The Corinth Journal January 27, 1997 Trial Of Medea Set To Begin Monday After 6 months of delayed proceedings, jury selection difficulties and disputed evidence, The People Vs. Medea is scheduled to begin on Monday. The infamous defendant made headlines last year after she murdered her two children as well as her husband's new wife, a member of Corinth's royal family. Her ex-husband, Jason, chose to press charges against her after her escape, saying, "If this whole mess had happened a millenium or so earlier, I wouldn't have been able to take any legal action against the bitch. But in this day and age, I can make sure she's fully punished for the emotional damage she's caused to me and my family." The charges brought against Medea include first-degree murder, fraud, and emotional trauma caused to Jason by the death of his wife and children. The daughters of Pelias, king of Pelion, also plan to press charges against Medea on the grounds that she allegedly tricked them into killing their father. Medea herself offered no comment on the charges brought against her. However, her lawyer, Sidney Pork, told Journal reporters that he and his team planned to center their defense around Medea's non-Greek origins, claiming that she is being treated more harshly because she is a foreigner. Already three potential juries have been thrown out because they contained "too many Greeks," whom the defense feared would be less sympathetic to Medea's case. The current jury consists of six Greeks and six foreigners, two of whom are originally from Medea's homeland. Pork also says that he intends to argue for Medea's innocence on the grounds that she was suffering from temporary insanity. "In addition to being highly traumatized by Jason's leaving her," he said in a press release Wednesday, "she was also laboring under a great deal of stress caused by homesickness, by prejudice she had suffered as a foreigner, and by the sexual discrimination she had faced in Greece. Also figuring into the picture were PMS, sugar imbalance caused by excessive consumption of Twinkies, and chemicals she'd been exposed to during her work mixing potions and ointments, all of which altered her brain chemistry temporarily so that she was more prone to aggression." Among the witnesses for the defense is the woman who served as nurse to her children; she alleges that Medea spent days in her room crying and talking to herself after Jason announced his second marriage, leaving her in a condition in which she was incapable of rational thought and distinguishing right from wrong. A psychologist who examined Medea is also scheduled to testify that she possesses very few memories of the period during which she committed her murders. In addition, Pork and his team have uncovered numerous offenses committed by Jason himself; he was engaged in the illegal practice of polygamy, having never completed divorce proceedings with Medea before taking a second wife. According to Pork, Medea also claims that Jason willfully allowed his crew to harass her sexually when she traveled back to Greece with them on board the Argo. Bob Sleeze, attorney for Jason, was quoted as saying that the defense's panel was "ridiculous." "Of course she was in a rational state of mind when she committed the murders," he says. "They were carefully planned out and executed in a way that no insane person could ever have accomplished." Sleeze also feels that the "nationality card" the defense plans to play has no relevance to the case. Book deals have been signed between both Medea and Jason and major publishing companies. Medea: My Story is due out from Random House Publishers in February, while The Fight Of My Life, by Jason, is coming in March from Doubleday Publishing. Unauthorized biographies of both the plaintiff and the defendant are in the works. All three major networks are planning made-for-TV movies about the case. Preliminary press releases have suggested the casting of Glenn Close as Medea and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jason. CNN's live coverage of the trial is set to begin early on Monday; the channel expects to draw some of its highest ratings ever. Judge Bill Bland has declared his "impartiality" to the case and promises to consider the argument of both sides. If convicted, Medea will likely receive either life imprisonment or the death penalty. The National Organization for Women has publically proclaimed its support for Medea, while a number of conservative groups have voiced support for Jason, calling Medea's actions "a brutal attack upon family values." The country seems thus far divided evenly over the question of the defendant's guilt or innocence. New evidence and new developments, however, are certain to emerge as The People Vs. Medea begins to unfold on Monday.