, the sentences were just, and their appeals should be denied.

Galanter argues that Simpson’s fame — and his acquittal in the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman in Los Angeles — made the Las Vegas proceedings “a referendum on O.J. Simpson’s life.”

Galanter alleges judicial misconduct, insufficient evidence, a lack of racial diversity on the jury, and errors in sentencing and jury instructions.

“O.J. Simpson brought such baggage into the courtroom that special care had to be taken during jury selection, jury instruction, during testimony and the whole trial,” Galanter said Thursday. “There had to be heightened awareness to ensure that O.J. Simpson received a fair trial.”

Stewart’s lawyer, Brent Bryson, argues that the trial was all about Simpson, that Stewart should have been tried separately, and that the jury foreman hid a bias toward Simpson until after sentencing in December 2008.

Simpson and Stewart were convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery, conspiracy and other crimes. Four other men involved took plea deals and received probation after testifying for the prosecution.

Simpson maintained he went to the hotel room with five other men to retrieve family photos and mementoes that belonged to him, and he had no idea that two of the men brought guns.

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I’m not trying to say that she did something obvious like stab him and a friend that he knew from a restaurant, but if Gary Coleman’s wife looked like Orenthal James Simpson and Gary himself looked like Nicole Brown, there’s no way in the world that Shannon Price would have been able to get away with an excuse for Coleman’s death by head trauma like “he fell.”

“He fell.”

That’s what inmates say about another inmate that has visible injuries due to fighting.

“He fell.”

That should be known officially as the “Adebisi Explanation”.

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And the fact that the 42 year-old Coleman’s parents are a little suspicious is only fair. The guy was like 4’8” and had been known to have a volatile relationship with his very life-sized 25 year-old wife.

Everybody seems to know that even broke celebrities become worth something after death.

And if the celebrity in question is known for having a short temper, any admittance to a hospital should be red flagged with concern.

Gary Coleman, in life, was an outsized talent whose congenital kidney disease stunted his growth and prevented him from stretching his depth as an actor beyond the adorable Arnold Jackson character that he played on TV’s Diff’rent Strokes.

The Jackson character, whose trademark was a not so subtle rhetorical questioning of his TV older brother Todd Bridges in the form of the expression “Whatchu talkin’ bout, Willis?” became an iconic staple for anyone around or coming of age in the 1980’s.

Now just like Michael Jackson, Arnold Jackson is gone. The question rapidly becomes: was foul play to blame in both instances?

And the fact that Price was so quick to turn off Gary’s life support after his brain hemorrhage was determined isn’t helping her argument—if she even feels the need at this point to have an argument.

Personally, I don’t wanna jump to any conclusions. The only thing we know for a fact is that the man is dead.

But if even his parents can’t decide which excuse between “he fell down the stairs” and “he slipped in the bathtub” that they like the least, it would only be fair to at least begin to wonder if indeed anybody helped poor Gary fall.

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LOS ANGELES — The tan Armani suit, white shirt and gold tie that O.J. Simpson wore on the day he was acquitted of murder have been acquired by the Newseum in Washington, D.C., for a display exhibit on the “trial of the century”, the curator of the museum of news said Tuesday.

“For us, it’s a piece of news history that we will include in our collection of objects relating to the trial,” said Carrie Christofferson, the curator who was involved in negotiations to obtain the suit.

Mike Gilbert, Simpson’s former manager who has had possession of it, said he will fly to Washington and hand deliver the ensemble to the Newseum next week.

Click here to view photos of Athletes Behaving Badly:

“I hope it will be displayed in a way that will help people ponder the legal system and celebrity,” said Gilbert. “I’m happy that it will go somewhere where people can see it and remember where they were that day in history.”

RELATED: Teachers Remove OJ Simpson & Ru Paul From Black History Month

The acquisition ends a 13-year legal battle between Gilbert and Fred Goldman, the father of the man Simpson was charged with killing in 1994.

Both men claimed the right to the clothing Simpson was wearing Oct. 3, 1995, when he was acquitted of killing ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, after a televised trial that riveted the nation. The acquittal was viewed by millions on live TV.

Gilbert came up with the idea of a donation to a museum. He has kept the suit, shirt and tie in storage since shortly after Simpson’s acquittal.

