Lee on trial again in Louisiana slayings

BATON ROUGE, Texas, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Jury selection began Monday for the second trial of a Louisiana man police say killed seven women and attempted to kill an eighth.

Attorneys began questioning prospective jurors in the trial of Derrick Todd Lee after a judge rejected a motion to dismiss the entire jury pool, the Advocate reported.

Mike Mitchell and Nelvil Hollingsworth asked Judge Richard Anderson to throw out the jury pool because they alleged it had been selected in a discriminatory manner. A clerk testified that some of those summoned for jury duty were excused, but for proper reasons.

Lee faces a first-degree murder charge in the May 2002 stabbing death of Charlotte Murray Pace. If convicted, he would face the death penalty for the first time in the cases.

Police said Lee killed seven Baton Rouge-area women and attempted to kill a nurse.

Another jury convicted Lee of second-degree murder last month in the death of Geralyn Barr DeSoto of Addis. He was sentenced to life in prison in that case.