More than 16 years after a popular high school teacher vanished from her south Georgia home, a man is set to stand trial for her murder.

Three defense attorneys from Atlanta, Georgia are representing Ryan Duke, who is accused of killing Tara Grinstead in 2005 and having his friend Bo Dukes help him move, then burn her body.

Ryan Duke’s is the largest case file in the history of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, spanning 17 years.

“Now a jury will decide Duke’s fate at the Irwin County courthouse,” The Associated Press reports. “Superior Court Judge Bill Reinhardt scheduled opening statements from prosecutors and defense attorneys to commence Monday morning.”

The judge seated 12 jurors and six alternates last Thursday after just four days of jury selection, multiple news outlets reported.

“It happened quickly considering the pervasive publicity that has surrounded the case ever since Grinstead’s disappearance,” The AP explains, adding, “The court clerk mailed out 800 jury duty notices for the trial to ensure a better chance of finding enough impartial jurors.”

A court fight over funding for Duke’s legal defense and the coronavirus pandemic contributed to long delays in the case going to trial.

>> Read more from The AP here.

Philip Holloway, a former prosecutor and police officer, is now a top legal analyst for 95.5 WSB in Atlanta. Originally from south Georgia, Holloway has a wide range of experience in legal matters and law enforcement matters, both as a practicing attorney and as a media analyst. Holloway has appeared on several national media outlets, including the ‘Up and Vanished’ podcast series, whose first season focused on the Tara Grinstead case.

In the weeks leading up to Duke’s trial, Holloway spoke with Cox Media Group’s Nicole Bennett to preview the case. Holloway contends that the prosecution is going to have an ‘uphill battle,’ considering multiple factors in their case, including: potentially insufficient evidence, conflicting accounts of what may have happened to Grinstead and a witness—Bo Dukes—who Holloway says lacks credibility.

In his trial preview, Holloway walks through events that have led to delays in Ryan Duke’s case and predicts shocking developments he thinks could possibly come out as proceedings get underway.

Listen to his full interview below from Bennett’s podcast series ‘Beyond Criminal Headlines’:

Tony Thomas, a reporter for WSB-TV in Atlanta, is also covering the trial in Irwin County. Thomas says important rulings were made in recent weeks, with the defense attorneys reportedly expressing that they do not want jurors in the case to know about Grinstead’s past. They feel the details, good or bad, should not play a role in the jury’s decision.

“Any references to her being a beauty queen, being involved in pageantry. Any of her personal life,” defense attorney John Merchant said, underscoring that he feels too much information about the well-liked Grinstead would influence the jury.

“It’s only appropriate in limited versions during sentencing, during the guilt-innocence phase none of that is allowed to come in,” Merchant added.

But during a recent Zoom meeting, Thomas reports prosecutors told the judge that Grinstead’s life will play a key role and those facts will come out.

“The fact that a lot of the witnesses knew she was a teacher. The first thing they did when they realized she was missing was call the school to see if she was there,” said prosecutor JD Hart.

The judge agreed that witnesses can mention those facts in passing, but not dwell on them.

Tony Thomas also spoke with Nicole Bennett in an episode of ‘Beyond Criminal Headlines’ earlier this year about Grinstead’s case. Listen to the full interview here.

The Grinstead case was unsolved until the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Bo Dukes and Ryan Duke in 2017. Both men confessed, but now Duke says his confession was a lie.

Bo Dukes told several people different versions of his story and while he will be called to testify at the trial, Thomas says he is expected to take the Fifth.

“Bo Dukes is going to be a star witness in this trial one way or the other,” Merchant said.

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