WASHINGTON -- The two inmates accused of killing federal correctional officer Jose Rivera at U.S. Penitentiary Atwater are now set to go on trial in July 2014, more than six years after the brutal slaying that was partially captured on prison videotape.

It's a long wait, vexing to some, but not unique. Another accused Atwater prison killer, who prosecutors say murdered his cellmate in 2003, is also awaiting a 2014 trial date.

The long delays reflect, in part, the many complications involved in capital murder cases. In both of the alleged Atwater prison murders, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

In the Jose Rivera slaying, moreover, prosecutors and defense attorneys had both wanted even more time, proposing that trial start in early 2015. But in a ruling quietly issued this month, U.S. District Judge Philip M. Pro declared that the Rivera case "has already suffered" sufficient delay over the past five years due to a combination of procedural complications and a pretrial appeal over a mental competency hearing.

"During this time, counsel for the defendants have had ample time to conduct pretrial and mitigation investigation and discovery, have consulted with numerous experts, and (could) develop a close working relationship with their clients," Pro wrote in the March 1 ruling.

The setting of the trial date for defendants Joseph Cabrera Sablan and James Ninete Leon Guerrero also lays the groundwork for a crucial set of other pretrial questions, which include:

Will the Justice Department continue to pursue the death penalty against Leon Guerrero? Attorneys for Leon Guerrero have indicated they will file a motion declaring that he is mentally retarded and therefore ineligible, under a 2002 Supreme Court ruling, for the death penalty. The Justice Department now has until mid-October to conduct its own examination and figure out its position, with death penalty calls ultimately going all the way up to Attorney General Eric Holder.

Will there be one trial or two? Currently, the case is unified, but each inmate has his own defense team, and by mid-May they could file motions to sever the proceedings. Defense attorneys pointedly noted in one recent legal filing that a determination that Leon Guerrero is ineligible for the death penalty would "likely result in a plea agreement" for him and hence the necessity of only one trial, for Sablan.

Will the trial, or trials, be moved out of the federal courthouse in Fresno?

Currently, the case is before the Eastern District of California, but by mid-May, defense attorneys can file motions for a change of venue in an effort to avoid jurors potentially tainted by widespread media coverage of Rivera's 2008 slaying.

Rivera was a 22-year-old Navy veteran working as a guard at the maximum security Atwater prison on June 20, 2008. Sablan and Leon Guerrero were serving life sentences. Both inmates appear to have been intoxicated on prison brew when they attacked Rivera, chased him down when he ran and tackled him, according to a subsequent federal Bureau of Prisons Board of Inquiry report.