Tyler Robinson’s defense team may try to use analysis to clear him of blame, as prosecutors aim to show there’s enough evidence to proceed with trial

An analysis from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive (ATF) could not conclusively connect a bullet fragment recovered during Charlie Kirk’s autopsy to the rifle found near the scene of the rightwing political activist’s killing – and the FBI is running additional tests, lawyers for Kirk’s accused murderer said in recent court filings.

In the court filings, Tyler Robinson’s defense team also asked for a delay to a preliminary hearing scheduled in May, saying they need time to review the bullet analysis as well as an enormous amount of other material that could contribute to the suspect’s defense.

The ATF’s bullet analysis report has been kept private, but attorneys have cited snippets in other public filings that say the results were inconclusive.

The defense said in its motion that it may try to use the analysis to clear Robinson of blame during the preliminary hearing while prosecutors aim to show they have enough evidence against him to proceed with a trial.

  • RaoulDook@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    I have read somewhere that the whole “bullet forensics” process is mostly pseudoscience anyway. A quick search found this article:

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-field-of-firearms-forensics-is-flawed/

    If a shell casing wasn’t ejected on the scene (like with a bolt-action not cycled) then all they would have to analyze is the what’s-left-of-bullet which is possibly just a mess of lead and copper. May or may not have rifling marks left on it

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      Yeah, shits not like on TV.

      In fact, one of the big reason it’s like that on TV, is just so when cops lie in real life, idiots believe them.

      They consistently tell suspects “we know your gun fired the bullet” but they don’t, at most for handguns they can say “a glock fired it” because they use weird octagon rifling.

      Matching it to a specific firearm is impossible unless the barrel is real fucked up in a unique way.

      A 30-06 will have such massive deformation, I’d be shocked if any rifling is identifiable.

      That doesn’t mean the person they claim is the shooter really is tho, all types of shit happened immediately after that only make sense if there was a cover up.

      But anyone expecting a bullet to be “matched” to a rifle been watching too much CSI