09/14/2007

Associated Press

A murder conviction in Spokane has been overturned because the jury was chosen partly behind closed doors. A divided panel of the state Court of Appeals sent the case of 27-year-old Brian William Frawley back to Spokane for a new trial. He was convicted of first-degree murder in the rape and killing of 20-year-old Margaret Cordova in 2004. She vanished on January 17th of that year and her body was found in a landscaper's dump site more than a month later. Prosecutors said Frawley had left her body to be eaten by animals. In overturning his conviction, two appeals judges held that Spokane County Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly should have gotten the defendant's approval before barring the public from interviews of potential jurors. All three judges of the appeals panel rejected Frawley's claim that the evidence at his trial last year was inadquate to support a conviction.

(From The Spokesman-Review.)