Opening statements were heard Saturday in Sawyer County in the trial of a man accused of killing six deer hunters in Rice Lake, Wis., last fall. The defendant in the case, Chai Soua Vang, 36, is accused of first-degree murder after a confrontation arose at a deer hunting camp. Vang was hunting on private property when one of the owners of the property asked him to leave.

The prosecutors say Vang shot and killed the six hunters and wounded two others after they told him to vacate the premises.

Vang, however, claims one of the hunters shot at him first and he was forced to shoot them in order to defend himself.

University of Wisconsin political science professor Donald Downs said the self-defense plea Vang entered will be difficult for lawyers to prove.

"Self-defense may have come into play with shooting some of the people," Downs said. "But it wouldn't have come in with the others. Shooting someone in the back while they are running away is not self-defense."

The case has drawn national media attention, and many circumstances surrounding the case have created controversy. Issues of race, the difference between rural and urban societies and Vang's mental state at the time of the shooting may all become factors in the case, Downs said.

In an attempt to avoid any risk of prejudice and provide Vang with a fair trial, a jury was selected in Madison rather than in Sawyer County.

This decision to choose a jury from a different part of the state has been met with controversy — some feel a jury from a more urban area may render a different verdict than one from a more rural area.

However, Downs said political differences may have more of an effect on the outcome.

"There is a large faction of Madison that is extremely liberal," Downs said. "And people like that tend to be less prone to convict in a criminal case."

Additionally, race may have come into play when the jury was selected, said Steven Gonzales, an adjunct professor of law at UW.

The U.S. Supreme Court has placed restrictions on the use of racial criteria in jury selection in order to protect against race being a factor in jury trials, Gonzales said.

"The prosecution has to walk a fine line because this would be fertile ground for filing appeals in the case of choosing juries based on race," Gonzales said.

Downs noted the defendant's mental state may also be a factor in the case, but it is likely the defense did not enter a plea based on it because such defenses are rarely successful.

"They are talking about how he was in Vietnam and has been having dreams about that," Downs said. "And that his mental state may have been in play when he shot those people."

One aspect highlighted after the shootings was the issue of race; Vang is an immigrant of Laotian decent who resides in St. Paul, Minn. Vang alleges the hunters used racial slurs when talking to him during the confrontation.

However, Downs said the facts of the case should outweigh all other circumstances.

"You don't have the right to shoot people because they used racial slurs at you," Downs said. "Either he had a basis for feeling imminent danger, or he didn't."

Despite these issues, Gonzales said both the prosecution and defense should try to keep their arguments simple.

"Communications are much more important than the rural/urban difference," Gonzales said, adding the defense should make their message "very clear" and "simple" during the trial.