Jury selection was expected to wrap up today in the trial of Aaron McKinney, the 22-year-old accused of first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

Court officials have said opening statements may be pushed back to Tuesday if it takes longer than expected to narrow the final jury pool from 48 to 16.

Shepard, a 21-year-old college freshman who was gay, was found bloodied, comatose and tied to a fence some 18 hours after leaving a bar with the co-defendants. He died five days later from 18 blows to the face and head.

Co-defendant Russell Henderson's trial in April ended just before the jury was seated when he pleaded guilty to felony murder and kidnapping and received two life sentences.

The plea allowed Henderson to avoid the death penalty. Whether McKinney has been offered a similar deal has not been disclosed. Attorneys and court officials are under a gag order and are prohibited from discussing the case.

Analysts say no agreement has likely been offered because prosecutors see McKinney as the main aggressor in the attack and deserving of a stiffer penalty than Henderson.

McKinney's lawyers already have said during jury selection that he played a role in the fatal beating on Oct. 7, 1998, but that he never intended or planned to kill Shepard.

Defense lawyer Dion Custis has said the death was not a hate crime. He told prospective jurors that drugs and alcohol spurred McKinney's actions, and his client's use of those substances would be a core part of his defense.

``What you have to decide in this case is basically a question of why,'' he said during jury selection last week.

Custis has said in court proceedings that he will try to persuade the jury to convict his client of the lesser offense of second-degree murder or manslaughter, which do not carry a possible death sentence.

He must also try to prove Shepard's death did not result from a kidnapping or robbery because Wyoming subscribes to the felony-murder rule. That law allows a defendant to be convicted of murder for a death that results from the commission of a felony, even if the death is unintentional.

In other words, even if McKinney avoids conviction on the individual first-degree murder charge, he could still face the death penalty if the jury finds Shepard died as a result of a robbery or kidnapping.

``There was no intent or premeditation to affect the death of Matthew Shepard and also this did not occur during perpetration of a robbery, also known as felony murder,'' Custis told prospective jurors earlier this month.

Although Custis has said the case is not a hate crime, some analysts speculate the defense may argue that McKinney reacted angrily to an advance by Shepard, a so-called ``gay panic'' strategy.

``There's some fine line there where you could say, `I don't hate gays. I didn't intend to harm a gay person. When the gay person touched me, I lost my senses and under the influence of drugs attacked a gay person,''' said Andrew Cohen, a Denver legal analyst.

Although the gay panic strategy has been used successfully before, fewer juries are accepting it these days, said Jeffrey Montgomery of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.

``There was a time when it was a virtual guarantee to get an acquittal, but in recent years it's been much more difficult,'' he said. ``Juries are not as influenced by it, but it's also because prosecutors are much more better prepared and able to counter it.''