05/14/08

In January of this year, a grand jury found 31 year old John Henry Mc-Elhiney guilty of first degree murder in the death of 18 year old Dale Miller, whose body was found in a barrel in a garage in Twin Falls last September.

In a nearly three hour hearing today, Mc-Elhiney's attorney did her best to insure that the ground rules for jury selection in his trial were fair.

Defense Attorney Marilyn Paul said, "It's hard to see how the court's procedure as proposed would support and protect this right of my client."

Paul said Mc-Elhiney deserved a right to a fair trial, and to examine the jurors in his case.

The prosecuting attorney said that Fifth District Judge Richard Bevan's selection procedure would protect those rights effectively.

Twin Falls Prosecuting Attorney Grant Loebs said, "The goal here is to make sure that every person who actually sits on the jury is a fair, impartial juror, who doesn't bring in conclusions they've already formed from the newspaper, or from hatreds, or from biases against individual people on either side."

Judge Bevan took the attorneys' comments under advisement and said he would issue a written decision on the matter.

Mc-Elhiney's trial is set to begin at 1:30pm on Monday, July 21st

Jay Michaels, KMVT News.