THE O.J. SIMPSON MURDER TRIAL : Simpson Shows Scars in Case’s Battle of Wounded Knee

O.J. Simpson looked embarrassed. He shambled across the courtroom to the jury box and, at his lawyer’s instruction, rolled up his left pant leg.

Jurors stood up to get a better view. They saw a misshapen knee laced with scars from surgeries and football injuries. Sheriff’s deputies stood on either side of Simpson, then escorted him back to his seat.

“Mother Nature and Father Time have taken their toll,” attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. had said moments earlier, depicting his famous client as an athlete in decline, his body racked by two different forms of arthritis.

Prosecutors noted Tuesday that Simpson played golf and cards with his friends hours before Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman were slain.

Yes, Cochran acknowledged, but he needed a golf cart to get around and his hands were so painful later in the day he couldn’t shuffle a deck of cards.