BOSTON (
MyFoxBoston.com) -- A federal judge has denied convicted killer Gary Lee Sampson's motion to move his resentencing trial out of Boston.
In 2003, Sampson was convicted and condemned to death for the carjacking murders of three people in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Sampson's death penalty sentence was vacated when it was determined one juror lied during jury selection. The government, however, is going forward with plans for a new penalty phase trial with a new jury.
On Wednesday, Judge Mark Wolf said he would not order a change of venue, which Sampson's defense team had argued for, saying his case had been linked to Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's trial in the press, and therefore potential jurors could know about Sampson's history.
"Having it transferred to another jurisdiction would be extremely inconvenient for the victims' families, in terms of being able to attend the trial," said Michael Rizzo, father of Jonathan Rizzo, one of Sampson's victims.
Wolf could still order the trial moved during jury selection, which will take place in September.
At Wednesday's hearing, Wolf also ruled that jurors in Sampson's resentencing will not learn he was ordered executed 12 years ago, or hear that he has since been in prison on "death row."
The government objected to that, saying if a juror learned that information during the trial, it could cause a mistrial, which would potentially set up a third trial. Prosecutor Zach Hafer said that would be "truly horrifying."
