The lawyers representing Sean Urbanski, the white former University of Maryland student accused of killing black Bowie State University student Richard Collins, want the hate crime charge against him tossed out on First Amendment grounds.
For months, Urbanski’s lawyers have been pushing for two separate trials — one for the murder charge and another for the hate crime issue — arguing that “particularly offensive, extremely prejudicial” evidence may bias a jury against him.
In a motion filed Friday, his lawyers cited the First Amendment in asking for the hate crime charge to be dropped altogether.
William Brennan Jr. and John McKenna argued that some digital evidence — including Urbanski’s membership in a white supremacist Facebook page called “Alt-Reich: Nation,” and cartoons and images found on his cell phone — has “no substantive or temporal connection with the killing that took place in this case,” according to the Associated Press.
Therefore, the lawyers contended, the hate crime charge violates Urbanski’s free speech rights.
In May, Brennan and McKenna motioned to get that same digital evidence barred from the trial altogether, writing that it was “highly inflammatory” and could prompt “irrational behavior” from the jury.
But prosecutors maintained that it was relevant to the case, arguing that it showed Urbanski’s “purposeful selection” of Collins as a victim based on his race.
“We have said all along that we believe this was a hate crime,” John Erzen, a spokesperson for the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney, told the AP on Wednesday.
After Urbanski was indicted on a murder charge in July 2017, prosecutors spent several months reviewing “lots of digital evidence” from his phone and computer before adding the hate crime charge on Oct. 17, 2017.
“What we found occurred on this unfortunate tragic night of May 20 is that we believe that Lt. Collins was killed — that he was murdered — and that it was unjustified, it was premeditated and that it was as a result of his race,” State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks said at a press conference that day.Alsobrooks, soon to become the county executive, will be replaced by former state delegate Aisha Braveboy.
Urbanski’s trial, which has been postponed twice, is scheduled for January. A hearing on two motions related to the hate crime charge that had been scheduled for Tuesday was pushed to Dec. 17, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Collins was killed waiting for an Uber with friends on this university’s campus early in the morning of May 20, 2017. Police said Urbanski approached Collins, brandishing a knife, and told him, “step left, step left if you know what’s good for you,” then stabbed him.
Collins, a recently commissioned 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Army, was pronounced dead at the hospital at about 4 a.m.Police initially said that the killing wasn’t racially motivated, but shortly thereafter, they announced that they’d work with the FBI to determine whether it was a hate crime.
Collins’ death prompted considerable soul-searching at the university. In the months leading up to his killing, white nationalist posters were discovered at several locations on campus, and a noose was found hanging in the workstation of a black employee at a fraternity house.
University President Wallace Loh convened a diversity and inclusion task force, which ultimately called for making intimidating conduct based on an individual’s protected class explicitly against the Code of Student Conduct.
Loh also commissioned an external review of diversity on the campus — the results of which have yet to be released, prompting dissatisfaction from some members of the community.
