Springer show husband charged with wife murder
The trial of a man accused of murdering his ex-wife on the day they both appeared on a taped edition of the Jerry Springer show called Secret Mistresses Confronted is starting.
Ralf Panitz is accused of strangling and beating to death his ex-wife Nancy Campbell in July 2000.
Her death came less than three months after she and her former spouse recorded the show, which was shown on American television just hours before the crime.
Jerry Springer is unlikely to be called during the trial - but the love triangle disclosed in his studio is at the centre of proceedings.
German-born Panitz went on the Chicago-based show in May 2000 to tell Eleanor Panitz, his new wife whom he had met in an Internet chat room, that he was sleeping with Campbell, who was either his second or third wife.
"I had sex with my ex-wife yesterday, but I did that to keep her illusioned," he told Mr Springer. He told Campbell: "I care for you and don't wish you any harm. I just wanted you to know. Please let me go on with my life."
Prosecutors in Sarasota, Florida, claim that after watching the show on national television, Panitz murdered Campbell because of a restraining order she had served on him. Panitz and Campbell, who was 52 when she died, are alleged to have had a stormy relationship with a history of domestic violence during their two-year marriage.
He is accused of having gone on the run after the killing, attempting to flee to Canada and take refuge in the German embassy there, before handing himself over to police in the state of Maine, more than 2,000 miles from his home.
Panitz has hired celebrity lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, who is to call two forensic experts who were used in the high-profile acquittal of OJ Simpson.
Mr Fieger will tell the jury that Campbell in fact died of a heart attack and that his client is innocent.
The trial has already been delayed as the court struggled to find an unbiased jury. Panitz faces life in prison if found guilty at the end of the trial. Regardless of the outcome, Jerry Springer may be sued by the dead woman's family.
