BOSTON – from www. bostonherald.com – It was a sensational murder trial that drew national attention: a prominent doctor from Wellesley charged with bludgeoning his wife with a hammer and slitting her throat after she discovered his secret life of prostitutes and Internet porn.

Nearly a decade later, Dirk Greineder is asking for a new trial based in part on a claim that his right to a public trial was violated because the public was kept out of the courtroom during jury selection.

In a ruling last week, the Supreme Judicial Court overturned the corruption conviction of a Stoughton police officer because some of his friends and relatives were excluded from a portion of jury selection.

In the Greineder case, his lawyers are arguing that the public was shut out of jury selection entirely, not just some of the time, as in the other case.

“The law on this is very powerful – the right of a public trial – and in this case there was nothing on the record to justify (closing the courtroom),” said James Sultan, Greineder’s appellate lawyer.

The SJC said it did not have enough information on the jury selection issue and sent the case back to Judge Paul Chernoff.