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Whitey's lawyer asks for 8-month delay for trial start

BOSTON (AP) - Lawyers for Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger have asked a judge to delay his trial by eight months.

Bulger, the former leader of the Winter Hill Gang, is charged with playing a role in 19 killings. His trial is scheduled to begin in March, but his lawyers have said they cannot be ready by then because they are reviewing more than 300,000 documents turned over by prosecutors. They have asked that the trial be moved to November 2013.

In a motion filed in U.S. District Court on Friday, Bulger's lawyers say the current trial date infringes on Bulger's constitutional rights to effective assistance of counsel and due process of law.

Bulger fled Boston in 1994 and was one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives until he was captured last year in California.