Judge Denies Bid to Move Mass. Carjack Killing Trial

A judge has rejected a request by convicted killer Gary Lee Sampson to move his federal death penalty trial out of Boston.

Judge Mark Wolf on Wednesday denied a change-of-venue motion filed by Sampson's lawyers.

A federal jury condemned Sampson to die after he pleaded guilty to carjacking and killing two Massachusetts men during a weeklong crime spree in 2001. In 2011, Wolf ordered a new trial to determine Sampson's sentence after finding that a juror had lied about her family's criminal history.

Sampson's second sentencing trial is scheduled to begin in September.

Sampson was the first person sentenced to death in Massachusetts under the federal death penalty statute. The state's death penalty as abolished by the Legislature in 1984.

Sampson was also convicted separately of killing a third man in New Hampshire during the same week.