April 17, 2006

No shortage of drama as priest's trial opens

TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

Thanks to the popular CSI television programs, today's juries expect a show in the courtroom - and prosecutors in the murder trial of the Rev. Gerald Robinson don't plan to let them down.

The prosecution is expected to augment its case with plenty of visuals, including the use of charts, videotapes, and high-tech "smart boards" that integrate the display functions of a laptop computer and an erasable whiteboard.

Father Robinson, 68, is facing a murder charge in the 1980 slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. The 71-year-old nun was found slain in the chapel sacristy of Mercy Hospital the day before Easter, 1980.

She had been strangled, then stabbed multiple times. Her clothes had been arranged to look as though she had been molested, which investigators called a ruse by the killer to mislead police.

Posted by kshaw at April 17, 2006 11:04 AM