Man Who Killed Child in 1997 Seeks New Trial

A Massachusetts man convicted of kidnapping and killing a 10-year-old boy in 1997 is asking a federal court to grant him a new trial or set him free.

Lawyers for Charles Jaynes argued before a three-judge panel at the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday that he should get a new trial because the public was wrongfully barred from jury selection and he had an ineffective lawyer during his first trial.

The Boston Herald reports that a lawyer for the state said no one objected when the court was closed.

The panel did not immediately rule.

Authorities say Jaynes and another man smothered Jeffrey Curley with a gasoline-soaked rag when he resisted their sexual advances. Jeffrey's body was found in a weighed-down container in a Maine river days later.