It was one of the most dramatic moments in courtroom history. Accused of a grisly double murder, former American football star OJ Simpson tried on a glove linked to the killing as the world watched on television only to struggle to make it fit.
Nearly 17 years after that defining episode played a key role in his controversial acquittal, one of the chief prosecutors in the case has said that the lead defence lawyer may have tampered with the crucial piece of evidence.
Christopher Darden, the former Los Angeles deputy district attorney, claimed that Johnnie Cochran had "manipulated" one of the gloves before Simpson tried to put it over his hand.
"I think Johnnie tore the lining," Mr Darden said during a panel discussion about the case in New York. "There were some additional tears in the lining so that OJ's fingers couldn't go all the way up into the glove."
Mr Darden said in a subsequent interview that the glove's shape seemed to have changed when, at the prosecution's request, Simpson was trying it on in front of the jury.
"A bailiff told me the defence had it during the lunch hour," he said. "It's been my suspicion for a long time that the lining has been manipulated."
Mr Cochran, who has since died, famously said to the jury of the glove: "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."
The images of Simpson trying to wiggle his fingers into a black glove that seemed too small for his hand remain one of the most indelible memories of the racially-charged 1995 trial that captivated America.
Simpson, now in prison for armed robbery, was accused of murdering his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in a brutal knife attack.
The evidence against him included a blood-soaked glove found on his estate and a matching one found at the murder scene.
Mr Darden's claims prompted an immediate denial from another leading member of the defence team. Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor, said it was "a total fabrication" that the defence had the opportunity to tamper with the glove. He said that the defence "doesn't get access to evidence except under controlled circumstances".
Mr Darden made his allegation after Mr Dershowitz, sitting on the same panel last week, called the prosecutor's decision to ask Simpson try on the glove "the most stupid thing" he could have done.
"Having made the greatest legal blunder of the 20th century, he's trying to blame it on the dead man," Mr Dershowitz said later of Mr Darden.
There have been various other theories offered about why the glove did not fit Simpson apart from that he had indeed never worn it. One was that it may have shrunk because of the blood that soaked it; another was that Simpson had stopped taking arthritis tablets before the trial so that his hand had swollen.
Mr Darden said he had expressed the same concerns about tampering previously, but others involved with the case said it was the first time they had heard them.
Two years after the acquittal, a civil jury found Simpson liable for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages to the families of the two victims. In 2007, he was sentenced to up to 33 years in prison for an armed robbery in Las Vegas in which he claimed he was trying to recover his own stolen sports memorabilia.
