THE O.J. SIMPSON MURDER TRIAL

UCLA law professor Peter Arenella and Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson offer their take on the Simpson trial. Joining them is Santa Monica defense lawyer Roger Cossack, who will rotate with other experts as the case moves forward. Today’s topic: The prosecution begins to present physical evidence through Los Angeles Police Department criminalist Dennis Fung.

PETER ARENELLA

On the prosecution: Hank Goldberg’s understated style and Fung’s methodical testimony reinforced a central prosecution theme: Criminalists collected the physical evidence linking Simpson to the crime scenes in a manner that avoided contamination. Goldberg’s use of charts helped jurors understand steps that must be taken to gather biological evidence, and photos he showed left the impression that there was a mountain of evidence incriminating O.J.

PETER ARENELLA

On the defense: The defense should be grateful they still have Dr. Irwin Golden to kick around. They hope to use his outrageous comments about shooting lawyers and mistakes he made in this case to deflect the jury’s attention from the bloody gloves, blood drops and other forensic evidence. What remains is whether Judge Ito will permit the defense to attack Golden’s bad judgment at the cost of allowing the prosecution to go after defense expert Kary Mullis’ peccadilloes.

LAURIE LEVENSON

On the prosecution: The prosecutors realize they are entering the most important phase of the trial--the blood evidence--and they certainly are not treating it like a slam dunk. Rather, Hank Goldberg is carefully taking Fung through the collection of the evidence in a preemptive strike against the defense contamination theory. Although much of Fung’s testimony was dry, the bloody glove helped spice up the presentation.

LAURIE LEVENSON

On the defense: Even though the defense has not asked Fung a question yet, they have affected the prosecution’s game plan. Cochran’s opening statement, contending there was a cesspool of contamination, has forced the prosecutors to travel slowly through the blood evidence. Meanwhile, the defense is readying its attack on Golden, who clearly is no fan of lawyers. But the judge may rule that telling the jury about his outrageous actions is out of bounds.

ROGER COSSACK

On the prosecution: The prosecution has two difficult problems. They have to take this most important part of the case--the make-or-break physical evidence--which is not that exciting, and capture the jurors’ interest and keep their attention. They showed things we have never seen before, such as the bloody glove, to help them tell the story of how evidence is collected. And they still are stuck with Golden whether they like him or not.

ROGER COSSACK

On the defense: The defense has shot up trial balloons that the LAPD did sloppy work. Now they have to show if the authorities made mistakes that were meaningful. For example, they say the failure to preserve Nicole Simpson’s stomach contents affects their ability to determine her time of death. The real question is how much that mistake affects the ability to determine time of death and the prosecution has other evidence on this issue.

Compiled by HENRY WEINSTEIN / Los Angeles Times