Judge seeking reforms in change-of-venue law

The Clarion-Ledger, 10/2/8

The judge in Curtis Giovanni Flowers’ fifth trial, furious that two people may have lied to get on the jury, is pushing a change in state law to allow prosecutors to move trials out of concern for fairness.

But Andre de Gruy, one of Flowers’ attorneys, said it’s a defendant’s constitutional right to seek a change of venue because of pretrial publicity or other issues that could impede justice.

“If you open up that floodgate, you would have prosecutors trying to move cases all over the state,” de Gruy said Wednesday.

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to “a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.”