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ID: "inconvenience and cost do not trump the constitutional right to an impartial jury"

By Skelly

From the Idaho County Free Press:Publicity prompts Lankford trial moveConcern that press coverage has tainted the limited local jury pool was the motivating factor in last month's decision to hold the Mark Lankford murder trial in northern Idaho... District Judge John Bradbury cited several factors in this case that could affect the ability to seat an impartial jury from Idaho County.Bradbury noted a particularly inflammatory article by the Lewiston Tribune quoting from an affidavit by Lankford's brother, Robert, stating his belief Mark may have killed six other people in Texas. Another concern lies with letters to the editor. "If they reflect popular opinion" Bradbury noted, "many think it is fair to put more stock in the verdict at the time of the jury trial than in a 'technicality' or 'loophole' found in the jury instructions by a federal appellate court in San Francisco 23 years after the verdict...continue to full post

Full post as published by Arbitrary and Capricious on January 04, 2008 (boomark / email).