Legal Question in Criminal Law in Pennsylvania

murder trial

if a defendant is accused of a crime and there is all kinds of publicity and on the news and newspapers and they the da pick all jurers from the area where the crime is supposed to be committed and the judge denies the trial to be moved to another place is there anything you can do as the news papers were acussing the person before he was arrested


Asked on 8/24/08, 11:51 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Re: murder trial

Like what? This happens all the time. The only question, is the publicity such that they can not find 12 people in the area who won't be so jaded by the publicity that they can not recieve a fair trial. It is unusual that the entire jury pool can get that tainted. If you do nt agree with the judge, ask that jurors from another county be used (thinking they will be less prejudived), and if you get no concessions and you think th etrial can not be fair, you object on the record to preserve the objection for any appeals.

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Answered on 8/25/08, 10:05 am


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