For Broward County prosecutors, perhaps eight will be enough.
That's how many times it might take to finally get a conviction against Alan Ruff, who is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend in 2001.
On Thursday, a Broward judge declared a mistrial during the state's seventh attempt to put Ruff behind bars.
This time it was several potential jurors' admission they had heard about the case on the news that abruptly ended the trial. Jury selection started on Monday, but ended soon after.
Ruff has had so many trials, one of the members of a jury panel earlier this week told the judge he served on one of the previous six juries. Defense attorneys asked for a mistrial and Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes granted it.
Ruff, 49, allegedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend, Traci Cooper, to death in a Cooper City air-conditioning repair office. She was found with 49 slashes on her body.
Ruff was arrested in 2002, and has been in and out of courtrooms since. There have been two mistrials, three hung juries and one overturned conviction in 2007 in the six previous trials against Ruff, but prosecutors hoped that lucky No. 7 would put him away for good.
Local
If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try again.
