Jodi Arias' attorneys are looking to have charges against their client dropped, siting misconduct by the prosectution, AZ Central reported on Tuesday.
According to a motion filed in court, the defense team's computer expert found that thousands of files containing mostly pornography were deleted from victim Travis Alexander's computer. The item was in the custody of Mesa police at the time. It's possible there was child pornography on the computer, according to AZ Family.
The motion also asks that the death penalty not be used against Arias, if the motion can't get her charges dropped completely. The motion's hearing date has not yet been scheduled.
"Those are issues that will certainly be brought up in the court case, and those are issues that will have to be decided by the judicial system," Detective Steve Berry, of the Mesa Police Department, said.
The claims started when Arias testified that Alexander's mental and sexual abuse drove her to commit the crime, a part of her testimony that was widely discredited. She also claimed Alexander was a pedophile. Now, the defense team is alleging that evidence of child pornography was destroyed.
The defense team alleges that whoever deleted the files knew how to make their work go undetected.
If the statements are true, the level of misconduct would be enough to justify dropping charges against Arias, who was convicted in 2013 of killing Alexander.
Arizona is seeking the death penalty against Arias.
