A North Carolina judge has reserved a decision in an application to move the retrial of Molly and Tom Martens to a different court.
Molly and Tom Martens are accused of the second-degree murder of Limerick businessman Jason Corbett, who was killed in August 2015.
A motion was heard by defence attorneys for Molly Martens and her father, Thomas, that would move their second-degree murder trial from Davidson County to neighbouring Forsyth County.
The Martens' attorneys contend that they would not receive a fair trial, as is their constitutional right.
They argue the two cannot receive a fair retrial in the death of Molly Martens' husband, Jason Corbett, in the county the couple lived because a faction of the county’s residents have indicated their allegiance lies with Mr Corbett’s family.
Accounts on social media have flooded in by supporters in Ireland, and the US, of Mr Corbett's family.
Publicity from the case prompted Judge David Hall to issue a gag order on the participants in the case, in order to avoid tainting the jury pool.
However, the defence has said that it is too late.
"This is not just about publicity," defence attorney Jay Vannoy said. "We have publicity in every high-profile case."
Mr Vannoy said that most news reports have been factual and that media outlets play a proper, important role in distributing information.
His issue is with what he calls a social media campaign which he claimed individuals in Ireland began.
Mr Vannoy referred to attempts to paint Jason Corbett as a fine gentleman and Molly Martens as an evil murderer.
Reading from snippets of posts attributed to Davidson County residents, Mr Vannoy said those living in the county have formed an "us versus them" mentality.
They followed, he said, the lead of one juror from the first trial who said on ABC’s 20/20 that Tom Martens had attempted to outwit Davidson County, but that Davidson County outwitted him.
Such comments from residents included remarks that invited violence, the court was told.
Four lawyers who practice law in Davidson County signed an affidavit that indicated the Martens could receive a fair trial in Davidson county.
Davidson County Assistant District Attorney Alan Martin presented to Judge Hall the statements of those four attorneys.
Mr Martin said the defence team had "cherry picked" a small number of residents to paint Davidson County with a broad brush.
In a county of more than 170,000 people, he said he believed the representation of a few who voiced their opinions on social media did not represent the whole of the communities.
Judge David Hall said he would carefully consider the evidence presented over the next few days and said a decision would come sometime late next week.
He added that in more than 33 years of practice, there was no doubt this case has garnered the most media coverage of any in his experience.
Judge Hall also acknowledged that the further the case got from the original trial date in 2017, the fairer the jury pool was likely to be.
