Description
A change of venue is sometimes requested by defense attorneys when there is extensive pretrial publicity, as explained in this weeks’s e-text reading. A major concern is whether a criminal defendant can receive a trial by a fair and impartial jury as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment.
Defendant Dzhokar Tsarnaev (charged in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing) had asked for a change of venue to a federal court outside the district of Massachusetts. This request was denied and the federal judge ruled that his trial could fairly be held in Massachusetts, even in Boston, Massachusetts. He was convicted and sentenced to death. Since then Tsarnaev has been appealing the ruling denying his request for a change of venue.
By contrast, defendant Timothy McVeigh (charged in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing) had asked for a change of venue to a federal court outside the district of Oklahoma. This request was granted and McVeigh’s trial was held in a U.S. District Court in the state of Colorado. McVeigh was convicted, sentenced to death penalty, and executed on June 11, 2001.
Your assignment is to carefully review these two U.S. District Court decisions (Tsarnaev and McVeigh).