The suit was first offered to the Smithsonian Institution, but the museum said it was not appropriate for its collection. Gilbert said the Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington also had been trying to acquire the suit, but the parties decided the appropriate venue was the Newseum.

Christofferson said it will be shown along with a collection of newspaper headlines, press passes, reporters’ notebooks and equipment used to televise the notorious trial.

RELATED: Glenn Beck Compares Tiger Woods To OJ Simpson

“It will help us tell the story of this massive trial of the last century,” she said.

Goldman’s attorney, David Cook, said he was pleased with the resolution in which no one will profit from the suit.

“People will ask me what Fred Goldman gets from this,” Cook said. “It’s not money, it’s not vengeance. It’s the enshrinement of the painfully inexplicable.

“It does further Fred Goldman’s goals because it keeps the story in front of America and, to that degree, it’s a success, as much as one can find any success in this terrible story,” Cook said.

Simpson attorney Ronald P. Slates said the former football star and actor, who is in prison in Nevada, was kept informed and agreed to the donation.

“We are very happy to have participated in this amicable resolution of this lawsuit,” said Slates. “This is an important part of the history of American jurisprudence. This way, nobody profits and the American public gets to view a centerpiece of this historic event.”

Ironically, Simpson, 62, is serving a minimum nine-year prison sentence in a case indirectly involving the suit. He was convicted of robbery and kidnapping in Las Vegas in October 2008 after a botched heist to retrieve his memorabilia he said was stolen by dealers. Witnesses said Simpson believed the suit was among the items offered for sale in a hotel room but it was not there.

RELATED: OJ Wants Appeal Because Of All-White Jury

LOS ANGELES – Three Los Angeles elementary school teachers accused of giving children portraits of O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul to carry in a Black History Month parade have been removed from their classrooms, a school district spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Children from other classes at the school displayed photos of more appropriate black role models, such as Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman and President Barack Obama, Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry said.

The incident occurred Friday at Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School in South Los Angeles, where the student body is more than 90 percent Latino.

District Superintendent Ramon Cortines placed the teachers — all white men who teach first, second and fourth grades — on administrative leave on Tuesday while an investigation is conducted, Pollard-Terry said.

“The superintendent will not let anyone make a mockery out of Black History Month,” she said.

The issue was brought to district officials’ attention by the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP after the organization received a complaint early Monday, chapter President Leon Jenkins said.

Jenkins said he felt the teachers acted in concert to mock black heroes and children’s innocence.

“These are not the people we want our young people to emulate or believe these people represent the best of the African-American community,” Jenkins said. “It’s hard for the NAACP to believe this was a mistake.”

Simpson, a former NFL star, is serving a nine-year prison sentence for robbery and kidnapping. He was famously acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife and her friend.

RuPaul is a drag queen performer. Rodman, a former NBA star, has gained notoriety for bad boy behavior on and off the basketball court.

Some parents at the school on Wednesday said the issue was overblown.

Sharon Tinson, who has two daughters at the school and attended Friday’s celebration, said she had been surprised to see Simpson displayed in the parade. But she noted that Simpson, like Rodman, was a great athlete before falling from grace. RuPaul simply has an alternative lifestyle, she added.

She noted the event also included a tribute to pop singer Michael Jackson, who has also had a checkered career.

“I kind of laughed at it,” Tinson said. “I wasn’t offended.”

Gabriel Blackson, whose son attends the school, said he also took a larger view of the ruckus.

“These guys were heroes before. People make mistakes,” he said. “I think they show kids they can be somebody, to push them to be somebody.”

Jenkins said he is calling for the teachers to be fired.

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From BVonSports.com:

I knew it was going to happen. As I explained to Don Lemon last night on CNN (the clip is below if you’d like to see it), there is a strong risk of Tiger Woods becoming “OJ Simpsonized” by his recent scandal. He started off as Barack Obama and with one exposure after another, he slides down the slope and ends up in no man’s land.

Well, Glenn Beck fulfilled that prophecy on his show, by comparing Tiger Woods to OJ Simpson.This scandal may get worse for Tiger Woods before it gets better. I spoke with Rev. Al Sharpton this afternoon, a man who I consider to be incredibly savvy when it comes to politics (notice that he was one of the few black public figures not to lose his power during the rise of Barack Obama). Rev. Sharpton made a very good point that Tiger Woods doesn’t have a base of support, which is also going to hurt him during his media on-slaught. When Sharpton and others spoke up in support of Woods after a golf announcer made a joke about “lynching him in a back alley,” Tiger promptly waved off his supporters by acting as if they were in the wrong. As a result, no one is standing up for him now.

