An attorney for James Ford Seale, charged in connection with two 1964 civil rights killings, wants the trial moved, maybe even to Natchez.

One of Seale’s federal public defenders filed a motion Wednesday in U.S. District Court asking that the trial be moved to Natchez because of pretrial coverage, the AP reports.

The main reason attorneys ask for a “change of venue,” or ask to move the trial, is to ensure an impartial jury and thus a fair trial, Circuit Judge Forrest “Al” Johnson said Friday.

“Our whole system is based on jurors who are completely fair and impartial and decide a case on the basis of evidence brought forth in court,” Johnson said. “If they have already heard a lot of information, even though they might try to be fair and honest about it, it’s hard to remove those things from your mind.”

That’s why attorneys might want to relocate the trial in a place where jurors won’t know anything about the case, he said. If a jury pool hasn’t been exposed to information about the trial, they are more likely to be impartial.

But asking to move closer to the scene of the crime (in this case, Franklin County and Seal’s home, Roxie) would not necessarily improve things, Johnson said.

“It just surprises me they’re talking about moving it to Natchez,” he said. “If they were trying to get away from pretrial publicity, it would seem like northern Mississippi would be the best location. (Natchez) would be in the backyard of where the case happened.”

But even then, getting away from pretrial coverage would be quite a feat, Johnson said.

“It’s obviously going to be a trial that’s watched closely by everyone,” he said. “I’m sure it’s going to be covered by the national news. Just the nature of the trial, it’s going to get a lot of attention.”

The benefit of holding a trial in federal court would be that there would be a broader variety of jurors from which to choose, increasing the chances of a fair trial, he said.

“In an Adams County trial, jurors are chosen off the voter rolls in Adams County,” he said. “But with a federal trial, they’re chosen from across the district, which is a lot wider area. It creates a better jury pool to draw from.”

In the end, a change of venue would be up to the federal judge presiding over the case, Adams County District Attorney Ronnie Harper said.

And he wasn’t certain that moving the trial to Natchez would necessarily mean a fairer trial, either.

“People here read the Jackson paper,” Harper said. “I’m not sure what would be the benefit of moving it here. Not because it was here, but I’m not sure if there would be any less pretrial publicity.”