JURY OF THE CENTURY

With the horrific doings in Oklahoma City, the doings in Los Angeles have quietly and appropriately slipped to the back pages of most people's minds. The Simpson double-murder trial is still a circus, but with all the sidebars and sideshows it's a slow-moving one, like a line of aged elephants lumbering around the big top. For months, the media focus had been on big names: Judge Lance Ito as he slowly lost his patience, breezy houseguest Kato Kaelin as he triumphantly pranced into his 16th minute of fame. But court watchers were reminded again last week that the most important people in the Simpson case are the ones known, like deli patrons, simply as numbers.

On Friday morning, two weeks of rumbling about clashes and cliques in the jury pool culminated in an unprecedented if short-lived mutiny. Thirteen jurors, upset by the dismissal of three deputies guarding the group, refused to come to court and demanded instead that Ito come to the hotel and hear them out. When the judge refused, the jurors relented; but when they filed into the courtroom, a majority of them (a biracial group of African Americans and Caucasians) were wearing black clothing as a symbol of protest. Testimony was canceled for the day so that Ito, once again, could turn his attention to the physical and psychological needs of his jury panel. Said Simpson defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey: "I've never seen anything like this. Not in 40 years."

Certainly the Simpson jury is well on its way to making judicial history as the most contentious and trouble-plagued panel in memory. Since the trial began in January, six jurors have been dismissed for reasons ranging from medical issues to misconduct, which leaves only 12 active jurors and six alternates. And with months of numbingly exhaustive testimony still to come, Ito is in danger of losing even more jurors to stress, boredom, personality conflicts or unforeseen dilemmas. Last week, juror No. 453, a flight attendant, asked Ito to let her go because she just "can't take it anymore."

Her request, which Ito has so far refused to grant, came amid the snowballing tensions prompted by the public statements of dismissed juror Jeanette Harris. She was ousted from the jury on April 5 for not reporting her experience with domestic abuse on the jury form. (Harris and her husband both deny that any domestic abuse ever took place.) She immediately proceeded to give interviews that portrayed the Simpson panel as a sandbox teeming with childish feuds and racist infighting. Among other things, Harris alleged that the guards from the Los Angeles County sheriff's office gave preferential treatment to the white jurors. Ito halted testimony to look into her charges, and last week, when juror No. 453 also accused the guards of insensitivity, the judge summarily replaced three of them, despite protests from law-enforcement officials.