Click here to read more.

WATCH it here:

RELATED:

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A trio of Nevada Supreme Court justices focused Monday on whether O.J. Simpson and a former golfing buddy received a fair trial in a gunpoint hotel room heist and whether the case was so unique that the two men should be freed from prison while their appeals are considered.

“This is post-conviction. That’s what concerns me,” Justice Michael Cherry declared during rare oral arguments by lawyers about whether the former football star and co-defendant Clarence “C.J.” Stewart should be allowed to post bond while their appeals are pending.

Cherry, the chairman of the three-judge panel considering the bond request, didn’t say how long he and justices Mark Gibbons and Nancy Saitta might take to decide.

It appeared unlikely a ruling would come before an Aug. 12 deadline for Clark County District Attorney David Roger to file a written answer to Simpson’s appeal.

Roger, who prosecuted Simpson and Stewart, argued Monday the men got a fair trial, a Nevada jury had spoken, and the pair should continue to serve their sentences for kidnapping and armed robbery.

It is unusual for the Nevada Supreme Court, the state’s only appeals court, to hear oral arguments about bond, and it would be even more unusual for Simpson or Stewart to be released. The last such high-profile appellant to get such a chance in Nevada skipped town after posting $100,000 in 1978.

The justices are weighing whether Simpson or Stewart might flee, whether they pose a danger to the community, and if they have a good chance of winning their appeals.

The question of their possible success was the key point of the hearing, and inquiries from the justices shed light on the issues they’re considering.

The justices asked each of the defense attorneys what was different about this case to warrant bail on convictions that carried mandatory prison time with no option of probation.

“I’ve been waiting for you to use the word severance!” Cherry declared, interrupting Stewart lawyer Brent Bryson when he said his client “should have never been tried with Mr. Simpson.”

Bryson asked the court to consider the many times before and during trial when he asked Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass to separate Stewart’s trial from Simpson’s.

“Her response was, ‘Severance is dead,”‘ Bryson said.

“I was waiting for you to come up to the Supreme Court with that,” said Cherry, who wrote a benchmark high court opinion several years ago on the issue.

Bryson, his voice rising, recalled Glass’ responses as, “‘Denied.’ ‘Sit down.’ ‘We’re going forward,”‘ and “‘You’re not going to get a separate trial.”‘ He told the court he believed he couldn’t divert his efforts to defend Stewart during trial to continue to fight Glass’ rulings.

“In the history of jurisprudence who else could we possibly imagine would be more prejudicial?” Bryson asked rhetorically about his client being tried with Simpson. “Charlie Manson, maybe? Dahmer? Hitler? Satan? Who else sitting next to someone they have on trial? It was extremely prejudicial.”

Simpson, 62, was acquitted on murder charges in the 1994 slaying of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, in Los Angeles. After the sensational criminal trial he was found liable for the deaths in civil court.

Simpson is serving nine to 33 years for kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon in the September 2007 confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas casino hotel room. Stewart, 55, is serving 71/2 to 27 years.

Neither was in the courtroom in Las Vegas on Monday while their attorneys argued neither had received a fair trial.

Simpson lawyer Yale Galanter insisted that Simpson would abide by any conditions the court set for his release, and that the NFL hall-of-famer, actor and celebrity criminal defendant couldn’t possibly disappear.

Galanter also spoke of Simpson’s uniqueness in “American jurisprudence.”

“He is probably the one individual on the planet who’s got no place to go and no place to hide,” Galanter said.

Galanter, who told the court he had been making arrangements for Simpson to live in Nevada and seek state residency, said afterward that he was optimistic the court would free Simpson pending his appeal.

“The trial, in all due respect to Judge Glass, was erroneous and just a sham,” Galanter said. “If ever there’s someone who deserves release it’s O.J. Simpson and C.J. Stewart.”

O.J. Simpson has appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court to overturn his convictions for armed robbery and kidnapping during a a Las Vegas hotel room confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers.

The appeal arrived Tuesday at the Supreme Court in Carson City.

