Detroit Ex-Mayor Seeks Venue Change for Bid-Rigging Trial

Blames media coverage

Saying the media coverage has gone "radioactive," Kwame Kilpatrick's lawyer says the ex-mayor and his codefendants can't get a fair trial in southeastern Michigan, according records filed today.

Attorney James Thomas, who will ask a federal judge this afternoon to move the trial outside Detroit, blasted the media for, he says, trying to taint the jurors to ensure a guilty verdict is reached in the case. If they acquit, he wrote, the jurors can expect to get scrutinized.

"We are now presented with the fact that … the trial jurors could face real consequences should one or more of them vote their conscience to acquit. This is an outrageous prospect," Thomas wrote. "No longer can the defendants receive a fair trial here in the Eastern District of Michigan. The media's targeted effort towards that end has flipped the notion of due process on its head."