It is a constitutional right that anyone accused of a crime will be tried by an impartial and unbiased jury. This Sixth Amendment guarantee is a basis of the American criminal system and no Minnesota suspect should ever have it infringed upon. As Amy Senser’s attorney attempts to protect her right to an impartial jury, he faces pushback from the Hennepin County prosecutor who is resisting his request to transfer the case to a new and less biased location in Minnesota.
After local media started covering Amy Senser’s charges for vehicular homicide, there have been several concerns about just how impartial a jury from Hennepin County could be. According to Sesner’s attorney, the prosecutors have spoken to members of the local media and described how Senser’s car was covered in the blood of the man whom police say she hit. With such inflammatory language, the attorney believes he must try and move the trial to a new venue.
The attorney has also mentioned some of the online comments that have sprung up surrounding the case. In one particularly graphic and disturbing comment, a reader wrote “Rope. Tree. No admission fee.” With few people leaving their names and addresses, it is very possible that the people who have made such macabre comments could be trying to get on Senser’s jury.
The Hennepin County and Assistant County attorneys, however, have been fighting to keep the woman’s trial in Minneapolis. They have argued that because the accident happened in Minneapolis, the trial should stay in Minneapolis.
Senser’s attorney had asked a judge to move the trial to Kandiyohi County.
For more information, please read this previous post on Amy Senser and being charged with vehicular homicide.
Source: Star Tribune, “Prosecution presses to keep Senser trial in Hennepin County,” Matt McKinney, March 20, 2012