The former football star, actor and advertising pitchman asks the high court to throw out his conviction on grounds that include judicial misconduct, insufficient evidence, a lack of racial diversity on the jury and errors in sentencing and jury instructions.

The document criticizes the trial judge, Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass, and accuses prosecutors of improperly asking questions about allegations of witness intimidation in front of the jury.

“Cumulative error … was so egregious and prejudicial that the defense could not get a fair trial,” Simpson attorneys Yale Galanter and Malcolm LaVergne wrote in seeking the reversal.

Appeals in Nevada can take more than a year. Supreme Court spokesman Bill Gang said there was no way to know when the justices might rule.

“The amount of time it takes depends on the number and complexity of the issues raised,” Gang said.

Simpson, 61, maintains that he was trying to retrieve property stolen from him when he and five other men confronted the two sports collectibles peddlers in a Las Vegas casino hotel room in September 2007.

Simpson and a co-defendant were convicted last October and sentenced in December. Simpson got nine to 33 years in state prison. He is housed at a prison in Lovelock, about 90 miles east of Reno.

He was acquitted in 1995 of charges he murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. But he later was held liable for the deaths in a civil court case.

At a recent performance of VH-! Storytellers Kanye had some interesting things to say. According to Reuters, Kanye said “Can’t we give Chris a break? … I know I make mistakes in life.” and also “O.J. Simpson, amazing. Is he not? What he did, when he did, what he did. Was he not amazing though?”

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A broken O.J. Simpson has been sentenced to at least 15 years in prison for a Las Vegas hotel armed robbery by a judge who rejected his apology and said, “It was much more than stupidity.”

UPDATE: O.J. Simpson is headed to prison for at least nine years, but a prosecutor says the former football star could have spent less time behind bars if he had accepted a plea deal before he was convicted.

Video after the jump

Clark County District Attorney David Roger said Simpson was offered a deal for less prison time than the nine- to 33-year prison terms the graying former football star was sentenced to on Friday for kidnapping and assaulting two sports memorabilia dealers with a deadly weapon.

“Mr. Simpson wanted something just short of a public apology,” Roger said. “We didn’t think that was appropriate.”

Roger did not offer specifics of the deal and Simpson’s defense lawyers declined to discuss details.

“There was nothing that was palatable. Nothing acceptable,” Simpson lawyer Yale Galanter said.

Co-defendant Clarence “C.J.” Stewart also rejected a deal that would have had him plead guilty to unspecified reduced charges in return for a promised sentence less than the 7 1/2 to 27 years he received, the prosecutor and defense lawyers said.

“It was a universal deal,” said Stewart’s lawyer, Brent Bryson. “Both defendants had to accept it. As we know, that didn’t happen.”

An emotional and hoarse Simpson said nothing about plea deals when he stood in shackles and blue jail garb and apologized before he was sentenced by Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass.

“In no way did I mean to hurt anybody, to steal anything from anyone,” Simpson said, his voice cracking. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all of it.”

The judge said she was not convinced, and she denied that Simpson’s acquittal in Los Angeles in the 1994 slaying of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, had any effect on a sentence that will make Simpson 70 years old before he is eligible for parole.

“I’m not here to try and cause any retribution or any payback for anything else. I want that to be perfectly clear to everybody,” the judge said.

She called the evidence overwhelming, with the planning, confrontation and aftermath all recorded on audio or videotape.

“You went to the room, and you took guns,” Glass told Simpson. “You used force. You took property, whether it was yours or somebody else’s. And in this state, that amounts to robbery, with use of a deadly weapon.”

“And Mr. Stewart, you got caught up in something,” the judge added. “I’m not sure how much you knew. But clearly Mr. Simpson knew.”

Simpson and Stewart were each convicted Oct. 3 of 12 criminal charges, including the kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon which led to their sentences, and the armed robbery, conspiracy and burglary sentences that the judge folded in with the rest. Glass threw out two coercion charges.

“We were preparing Mr. Simpson for the worst,” Galanter said later. “We felt we did really well. Obviously, he’s upset about the possibility of doing nine years.”

Roger called it “a fair and just sentence under the circumstances” and said during a news conference that because the crimes were considered violent felonies, Simpson and Stewart won’t be eligible for good time credits to lessen the minimum sentences.

The prosecutor said he did not expect they would immediately be released when they do seek parole.

