Allen Stanford demands new trial and blames Twitter

Allen Stanford, the financier convicted of running an estimated $7bn Ponzi scheme, has called for a new trial, blaming the media's use of Twitter in the courtroom and a lack of time to prepare his defense.

In a 71-page filing with the US District Court in Houston on Tuesday, Stanford's lawyer, Ali Fazel, said his client was deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial, Reuters reports. Fazel said he lacked time to prepare given the "voluminous" amounts of material. He and colleague Robert Scardino were retained to represent Stanford in October 2010. He also said the case turned into a "media circus" that left the Houston area "saturated with publicity prejudicial to Stanford" even before the six-week trial started. He said this was made worse when US District Judge David Hi...