Burlington, Vt. ? A lawyer for a man on trial in Vermont’s first death penalty case in four decades all but conceded his client’s guilt on Monday, prompting prosecutors to ask why they were bothering with a trial.

Attorney Alexander Bunin explained during his opening statement how Donald Fell was responsible for killing a supermarket worker and also a friend of his mother’s during an alcohol and drug-induced stupor, while his best friend killed Fell’s mother.

Assistant U.S. Atty. William Darrow responded by saying he was “somewhat perplexed why we’re having a trial.”

U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions III also expressed puzzlement: “I didn’t see any element that has not been admitted to. Are we just going through an exercise?”

Bunin made it clear that defense lawyers would focus on helping Fell avoid execution, and told the court it was up to prosecutors to prove their case.

Vermont has no death penalty, but Fell was charged under federal kidnapping and carjacking statutes and faces execution because the alleged crimes almost five years ago resulted in a death.

Defense attorneys had reached a deal with federal prosecutors in 2002 in which Fell would plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life without parole. But that deal was struck down by the Justice Department, which insisted on the death penalty.

Terry King, 53, was abducted when she arrived for work at a Rutland supermarket. She was bludgeoned to death as she prayed and pleaded for her life in New York state. Fell and his friend, Robert Lee, were arrested three days later in Arkansas driving King’s car. Lee hanged himself in prison in 2001.

Before King was slain, the men allegedly killed Fell’s mother and a friend in a Rutland apartment.

The most ardent supporters of the death penalty in the case have been King’s relatives, some of whom are taking leaves of absence from their jobs to attend the trial.

A group calling itself Vermonters Against the Death Penalty held a news conference at a church next to the federal courthouse and included two former governors – Democrats Phil Hoff and Madeleine Kunin.