Galanter and Bryson said they intend to appeal their clients’ convictions. But they postponed plans to file notices of appeal Friday, after Glass asked them attend a Tuesday morning restitution hearing concerning the items stolen from memorabilia peddlers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley.

The hearing will coincide with sentencings for four former co-defendants in the case who took plea deals and testified against Simpson and Stewart. Michael McClinton, Charles Cashmore, Walter Alexander and Charles Ehrlich each could get probation or prison time. McClinton could get up to 11 years; the others face less

Simpson stood stone-faced Friday when Judge Jackie Glass quickly rattled off his punishment after he pleaded with her that he didn’t mean to steal from anybody when he tried to retrieve memorabilia.

He appeared ready to break down in tears as he told that he was “sorry and confused” before going into a rambling and emotional 5-minute declaration.

“I didn’t want to steal anything from anyone … I’m sorry, sorry,” he said.

Glass ruled before sentencing that Simpson cannot be freed on bail pending possible appeal.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — O.J. Simpson is going to prison. The question is for how long.

The former football star who ran through airports in rental car ads and walked away a free man after a celebrated murder trial will learn Friday how much time he’ll spend in a Nevada state prison for a botched attempt to recover sports mementoes and personal items from two collectibles peddlers.

Neither Simpson, a Hall of Fame football player who was acquitted of the 1994 slaying of his ex-wife and her friend in Los Angeles, nor his co-defendant and former golfing buddy, Clarence “C.J. Stewart, testified before they were convicted Oct. 3 of 12 criminal charges including kidnapping and armed robbery.

Now they face mandatory prison time — a minimum of six years and up to life.

Simpson attorney Yale Galanter has said Simpson won’t address the court.

Stewart will, said his lawyer, Brent Bryson.

“Best case scenario we’re hoping for is six years. That’s the bottom-end number before being eligible for parole,” Bryson said.

Simpson lawyer Gabriel Grasso said he expected Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass would keep the proceedings short.

“She wants to hear from the lawyers and she wants to hear from the defendants. That’s about it,” Grasso said.

Their lawyers said the two men were expected to appear in court in blue jail scrubs after the judge denied their request to let them wear suits and ties. Glass refused a similar request at a Nov. 7 hearing at which they appeared in shackles while she denied requests for a new trial.

District Attorney David Roger is not expected to call witnesses, spokesman Dan Kulin said.

Glass, a tough sentencing judge, can ignore or accept a sentencing report from state parole and probation officials who recommended Simpson, 61, and Stewart, 54, serve a minimum of 18 years to life.

That would be the total if minimum penalties for two counts of first-degree kidnapping and two counts of armed robbery with use of a deadly weapon run consecutively. Penalties for assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, coercion and conspiracy would be folded in with that term, under the parole recommendation.

Glass received written pleas for leniency from defense lawyers and is expected to rule on a request to let Simpson post bail and be freed from jail while he appeals his conviction.

Simpson attorney Yale Galanter has said he intends to file an appeal quickly with the Nevada Supreme Court, the state’s only appellate court.

“Notwithstanding the jury verdict,” Grasso said in a brief seeking Simpson’s release, “Simpson continues to maintain his innocence.”

Jurors who heard 13 days of testimony and spent 13 hours deliberating said after the verdict that they were convinced of Simpson’s guilty by audio recordings middleman Thomas Riccio secretly made of the Sept. 13, 2007, Palace Station casino hotel confrontation with sports memorabilia brokers Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong.

“Don’t let nobody out of this room!” Simpson commands, and instructs other men to scoop up items he insists had been stolen from him earlier.

Glass is scheduled Tuesday to sentence four former co-defendants who took plea deals and testified against Simpson and Stewart. Michael McClinton, Charles Cashmore, Walter Alexander and Charles Ehrlich each could get probation or prison time. McClinton could get up to 11 years; the others face less.

Simpson faces up to life in prison.

Jurors in the O.J. Simpson trial reached a verdict Friday after working into the night, deliberating the fate of the former football star and a co-defendant accused of robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a casino hotel room.

“We have a verdict,” said Michael Sommermeyer, spokesman for the Clark County District Court. He said it would be read after all the defendants, lawyers and prosecutors arrived at the court.

The jury reached a decision after deliberating for more than 13 hours.

