The Monitor from McAllen, Texas • 23

Friday, February 5, 1999 THE MONITOR McAllen, Texas 7C JASPER: Courts Chances to get -on King jury evaporating for blades By TERRI LANGFORD The Associated Press jury selections are made, Jasper County District Attorney Guy James Gray legally -could make what is known as a reverse Batson challenge. In a 1986 case, Batson vs. Kentucky, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled prosecutors never may disqualify potential jurors because of race. But in this case, it's defense attorneys who would be more likely to strike black jurors who believe in the death penalty, forcing Gray to consider a possible reverse Batson challenge.

The action, however, would provide defense attorneys with an instant issue to appeal a conviction. "The prosecution is in a bad position on a reverse Batson case," Gray said. "Either one of two things happen. You either strike the whole array and start over or you force them to accept a juror that they find unacceptable and give them a hell of an appellate issue." "I'll be fair," defense attorney Haden "Sonny" Cribbs would only say when asked about his juror strikes. Court is in recess until Monday, when another 12 jurors are expected to be his case, particularly when the percentage of blacks to choose from in Jasper County is so low.

"With those kind of numbers I think it would be extremely difficult to prevail on a Batson challenge," he said. Gray said he has discussed the possibility of an all-white jury with Byrd's family. "Everybody would like to have a representative jury, but all we're concerned with is getting a good verdict," Gray said. "And I'm satisfied that the group we have can tend to that job." "Well, I'd love to see the whole community represented," Stella Byrd, the victim's mother, said Thursday. Experts said the jury makeup was more a public relations problem than a legal one for Jasper, branded by some as a racist hotbed after Byrd's gruesome killing.

Testimony in the King case is set to begin Feb. 16. Judge Joe Bob Golden has not decided if jurors will be sequestered. Trials of the other two defendants Lawrence Russell Brewer, 31, arid Shawn Allen Berry, 23 have not been On Thursday, black jasper County residents continued to express opposition to the death penalty, increasing the chance for an all-white jury. And when pressed by prosecutors to explain, most offer the same reply: "I don't believe in it." Many blacks in Jasper also have indicated they've made up their mind about King.

"I think he's guilty," Clinton Smith, 27, said Thursday after he was excused, "I don't believe in the death penalty, but I believe a crime this bad ought to get the death penalty." The jury selection diiemma is not unique to Jasper. "Blacks as a group are less hospitable toward the death penalty than whites as a group," David Dow, a University of Hous- ton law professor, said Thursday. "I don't think anybody knows why it is. There's one theory about blacks having less trust about state police authorities, but I haven't seen any persuasive explanation about why that happens to be true." But Dow believes Gray is correct, that a reverse Batson challenge would not help JASPER The district attorney prosecuting a white man charged with the dragging death of a black man rejected Thursday speculation he legally would force a black person on the jury if the panel winds up being all white. Only eight blacks are among the 45 potential jurors selected by Thursday for the capital murder trial of John William "King.

When lawyers on each side make their 16 strikes next week, the eight blacks who said they would consider the death penalty if they convicted King could be eliminated. Race is at the heart of the case. King, 24, an ex-convict and suspected white supremacist, is accused of chaining James Byrd Jr. to the back of a pickup truck June 7 and dragging Byrd to death. Jasper is nearly half black.

Jasper County, from which prospective jurors are drawn, is only 1 8 percent black. So if blacks are eliminated when final The Associated Press Cut Out: Clinton Smith leaves Jasper County Courthouse Thursday after being cut from the jury pool in the trial of John William King. W)Af XJ VOf SAN ANTONIO: Search Bones found in yard raise questions The Associated Press SAN ANTONIO Hundreds of bone fragments found in a man's back yard might not belong to four homicide victims, as police originally announced in 1997. An autopsy and DN A tests have determined that the bones belonged to only one person, the San Antonio Express-News reported Thursday. The bones were found in July and August 1997 in the yard of Leonard Rizzo, whose wife, Monika, 44, was declared missing a few weeks earlier.

After conducting an intensive dig in the yard, police said in two separate news conferences in August 1997 that the bone fragments belonged to Rizzo and three other people. Investigators now hope to get conclusive answers with DN A tests to be done at the-Armed Forces Institute in Washington, said Capt. Jeff Page, commander of violent crimes unit of the San Antonio Police Department. Police have never filed any charges in the case. Some of the chopped up bones were found strewn across the ground in Rizzo 's yard.

Others were found sy: Vf I II ll hyhi jJ WB? JT ii I 0 I i i torf ii in a barbecue pit and others were unearthed just below the topsoil. Police concluded the bones belonged, to four people based on DNA tests by Dallas-based Gene-Screen Labs Inc. But an autopsy and a second DNA test determined the bones belonged to one person, the Express-News reported. A July 5, 1997, autopsy by the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office determined that the bones were from an adult, white female, probably between the ages of 1 8 and 45. "There was absolutely no evidence of more than one body," Dr.

Vincent DiMaio, the county's chief medical examiner, told the Express-News. Page and other police officials said Wednesday the GeneScreen Labs conclusions that police publicized in 1997 were "preliminary." Police still believe at least some of the bones belonged to Rizzo. Leonard Rizzo, who still lives at the home, said Wednesday that police didn't leave any room for doubt when they announced that the remains of several people were scattered throughout his yard. "They never said, We're not sure of these Rizzo said. "They were very absolute" fete (ijiimBniiniiJiii mm fan? BROWNSVILLE 925 East Elizabeth St.

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