CHAPEL HILL - Demario Atwater, one of two men accused of killing UNC's student body president, Eve Carson, in March 2008, has asked that his capital trial be moved out of North Carolina.

Atwater's defense team commissioned a poll of 300 people that indicates 57 percent of residents in the Middle District of North Carolina, where the case would be tried, think Atwater is guilty and should be executed if convicted. Across the state, the poll said, 53 percent of those questioned think he's guilty and 52 percent say he should be executed if convicted.

"There exists little doubt in the minds of far too many of the citizens of North Carolina that Mr. Atwater is guilty of murder," his attorney, Kimberly Stevens, wrote in a motion. "The pretrial publicity in this case has poisoned the jury pool throughout North Carolina."

By comparison, the survey found 20 percent of 300 respondents in the Eastern judicial district of Virginia thought Atwater was guilty, with 78 percent saying they didn't know.

Atwater's trial on federal carjacking, kidnapping and firearms charges is scheduled May 10 in Winston-Salem. Because Carson died as a result of what was said to be a carjacking, that charge carries the possibility of the death penalty.

Atwater and co-defendant Laurence Lovette also face state charges.Those charges have to wait until the federal case is resolved.

Staff writer Jesse James DeConto