O. J. Simpson took sure strides into the courtroom for his
arraignment in Superior Court, smiled slightly and flashed a thumbs-
up to supporters in the spectator section. He exuded a determination
familiar from another time, when he was simply O. J. the football
star. During his first court appearance a month earlier, television
showed a dazed and depressed Simpson, who could barely be heard
uttering his name and was prevented from wearing a tie or belt for
fear he might kill himself. Now, with a newfound confidence, he
entered his plea in perfect sound-bite fashion: "Absolutely, 100
percent, not guilty." With the preliminary hearing over, reporters
commented that Simpson seemed ready for the run of his life.

In the days following the hearing, a flurry of media reports
swirled around the judicial candidates for the top spot in the case.
What was certain, whoever was assigned as presiding judge in the
Simpson trial was assured instant fame. The winner of the Simpson
lottery turned out to be Superior Court Judge Lance Ito, an
appointment that took the press corps by surprise. At the time, Ito
was an administrative judge, in charge of assigning trials rather
than presiding over them. And he had seemed eager to eliminate
himself from the running when he told a Los Angeles legal paper that
a judge "would have to be crazy" to take on the Simpson case and the
scrutiny it would receive. "I was amazed that he took the case--he
seemed much more savvy than that," said Associated Press reporter

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