Memorial ad for murdered transgender woman vexes DA
Trial next week
By Monte Whaley
The Denver Post
Posted: 04/10/2009 12:30:00 AM MDT
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_12111466Prosecutors are worried that jury selection in next week's trial of a man accused of killing a transgender woman in Greeley in July has become a lot more complicated.
That's because 50 groups sponsored a full-page ad in 22 Colorado newspapers and purchased online advertising to commemorate the life and death of 18-year-old Angie Zapata. The ad ran Wednesday in newspapers ranging from the Westminster Window and Durango Herald to the Gazette in Colorado Springs. It did not appear in the Fort Collins Coloradoan or the Greeley Tribune.
Jury selection, which is scheduled to begin Tuesday, could take much longer if enough people saw the ad and are so influenced by it that they could not serve on the jury, said Jennifer Finch, spokeswoman for Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck.
"We are concerned because of all the publicity the case has received, including the ad," Finch said. "It could be that much longer to seat a panel."
