Push to move Chris Lane murder trial

Oklahoma lawyers for a 17-year-old accused of shooting dead Australian baseball player Chris Lane want next month's murder trial moved to a new location.

The teenager accused of firing the fatal bullet into the back of Australian baseball player Chris Lane as he jogged along an Oklahoma street wants the words "thrill kill", "bored" and "thugs" banned from next month's murder trial.

The motion filed by 17-year-old Chancey Luna's legal team in the Stephens County court is the latest legal move ahead of the trial.

Luna's lawyers also want the trial moved out of Stephens County because they do not believe an impartial jury for the case that shook the rural city of Duncan can be found, the Duncan Banner newspaper reports.

In the days after Lane's 2013 murder Duncan Police Chief Dan Ford said Luna's then 17-year-old co-accused, Michael Jones, told investigators: "We were bored and didn't have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody'."

The quote turned the murder into a global story, front page news in the US, sparked racial debate and US President Barack Obama issued a statement saying his thoughts and prayers were with the Lane family.

Soon after a judge slapped a ban preventing police, prosecutors and lawyers from discussing the case out of court.

A hearing on the defence motions will be held in Duncan on April 1.

Lane, from Melbourne, had a baseball scholarship at Oklahoma's East Central University.

The youngest accused, James Edwards Jr, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, has become a prosecution witness and will face an accessory charge.


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Source: AAP



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