Opinion ID: 2514211
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Severity of charge against defendant

Text: Aggravated first degree murder is the most severe charge in Washington. This factor militates in favor of a change of venue.
Snohomish County is large. It was the third largest county in the state in 1997. Br. of Resp't at 51 (citing Office of Financial Management, 1997 Data Book at 248). Its population, from which the jury panel was drawn, was 551,200. Id. This factor weighs against a change of venue. Only factors (b) and (h) would tend to militate toward a change of venue. Thus this case is not, as urged by Clark, like Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 81 S.Ct. 1639, 6 L.Ed.2d 751 (1961), where the United States Supreme Court overturned a conviction where, due to inflammatory pretrial publicity, 8 of 12 jurors had formed an opinion about guilt prior to trial. This case is more like Maupin or Jeffries, where only a small number of prospective jurors after a significant lapse in time held strong prejudices based on pretrial publicity. In those cases, like this one, the defendant did not exhaust his peremptory challenges. And in those cases, the appellate court did not find an abuse of discretion in the trial court's refusal to grant a change of venue. Nor do we here find an abuse of discretion.