COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) - Attorneys for a white man charged with fatally stabbing a black student on the University of Maryland's campus have asked a judge to throw out a hate crime charge against their client.
Sean Urbanski is charged with first-degree murder and a hate crime in the May 2017 killing of Bowie State University student Richard Collins III. Collins was visiting friends at the University of Maryland when he was stabbed to death.
In a court filing last Friday, Urbanski's lawyers argue the hate crime charge violates his First Amendment free speech rights.
The defense attorneys say prosecutors intend to present evidence that Urbanski belonged to a racist Facebook group called "Alt-Reich: Nation." Urbanski's lawyers say that Facebook page, and other material extracted from his cellphone, is irrelevant and inadmissible at trial.
