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Dog Burning Trial Involving Phoenix And Twin Brothers Postponed

BALTIMORE (WJZ)—The trial of twin brothers accused of setting a pit bull on fire in 2009 has been postponed. A new trial date has not been confirmed.

Travers and Tremayne Johnson were scheduled to go on trial for a second time Friday after a mistrial in February.

The twins were 17 when they were accused of burning a female pit bull, later nicknamed Phoenix, so badly on May 27, 2009, that the dog had to be euthanized. The case revived attention on animal abuse in Baltimore and provoked outrage from animal-welfare advocates.

In its wake, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake established an Anti-Animal Abuse Task Force.

In the first trial, prosecutors failed to secure a guilty verdict after a single juror rejected the evidence against the Johnsons, resulting in a hung jury.

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