The trial of O.J. Simpson is finally set to begin in Los Angeles this morning.
The former football star is being sued for wrongful death by the families of his former
wife and Ronald Goldman.
For all concern, the rules of evidence and engagement will be far different from the
criminal trial.
There will be no cameras in the courtroom as jury selection gets underway today, Tuesday,
September the 17th, 1996.
From NBC News, this is Today with Bryant Gumbel and Katie Curran, live from Studio 1A in Rockefeller
Plaza.
And good morning.
Welcome to Today on a Tuesday morning, a very wet Tuesday morning in the Northeast.
Very wet.
Man, is it coming down.
We're going to get more on that in just a little bit.
We want to talk about the O.J. Simpson trial this morning, almost a year after he was acquitted
in the criminal trial, right?
Right, right.
And I say, Bryant, it's going to be a very, very different trial than the criminal trial
was.
But that, really the fact is all civil trials are very different than the criminal trial.
We're going to be talking with our legal expert, Jack Ford, about that.
And it's likely that O.J. Simpson won't even be present at the civil trial.
Instead, he'll be at an Orange County courthouse fighting for custody of his two children.
We'll be talking with two people with very different opinions about who should get custody
of Justin and Sidney Simpson in this half hour.
Katie, in advance of that, we're going to go to a detention center in Arkansas there
to talk with Susan McDougal, who is in jail for refusing to answer questions about the
Clintons and the Whitewater deal.
She continues to maintain the Clintons did nothing wrong and that she's been victimized
by a political witch hunt.
We'll talk with her in just a little bit.
You're going to deal with Oprah Winfrey a little bit later.
Right.
She's going to tell us the secret of her success in terms of the kind of low-fat food she's
been eating, because now she's at a good weight and feeling good and is convinced she's going
to stay there.
Yeah, she looks good.
We're going to talk about preventing unintentional injuries.
We're going to introduce you to an eight-year-old who's an expert in presidential trivia.
He'll put us to shame.
Oh, easily.
That's not the criteria.
Look at Vidal.
He's a real expert.
Let's go on to the news desk.
Get the morning started, Matt.
Laura, Matt, good morning.
And Brian and Katie, good morning to you.
Good morning, everyone.
In Santa Monica, California, it's time for the other O.J. Simpson trial to go to court.
This time it is a civil suit filed by the families of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole, and
her friend, Ronald Goldman.
The charge that Simpson wrongfully caused their deaths.
And this time the cameras will stay out of the courtroom.
Details now from NBC's George Lewis.
This trial is being held in Santa Monica, not in downtown Los Angeles, which means the
face of the jury will be different.
Simpson himself will not be present until later this week.
He's fighting for the custody of his two small children, Justin and Sydney, and he's...