- Donna Adelson’s defense is asking to move her trial out of Leon County, claiming media coverage has made it impossible to find an unbiased jury.
- If the judge approves the change, the trial could move to any county in Florida, changing who ends up on the jury.
- Watch the video to hear both the defense's and prosecutor's arguments.
UPDATED BROADCAST SCRIPT:
Donna Adelson’s defense team was back in court Friday this time asking a judge to move her trial out of Leon County.
They argue there’s been too much media coverage that it’s impossible to find an unbiased jury.
“It’s not going to die down. It's going to continue to circle. I mean, we're sitting here. We have reporters typing behind us. This hearing is probably being broadcast live,” Adelson’s defense attorney Joshua Zelman said.
The defense brought in a media analyst as a witness.
That witness testified his company tracked more than 2000 articles and broadcasts that mentioned Charlie and Donna Adelson.
But prosecutors believe that the trial should stay in Leon County where the crime happened.
Adelson is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and solicitation to commit first-degree murder for a suspected murder-for-hire plot against Florida State University Law Professor Dan Markel.
“To conclude that this case has rendered our entire citizenry incapable of giving Ms. Adelson a fair trial is – there's no evidence to support that,” said Georgia Cappleman, Chief Assistant State Attorney in Florida's Second Judicial Circuit.
They say a way to ensure fairness is during the jury selection process, which screens potential jurors.
They also brought up lack of issue picking jurors for Charlie Adelson, Luis Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia.
“We picked a jury in two days on the first two trials and in three on the third,” the prosecutor added.
ABC 27’s Brieanna Smith talked to Don Pumphrey who says that changing the venue of the trial is hard to do.
But if the judge were to grant it, it could open the trial up to any county in Florida as far away as Miami-Dade County.
“It’s just basically giving you a different jury pool,” Pumphrey, a local defense attorney, said. “The judge has to make a determination in his mind and based on what was presented to him, whether or not, in his mind, that this person cannot get a fair trial.”
There was no ruling following the hearing Friday morning, but the judge said he will review evidence submitted by both the defense and state and issue a written ruling.
ORIGINAL:
A hearing just wrapped up to consider a change of venue for the upcoming trial of Donna Adelson. She's accused in the murder-for-hire plot that killed her former son-in-law Dan Markel.
The defense's expert gave an analysis of media coverage in Leon County and Miami-Dade County.
Both the prosecution and defense presented arguments.
The decision to grant a change of venue has not been made. The judge will issue a written ruling.
WATCH THE FULL MOTION HEARING BELOW:
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