PONTIAC - A man on death row because he was convicted of being a serial killer wants a new trial because he says his 2004 trial in Livingston County was flawed.

Andrew Urdiales, 44, who now is in Pontiac prison, filed a petition in April claiming 13 errors in his trial. They include ineffective counsel and denial of an impartial jury.

Attorneys from the prosecution and defense will discuss the matter in a Sept. 12 conference call, according to court records.

Urdiales, then of Chicago, was sentenced to death in 2004 after he was convicted of shooting and stabbing Cassie Corum, 21, of Hammond, Ind. Fishermen in the Vermilion River in Livingston County found her body in July 1996.

Authorities said Urdiales also confessed to killing seven other women in California and Illinois between 1986 and 1995. In 2002, he was convicted of killing two women in Cook County and was sentenced to death row, but he never was tried in California.

Urdiales appealed his case but the Illinois Supreme Court upheld the conviction in February 2007.

Livingston County Circuit Judge Harold Frobish said that a pro se petition for post-conviction relief, which Urdiales filed, mainly deals with aspects that are not on the formal record at the trial. Jury bias and attorney performance are such issues.

Such a petition asks the court to review these issues and possibly order a new trial, Frobish said.

"What he is essentially doing is trying to start over," Frobish said.

Urdiales filed the petition himself on April 28, and it was denied by the Livingston County Court on May 14. Frobish said answered all of Urdiales's complaints by providing evidence from court testimony and other methods.

In closing Frobish said that there was no ground for the petition.

"The court accordingly finds that the defendant's petition for post-conviction relief is frivolous and patently without merit, and it is dismissed," court documents said.

On May 19, Assistant Attorney General Katherine Saunders spoke with Urdiales' state-appointed attorney and both agreed to file a joint motion to vacate Frobish's dismissal. They argued an attorney should have argued the petition's merits before Frobish before the judge ruled on it.

Frobish on Thursday granted the request to vacate his dismissal, but no new hearing date has been set.

Urdiales remains on death row, but a moratorium on executions was imposed in 2003.