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SCMP Reporter

SIMPSON'S famous dream team of lawyers turned out to be a nightmare yesterday.

  One-time lead attorney Robert Shapiro revealed that the much-rumoured rift between the lawyers was a reality.

  Mr Shapiro, a close friend of his freed client, lashed out at the other lawyers in the case and vowed never to work with them again.

  He admitted that not only did the defence lawyers play the 'race card' to the jury - made up of nine blacks, two whites and one hispanic - but, he confessed, 'we dealt it from the bottom of the deck'.

  Mr Shapiro told ABC television: 'My position was always the same, that race would not and should not be a part of this case. I was wrong.'   Mr Shapiro angrily attacked his fellow dream team lawyer Johnnie Cochran, who ousted him from the team's leadership, for changing the rules.

  He blamed Mr Cochran for being 'in charge of the overall strategy' of the defence.

  Mr Shapiro said bluntly: 'He believes that everything in America is related to race. I do not.'   Mr Shapiro, who is Jewish, said he was surprised and 'deeply offended' when Mr Cochran, in his closing remarks, likened racism to the Holocaust and accused investigating former detective Mark Fuhrman of being a modern-day Hitler.

  He said: 'To me the Holocaust stands alone as the most horrible human event in modern civilisation. And with the Holocaust came Adolf Hitler, and to compare this in any way to a rogue cop, in my opinion, was wrong.'   Although it was Mr Shapiro's decision to bring famed lawyer F. Lee Bailey into the case, he revealed that he was angry when the legendary legal eagle took a courtroom role and cross-examined witnesses. 'I will never talk to F. Lee Bailey again,' he said.

  Mr Shapiro claimed that it was his decision that his client did not testify.

   'O. J. always wanted to take the stand,' he said, claiming that Mr Cochran and Mr Bailey also favoured it.

  But Mr Shapiro claimed he stayed firm with his decision.

  He said: 'If Simpson testified and made one mistake, he would be convicted.'   Mr Shapiro said he knew ahead of time that the pair of gloves, which proved to be crucial evidence, were not Simpson's size.

   He said that he tried them on his own, smaller hands, and they fitted him.

  Mr Shapiro said he advised Simpson: ' 'You are going to be asked to try on these gloves and they will not fit you' . . .

  'And he looked at me and he said: 'That's what I've been telling you, that's what I've been saying' .'   So far Mr Cochran, who has emerged as the star attorney of the case, and Mr Bailey have not publicly responded to Mr Shapiro's amazing and unexpected attack.

  All three men attended Simpson's freedom party, which was held at his mansion in West Los Angeles.

  However, Mr Cochran told acquaintances that race played a part of everyday life in America and that Mr Shapiro 'has not realised that yet'.

    He also said he was 'very sorry' that Mr Shapiro felt as he did about him and the way he had handled the trial.



Dream team's nightmare