What Does a Change Of Venue Gain?

A grisly crime, irate citizens, torrential press coverage. In that situation, defense lawyers fear jury prejudice and seek a change of venue--moving the trial to some distant town whose citizens are as ignorant about the crime as possible. A sensible remedy, but increasingly dubious when it comes to notorious "national" crimes. In the age of mass magazines, wire services and network TV, how can any living American avoid hearing, seeing and reading every detail, rumor and opinion?

In the case of Jack Ruby, who faced a second murder trial before his death last week, a change of venue seemed almost absurd. Probably only a few deaf, blind, illiterate Alaskan Eskimos had never heard of Ruby's crime, much less seen it on film. Yet his lawyers settled for shifting the trial from Dallas to Wichita Falls, a mere 135 miles away. True, Mars was out, but why Wichita Falls? Simply the luck of the draw. The case came before Judge Louis T. Holland, who was sitting temporarily in Dallas, but whose regular district includes Wichita Falls. Not only would Holland have thus kept the case--a situation both sides applauded--but, as Holland saw it, the smaller city (pop. 140,000) was "far enough away not to come under the influence of the Dallas newspapers and TV stations." Moreover, he argued, in the first Dallas trial, "the jurors were within sight of the scene where Ruby killed Oswald as well as the scene where Oswald shot the President. That kind of thing is just not good."

Relatively Unbiased. Similar arguments--and doubts--arise in the equally notorious case of Richard Speck, the accused killer of eight Chicago student nurses, whose Feb. 6 trial has been shifted 160 miles southwest to Peoria. To be sure, that city was once called "Nowheresville, U.S.A." But it now boasts the U.S.'s biggest exporter of machinery (Caterpillar Tractor Co.), and welcomes more foreign visitors than almost any U.S. town of its size (pop. 133,000). What makes Peoria a better place to try Speck than Chicago?

The hope at least of a relatively unbiased jury, plus pure practicalities. Peoria County has 91,715 potential jurors; the city has a new $4,500,000 courthouse. And according to Chicago Judge Herbert C. Paschen, who will handle the Peoria trial (though Speck's lawyer is demanding a Peoria judge), the city was chosen over Quincy, Rockford and Rock Island because "Peoria does not receive Chicago television, and it has less Chicago newspaper coverage than the rest." Peoria County (pop. 202,400) has a total Chicago weekend newspaper circulation of only 8,378, compared with the Sunday Peoria Journal-Star's 53,103.

In reporting Speck's arrest, though, the Journal-Star used the same source as many other newspapers: the Associated Press. And while Peoria vows to try Speck fairly, Mayor Robert Lehnhausen has a distaste for the job. "As far as I am concerned," says he, "they can take the trial somewhere else. It will not be complimentary to our public image. We have good press coverage in this community, and we are quite aware of the details of this crime." For his part, though, Judge Paschen is betting that Peorians are slightly less irate than Chicagoans, if only because the killing did not happen in their own town.

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