A New Zealand man potentially facing life in jail in the US was targeted in prison because of his accent and had no choice but to defend himself, his lawyer says.
Aucklander Clinton Thinn, the step-brother of National MP Nikki Kaye, is accused of strangling his cellmate Lyle Woodward at a jail in San Diego in December 2016, after he was arrested for a botched bank robbery.
The prosecutor was asking for a first-degree murder conviction, a news reporter with the Star News in Chula Vista, Neal Putnam, told RNZ on Friday.
"He made the statement that his client had no choice but to defend himself, that the inmate [Woodward] had attacked him earlier ... he said 'he assaulted my client, Mr Thinn had no choice'," Mr Putnam said.
"Then he added 'he's a foreigner, he has an accent, he didn't fit in, he had no choice', but he stopped short of saying exactly what he had done, and I don't know how they're going to bring out that information unless his client takes the stand."
Thinn will appear in court on the murder charge on March 6. He has pleaded not guilty.
If convicted of first-degree murder, he could be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
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