A trial no-brainer

The defense in the Kyle R. case — in which a teenager with a shackle on one leg escaped his alleged captors and bounded into a Tracy health club pleading for help — is seeking a change in venue.

Those details, as reported in the Press and elsewhere, have a tendency to stick in the mind, as has the case's popular label: The Tracy Torture Case.

That's made the defense claim — and not without reason — that the four defendents can't get a fair trial in San Joaquin County. So far, the judge seems to want to move ahead with the trial, since it's nearly two full years since Kyle R. made his first public appearance.

That fair trial business is kind of important.