Venue Change, Bail Granted in Murder Retrial
A judge set bail at $500,000 Friday and agreed to move the trial of a man charged with the scissors slaying of a Hanford teen-ager 24 years ago.
The venue change for Booker T. Hillery was granted by Tulare County Superior Court Judge Edward Kim with little comment from prosecution or the defense, which argued he could not receive a fair trial in Kings County because of years of intense publicity.
Hillery had been held without bail during proceedings for a new trial in the March, 1962, death of Marlene Miller, who was stabbed in the throat with her sewing scissors.
After years in prison, Hillery, a black, won a new trial last January when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction on grounds that blacks were systematically excluded from the Kings County Grand Jury that indicted him.
Prosecutors argued that Hillery was a danger to society, particularly women, so he should be held without bail. The defense asked that bail not exceed $25,000.
The case was continued one week to choose the county where the trial will be held from three that will be submitted by the state Judicial Council.
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