O.J. . . . SETBACK FOR THE RACE CARD

O.J. Simpson's defensesuffered a setback when a North Carolina judge ruled that, despite screenwriter Laura Hart McKinny's assertion that Los Angeles Police detective Mark Furman used racial slurs during taped interviews, the defense could not compel her to testify. McKinney's testimony seemed to contradict the detective's flat denial that he had ever used such slurs during the past ten years when he was under cross-examination by defense attorney F. Lee Bailey. The defense would like to undercut that testimony, saysTIME's James Willwerth. "What's really at stake here is playing the racial card. The defense theory that Mark Furman was part of some racist conspiracy in the police department was effectively blunted when Furman came through Bailey's examination. The defense is trying anything they can to convince at least one of the black jurors that Furman is a racist and could have framed O.J."