Detroit -- Jury selection begins this morning for a type of trial rarely seen in Michigan -- one in which the defendant could face the death penalty.
Timothy Dennis O'Reilly, 36, is charged with murdering Norman "Anthony" Stephens during a Dec. 14, 2001, holdup of an armored truck at the Dearborn Federal Credit Union.
Michigan was the first state in the union to ban capital punishment, in 1847, but death can still be imposed in Michigan for federal capital crimes such as murder during a bank robbery.
O'Reilly is the first of three defendants in the Dearborn robbery to go to trial in front of a jury and U.S. District Judge Victoria A. Roberts.
Two co-defendants, Norman Herbert Duncan and Kevin C. Watson, also face possible death sentences when they go to trial. Read more.
Michigan death cases
Death penalty cases are rare in Michigan, which banned capital punishment for all crimes except treason in 1847 and later extended the state ban to treason as well. Only certain federal crimes are eligible for the death penalty in Michigan.
* The last person executed in Michigan, Tony Chebatoris of Hamtramck, was hanged at Milan in 1938 for killing a man during a Midland bank robbery.
* A federal grand jury in Grand Rapids sentenced Marvin Gabrion to death in 2002, but his case is still under appeal.
* In Detroit, a federal jury convicted drug dealer John Bass of murder in 2003, but rejected the death penalty for Bass in the separate penalty phase of the trial.
* Before Chebatoris was executed, nobody had been put to death in Michigan since 1830, before statehood.
(Source: Detroit News research)
Source: The Detroit News, June 9, 2010
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