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Mehserle murder trial to be moved to L.A. Demian Bulwa, Staff Writer The San Francisco Chronicle Thursday, November 19, 2009 OAKLAND -- The former BART police officer accused of murdering an unarmed train rider early New Year's Day will be tried in downtown Los Angeles, a judge ruled Thursday. Judge Morris Jacobson's decision, after an hour and a half of arguments in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland, was a blow to attorneys for Johannes Mehserle. They had sought a move to more conservative San Diego County. It elated family members of Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old Hayward man whom Mehserle shot during an arrest. They had disagreed with Jacobson's ruling that Mehserle, 27, could not get a fair trial in Alameda County because of widespread publicity and the specter of violent protests. "I think I can get justice for Oscar in Los Angeles," said Cephus Johnson, Grant's uncle. Grant family attorney John Burris called the ruling "the most important decision that will be made in this case other than the verdict." If the case had been sent to San Diego County, Burris said, "Mehserle would have walked." Jacobson sent the case to the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, where O. J. Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife and her friend and Phil Spector was convicted of the 2003 murder of an actress. Full at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/19/BAP71ANCJB.DTL&tsp=1 This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
