Stephen A Smith is convinced the late OJ Simpson slaughtered his wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman - and dec lared: "The Lord will deal with him"

Even though the shamed former NFL player was acquitted on the 1994 double-murder of Nicole and Ron, Stephen told 'First Take': "I know that if I was on that jury, he would've been the under the damn jail. I know that much.

"I believe he was guilty, but I don't know. I'm talking about, based on the evidence that was placed before us during the trial, overseen by Judge Lance Ito, this is what we saw on national television.

"And by most accounts, you found yourself believing he was guilty as hell. In the end, that's what this comes down to."

Stephen added Simpson's acquittal was likely the result of the work of his 'Dream Team' defense team, which was spearheaded by attorney Johnnie Cochran - as well as the incompetency of prosecutors.

He said: "We're also not going to forget how bad Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden were as prosecutors because that's a test case of what not to do as prosecutors.

"You've got a glove with blood on it that obviously shrunk over a period of time and you tell the man to try on the glove.

"That's not going to work, everybody remembers that.

"I think about Johnnie Cochran, and Johnnie Cochran, ultimately, his firm went national and he became a household name as a result of the OJ trial."

Stephen also referred to the infamous moment in Simpson's 11-month double-murder trail when the former athlete's hand appeared not to fit into the blood-stained glove found on his property the day he was arrested on suspicion of butchering Nicole and Ron - prompting Johnnie Cochran to say: "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."

He added: "Nobody will forget that line by the late, great Johnnie Cochran.

"You don't want to say that devoid of a high level of sensitivity on this particular day towards his family who were innocent of all that stuff.

"They had nothing to do with it - they can't control his actions.

"But based on his actions that we all witnessed on trial over national television for months upon months at a time, by and large, the belief is he's guilty.

"So you're not going to hear nor see an abundance of people feeling a lot of sympathy for him today. The Lord will deal with him."