O J Simpson returns to court on armed robbery charges

The latest chapter in O J Simpson's long descent from national hero to public disgrace will open in Las Vegas tomorrow, when the former sports star and Hollywood actor returns to a courtroom yet again to plead for his freedom.

Thirteen years after the so-called "trial of the century", which saw Simpson sensationally acquitted of stabbing his ex-wife and her new partner to death, a jury will consider 12 new felony counts against him, including armed robbery and kidnapping.

The charges result from an incident last September, when Simpson, now 61, is alleged to have led a curious collection of associates, including three convicted criminals, to a Las Vegas casino hotel room. They allegedly held two dealers in sports memorabilia at gunpoint as they took back items relating to Simpson's career as a Hall of Fame running back for the Buffalo Bills American football team.

Four of the five men who accompanied Simpson that day have already pleaded guilty to criminal charges, and have agreed to testify against him. The fifth, a golfing buddy named Clarence "C J" Stewart, will be his co-accused. If convicted, both Stewart and Simpson face sentences of up to 61 years in prison. The evidence includes a tape recording of the hotel room encounter, made by Thomas Riccio – a friend of the dealers – and later sold to the celebrity website TMZ.com.

In his defence, Simpson will say that he was merely trying to retrieve personal belongings and family heirlooms that had been stolen. He didn't ask anyone to bring guns, he says, and had no idea that anyone in the room happened to be armed. Simpson has long been obsessed with maintaining control over memorabilia from his sporting career in the 1970s. He now lives in semi-retirement in Florida, and a major source of his income is selling autographs.

Hanging over every aspect of his everyday life is the shadow of the 1994 death of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, who was found slashed to death at home in Los Angeles, along with her friend, Ronald Goldman. Immediately after that killing, Simpson led police on a low-speed chase along local freeways, watched by millions of TV viewers. He was arrested and charged with the murder, only to be acquitted a year later.

His legal troubles didn't end there, though. A civil jury later held him liable for the killings, but he refused to pay the $33.5m (£19m) in damages, using a string of elaborate legal manoeuvres to stave off bankruptcy. More recently, Simpson was tried in a road-rage case and acquitted. Family disputes went public: the National Enquirer last week carried a report of a fist fight with his 39-year-old daughter Arnelle.

In 2006, Simpson wrote a book called If I Did It, which advanced a hypothetical description of how he might have murdered his wife, had he been so inclined. Shortly before publication, the book was withdrawn and pulped by HarperCollins, which had printed 400,000 copies. In August 2007, a Florida bankruptcy court gave the rights to the book to the Goldman family, who published it under the title I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.

There is now widespread debate in legal circles over whether Simpson can ever be guaranteed a fair trial. "The public is going to see and hear what they want to, and hope that he is convicted," said Jerry Reisman, a New York attorney who has represented Simpson on business matters. "It's going to be difficult for O J to get a fair trial. A lot of the public believes he was guilty of the crimes he was charged with back then, and [that] he got away with it." If convicted of any charge of kidnapping, robbery or conspiracy, under Nevada law Simpson would be likely to spend at least 15 years in prison.

Ian Weinstein, a professor in criminal law at Fordham University and an expert on Simpson's case, says it will turn on the credibility of Simpson's former friends, who are now acting as prosecution witnesses.

"The tape recording is not subject to dispute," he said. "It shows that Simpson was there in that hotel room and that he was agitated and wanted the items back. It does not, however, solve the key part: were there guns in that room, and did he know that guns were being brought?

"This case turns on the credibility of co-operative witnesses. If you look at their background, and self-interest in getting a deal, you can certainly make their evidence look unreliable. So O J has a substantial defence. But across the US court system, co-operative witness evidence is often used, and juries often convict. So it can work both ways."

Thanks to changes in legal protocol, which make today's US judges far less likely to allow celebrity cases to be televised, the trial is unlikely to become a sensation on a par with Simpson's 1994 arrest and subsequent murder trial, which was followed live by a large TV audience.

Many Americans believe that Simpson's previous trial undermined the standing of the US justice system, and say tomorrow's case represents an opportunity to right any perceived wrongs.

"A lot of people think this guy got away with something heinous and horrible in the Nineties," said Jean Rosenbluth, a former federal prosecutor. "They think he should only get one get-out-of-jail-free card."

Life and Times: From hero to humiliation

After retiring as a football player in 1979, O J Simpson embarked on a new career in the movies.

12 June 1994 Stabbed bodies of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, found outside her apartment.

18 June 1994 Simpson arrested after pursuit along Los Angeles freeways.

24 January 1995 Murder trial begins.

3 October 1995 Simpson found not guilty after the longest jury trial in Californian history.

5 February 1997 Simpson lost a civil trial in which he was judged to have wrongfully caused the deaths of Brown and Goldman. Ordered to pay $33.5m (£19m) damages.

4 December 2000 Found not guilty of assaultin a road-rage incident.

15 November 2006 Outrage as Simpson's book 'If I Did It, Here's How It Happened' is scheduled for release by Rupert Murdoch's HarperCollins. The book is pulped.

14 August 2007 Book rights awarded to the Goldman family as part of Simpson's still unpaid damages. Book published in altered form.

13 September 2007 Simpson and associates allegedly hold sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in Las Vegas.

16 September 2007 Arrested on suspicion of involvement in a robbery to retrieve memorabilia.