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| Death Penalty Trial in Poor Ohio County Raises Concerns Over Cost |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 09/30/2002 |
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Jury selection began Monday in a case that has attracted national attention over whether this rural, southern Ohio county can afford the trial of a man facing the death penalty for a murder charge. Financial problems are nothing new for Vinton County, which is conducting its first death penalty trial since the Ohio reinstated the death penalty in 1981. ''Every day I open the door, I've got concerns about money problems,'' said Michael Bledsoe, president of the Vinton County commissioners. Gregory McKnight, 25, of Gambier, is accused of killing Kenyon College student Emily Murray, 20, of Cold Spring, N.Y., and Gregory Julious, 20, of Chillicothe. McKnight faces the death penalty in Murray's case. Jury selection was expected to last about a week, and opening statements were set for next Monday. The trial could last two or three weeks. Lawyers questioned potential jurors on their feelings about the death penalty and asked them what they had read about the case. Lawyers are trying to build a pool of 40 people that can be narrowed to 12 jurors and six alternates on Friday. Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Simmons drew attention to the case with an unprecedented ruling last month that prosecutors could not seek the death penalty because Vinton County might not be able to afford to mount a proper prosecution and pay for McKnight's defense. Simmons later reversed his decision. Simmons said he was concerned the case would deplete the $2.7 million general fund budget in this county about 60 miles south of Columbus. Bledsoe did not want to discuss how much the case will cost the state's sparsest county, with 12,800 people, and said the focus for now should be on the trial. Defense attorney Robert Toy estimates that defense costs, including attorney fees, expert witnesses and other expenses, could run $150,000 to $300,000. The state is expected to pay some of the costs. Murray's body was found wrapped in carpet in McKnight's trailer near the village of Ray, on Dec. 9, 2000, after a sheriff's deputy went to the trailer to serve a summons. She had been shot in the head. She was last seen Nov. 3, 2000, as she was leaving the Pirates Cove pizza restaurant in Gambier, 80 miles north of Ray, where she worked with McKnight. Four days after authorities searched McKnight's trailer, they found Julious' bones and teeth on his property. Because investigators could not determine how Julious died, they decided it would be impossible to get the death penalty for his death. McKnight, serving an eight-year sentence for an unrelated burglary, has pleaded innocent. He spent five years in juvenile detention for robbing and killing a Columbus man before he was released in 1997, when he turned 21. |
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