SIMPSON BACK ON STAND TODAY.

Byline: Anne Burke Daily News Staff Writer

O.J. Simpson gets back on the witness stand today in his wrongful-death trial, but don't count on a lot of answers to those nagging questions about Bruno Magli shoes, wife-beating, DNA and cut fingers.

Legal experts predict the ex-football star will steer clear of the negative and stick to doing what he does best - selling O.J. Simpson.

``The defense is putting him on to describe himself as the loving ex-husband and the loving father who would never kill the mother of his children, especially when they were in the house,'' said USC law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky.

``We're going to see the O.J. America fell in love with on television - the sincere, caring father and husband,'' said Loyola Law School Dean Laurie Levenson.

Simpson took a beating during his first stint on the witness stand in November, when he had to acknowledge in front of jurors that he had no explanations for the bountiful blood evidence against him or cuts on his fingers.

He also vehemently denied ever hitting his wife, even though photos showed her with a bruised and battered face.

During that examination, Daniel Petrocelli, who represents the family of Ronald Goldman, kept Simpson on a short leash, sticking to questions about evidence and preventing the ex-football star from turning on the charm.

This time, Simpson's own lawyers are calling him to the stand, and they're setting the parameters.

That means Simpson finally will have an opportunity to dispute the plaintiffs' motive - that he lashed out in an obsessive, jealous rage on June 12, 1994.

The defense hopes ``Simpson's love for his ex-wife will refute that motive,'' Chemerinsky said.

The plaintiffs' new set of 30 photographs appearing to show Simpson wearing Bruno Magli shoes may never come up. Ditto for wife-beating.

``It's not like he can say, `Oh, you're right, I did hit her, I forgot.' He can't undo the damage he did on the witness stand the first time,'' Levenson said.

What about the defense's suggestions during opening statements that Nicole Brown Simpson's reckless lifestyle may have led to her death?

So far, Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki has barred witnesses from trashing Simpson's ex-wife. Simpson himself could talk about her troubled friends and erratic behavior, but he must tread carefully if he does so, experts said.

The effectiveness of Simpson's testimony is particularly important given Fujisaki's rulings sharply limiting testimony pointing toward police ineptitude or a frame-up or conspiracy.

Defense lawyers have been doing their best to plant that idea in jurors' minds anyway.

They've put on a parade of police officers and forensic experts in an effort to convince jurors law enforcement authorities planted evidence in some cases, and in others, handled the evidence so ineptly that none of it can be trusted.

This week, their theory got a boost when new mysteries surfaced that cast doubt on the plaintiffs' case.

On Thursday, O.J. Simpson's forensic wizard Henry Lee testified on videotape that he discovered a new blood trail leading away from the killing scene.

``The most important thing I see is a blood trail with seven drops, a trail which I did not notice before,'' Lee said.

The new trail of drops could support the defense's two-killer theory. The defense has hinted they believe one killer was attacking Nicole Simpson while another fought with Ronald Goldman in the small, caged-in garden area where his body was found.

Wednesday, Simpson's chief lawyer, Robert Baker, produced a photograph which would suggest that the Aris Isotoner glove recovered from the crime scene was switched with another glove.

``Obviously, if the crime scene glove has been taken out of the chain of custody and a different glove substituted, you've got tampering with evidence, and that raises a whole can of worms,'' said civil attorney Charles J. Mazursky.