Simpson, 61, and a golfing buddy, Clarence “C.J.” Stewart, 54, each face five years to life in prison if convicted of kidnapping, or mandatory prison time if convicted of armed robbery. They’ve pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including conspiracy, coercion and assault with a deadly weapon.

Deliberations began 13 years to the day after Simpson was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles.

The jury sent one note to the judge around 3 p.m. with what the court spokesman called a “procedural question.”

Judge Jackie Glass responded with instructions to look at documents they had already been given, Sommermeyer said.

The jury of nine women and three men heard 12 days of testimony, capped by prosecutors’ arguments Thursday that the Las Vegas case had its roots in the 1994 slayings.

Prosecutors alleged Simpson planned — and Stewart helped carry out — a plot to retrieve personal items that Simpson lost after squirreling them away to avoid turning them over to Goldman’s family to satisfy part of a $33.5 million civil wrongful death judgment levied in 1997 by a California court.

Four men who accompanied Simpson, Stewart and a middle man to the Palace Station casino hotel for the Sept. 13, 2007, confrontation later pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution. Thomas Riccio, the man who arranged and secretly recorded the meeting, testified under immunity from prosecution.

Simpson’s lawyer, Yale Galanter, told the jury the prosecution didn’t prove Simpson was guilty in the criminal case that he said “has taken on a life of its own because of Mr. Simpson’s involvement.”

“Every cooperator, every person who had a gun, every person who had an ulterior motive, every person who signed a book deal, every person who got paid money — the police, the district attorney’s office, is only interested in one thing: Mr. Simpson,” Galanter said.

Stewart’s lawyer, Brent Bryson, presented his client as the trial’s forgotten man.

Since Sept. 15, the jury heard 22 often colorful witnesses — including seven of the nine people who were in the cramped hotel room. They listened to numerous replays of secret recordings made before, during and after the alleged robbery.

Neither Simpson nor Stewart testified, and jurors were instructed not to consider that when judging the case.

Glass kept a tight rein on the proceedings and rejected several mistrial motions. She read 41 legal instructions to the jurors and six alternates before the panel heard closing arguments.

AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch contributed to this report.

A key character is waiting to testify in the O.J. Simpson armed robbery-kidnapping trial.

From a downtown Las Vegas hotel, Thomas Riccio, the colorful collectibles broker who arranged the crucial meeting between Simpson and two memorabilia dealers, told The Associated Press by telephone that he was ready and waiting to be called to the courthouse.

“They told me, ‘Anytime from late Tuesday to early Thursday,’” Riccio said. He said prosecutors told him to expect to be on the stand for up to a day and a half and also asked him to “refrain from talking before I testify.”

“I hope they don’t just have to go by what I say,” added Riccio, who said he gave authorities more than 10 hours of audio recorded before, during and after the Sept. 13, 2007, alleged armed robbery in a Las Vegas casino hotel room. “All they have to do is listen to my tapes.”

Simpson and co-defendant Clarence “C.J.” Stewart are being tried on 12 charges, including armed robbery, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon and coercion. They have pleaded not guilty. A kidnapping conviction could result in a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. An armed robbery conviction could mean mandatory prison time.

Trial was to resume Wednesday with a taped presentation by an FBI forensic audio expert whose appearance was videotaped last month for the jury while he is traveling outside the country.

On Tuesday, surveillance experts from the Palace Station and Palms hotels in Las Vegas provided testimony about videos showing the comings and goings of Simpson; the five men who accompanied Simpson; Riccio; and memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley.

The jury already has heard snippets of recordings made by Riccio, 45, of Los Angeles, who set up the meeting and received immunity from prosecution.

Riccio, who sold recordings to a celebrity gossip Web site before police obtained them, testified at a hearing last November that he saw a gun in the room, but that he was not sure Simpson saw a gun.

Simpson has maintained that no guns were used, and that he only wanted to retrieve personal belongings from Fromong and Beardsley.

Riccio’s lawyer, Stanley Lieber, said he expected Riccio’s testimony would draw contentious challenges from the defense.

“He’s got a past. They’ll play that up,” Lieber said.

Riccio published a book last April that he touted as an inside account of events leading to Simpson’s arrest.

Lieber said he did not know if Riccio gained many takers for his promises to mention commercial products, restaurants and services while the spotlight is on him at the Simpson trial.

Watch a Clip From the Trial