A hearing before 6th District Judge William Woodland over a first-degree murder case in Oneida County was postponed until next week.
James Holland, 48, a Utah death row inmate charged with the July 4, 1987, rest-stop slaying of Karl Behm, 24, is asking that Woodland be disqualified from further proceedings in the case. Woodland's refusal to accept a plea-bargain agreement in the case is a key issue in that request.The hearing was scheduled for Tuesday.
In an arraignment proceeding held before Woodland last Friday, Holland refused to enter a plea to the charge and the judge proceeded to enter a plea of not guilty for him.
Woodland's rejection of a guilty plea by Holland that would spare him from the death penalty in the Behm death is under review by the Idaho Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Holland, who is being held in the Bingham County Jail in Blackfoot, faces a death sentence in Utah on a similar rest stop killing. That sentence is under appeal.
The Idaho and Utah slayings, as well as one for which Holland served time in prison, all allegedly occurred or began at the same Juniper rest stop on the interstate.