YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear arguments over whether or not a lengthy judicial process is violating the constitutional rights of a man who’s been held in the Mahoning County Jail since a murder that was committed thirteen years ago.

48-year-old Christopher Anderson was arrested a few months after 22-year old Amber Zurcher was found strangled with a phone cord in her Austintown apartment in 2002.

Anderson has been tried five times for the crime since his arrest.

Two of Anderson's trials have ended with hung juries. Two other trials ended in mistrials. Anderson was convicted in his second trial, but the verdict was overturned.  During that time, Anderson has remained jailed.

Defense attorney John Juhasz argues that a sixth trial would violate constitutional provisions which, according to Juhasz, “bar the State from making repeated attempts over a long course of time to convict a person by simply wearing him down when there is no new evidence of guilt.”

Juhasz tells the court that Anderson has served almost enough time to be eligible for parole.

“If the State were now to convict Anderson at a sixth trial, no one could honestly look at the conviction and say that it was fair process,” writes Juhasz in his Memorandum of Support filed with the court.

Anderson’s case is currently assigned to Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Christian. 

According to the online court docket, no hearings are scheduled for the case in Common Pleas Court or the Ohio Supreme Court.