Blaze Bernstein trial: Closing arguments underway

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Samuel Woodward is charged with murder with a sentencing enhancement for a hate crime based on the sexual orientation of the victim, 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein.

The defense will resume its closing argument Tuesday in the trial of the man charged with the hate-crime fatal stabbing of a former gay classmate in Foothill Ranch.Attorney Ken Morrison of the Orange County Public Defender's Office argued Monday that authorities fell victim to "confirmation bias" when concluding Samuel Lincoln Woodward planned the killing to gain prestige with a neo-Nazi group.

"I didn't run an autism spectrum disorder defense," Morrison said..But to determine the degree of culpability for the killing and to weigh the hate-crime allegation, jurors must "get into the mind of Sam Woodward," Morrison said.Woodward was taken to a clinic when he was 18 where he was first diagnosed with autism. Morrison said it was too late for many of the prescribed interventions.

 

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