Jurors To Be Picked From Another County Bad Publicity For Wenkai Li’s Attorney Not Enough To Move Trial

A judge on Thursday ordered the jury for the trial of accused double murderer Wenkai Li to be picked from another county because of local hostility toward Li’s attorney.

Second District Judge Ida Leggett said there was “an inference of prejudice” in Latah County toward Michael Henegen of Moscow, who has been criticized for his handling of the case and his billings to the county for his public defender services.

Leggett said that attitude should be avoided by selecting a jury from another county, but she said there was no need to move the entire trial out of Latah County as Henegen had asked.

Henegen had argued that statements by county commissioners “have created such a negative atmosphere about the defense and this case that even casual discussion at a restaurant or motel may lead to prejudicial information.”

The judge also denied Henegen’s request to bar the prosecution from seeking the death penalty if Li is convicted of the May 1995 stabbing deaths of fellow University of Idaho graduate student Ning Li and his wife, Xia Ge.

Henegen maintained the death penalty should be waived because the plea bargain Li struck with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to the two murders in exchange for a life prison sentence was rejected by another judge.