Trial

A Washington youth charged in the carjacking death of a Savage woman will stand trial in Howard, despite efforts by his attorney to get the case moved to another county.Circuit Judge Dennis Sweeney ruled yesterday that 17-year-old Bernard Eric Miller has not proved that he cannot get a fair and impartial trial in Howard.Judge Sweeney said in the ruling that the defendant's concern that he will face a prejudiced jury can be addressed at the time of his trial, when defense attorneys and prosecutors question potential jurors to determine if they are biased.

A man who could be given the death penalty if convicted of murdering two women in Severn in 1993 will be tried in Howard County Circuit Court in March.Lawyers for Darris Ware, 23, of no fixed address, asked Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. Tuesday to transfer the case to Howard County, arguing that pretrial publicity made it impossible to get a fair trial in Anne Arundel.Under Maryland law, the request must be approved because the prosecution is seeking the death penalty.Mr.

ROCKVILLE -- Sporting a new close-cropped haircut in his last court appearance before his six-count murder trial starts here Monday, convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad asked a Montgomery County judge yesterday first to delay, then to move, the trial. "I don't believe I can get a fair trial here, based on the media attention," Muhammad told Judge James L. Ryan. However, Ryan denied both requests, saying he felt it would be possible to find "fair and impartial" jurors in the large county.

A Baltimore man's armed robbery convictions were overturned this week after the state's second-highest court said the judge tipped the trial in the prosecution's favor by asking too many questions of witnesses - more than 125 of them. "The trial judge, in our view, overly injected himself as an inquisitor through the testimony of the witnesses, the result of which was to unduly give the perception that he favored the State's version of the factual presentation," the Court of Special Appeals wrote Monday regarding Antwan Derrell Smith's convictions.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge overseeing massive asbestos litigation dismissed yesterday a jury panel painstakingly chosen earlier this month for a trial that had been scheduled to begin Monday.Judge Marshall Levin took the action after Peter Angelos, attorney for the people claiming to be suffering from diseases caused by working with asbestos, narrowed the number of defendants from more than 130 to 15.The 15 are AC&S Inc., Armstrong World Industries Inc., GAF Corp., Keene Corp., Fibreboard Corp.

The potential jurors, 250 in all, will descend upon the courthouse in two waves. They'll find the courtroom furniture has been rearranged and court dockets have been shuffled, all to accommodate a case of unprecedented scope.State of Maryland v. Keene Corp. et al, a mammoth, six-year-old civil suit wherein the state seeks to recoup the cost of cleaning asbestos from 200 of its buildings, goes to trial today. The disruption to the courthouse routine is expected to be significant.Robert G. Wallace, county courts administrator, said, "It's going to have a negative impact on the court, our ability to function.

WASHINGTON - During the next six months, the world is going to be treated to two remarkable trials in Baghdad. It is going to be the mother of all split screens. On one side, you're going to see the trial of Saddam Hussein. On the other side, you're going to see the trial of the Iraqi people. That's right, the Iraqi people will also be on trial - for whether they can really live together without the iron fist of the man on the other side of the screen. This may be apocryphal, but Mr. Hussein is supposed to have once remarked something like: Be careful; if you get rid of me, you will need seven presidents to rule Iraq.

Lacking good research about education software, school districts often do their own evaluations. But their trials are easily influenced by software vendors -- or by administrators already inclined toward buying the product. A test of Plato Learning algebra software in Prince George's County this spring offers a prime example. The county was using the software in some after-school and summer programs when a Plato vice president approached district CEO Andre J. Hornsby in January and suggested the county hold a free trial of the software for its regular classes.

The man prosecutors charge was the "cruise director" of a March 1990rape and stun-gun assault of an Essex woman in the back seat of a white limousine goes to trial Monday.The defendant, Michael A. Bruno, 33, faces two trials during the next two weeks in Harford Circuit Court for 21 criminal charges related to allegations that he orchestrated an attack on the 25-year-old Baltimore County victim.If convicted, the Glen Arm resident faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for two counts of first-degree rape.

Elkridge resident Paul Stephen Riggins, charged with murder in the killing of his long-missing wife, is scheduled to go to trial July 2. Howard County Circuit Judge Lenore R. Gelfman granted a postponement in the case yesterday at the request of Riggins' attorney, Joseph Murtha. Gelfman will hear motions May 29. The judge said she expects the trial to last three weeks. Nancy Lee Riggins was reported missing by her husband July 3, 1996. He was a suspect from the start. Her body has never been found.