Amazon Echo Hot Tub Murder Suspect Agrees to Release Recordings: Zellner

DOWNERS GROVE, IL — An Illinois attorney famous for exonerating wrongly accused suspects like Kevin Fox and defending high-profile clients like Steven Avery of "Making a Murderer" is now representing a man accused in the so-called "Amazon Echo murder case," in which prosecutors allege that his smart device may have recorded key evidence when a man was murdered in a hot tub. On Monday, Zellner said her client, Arkansas accused murderer James Bates, has agreed to release audio from his Amazon Echo device.

Also on Monday, Amazon dropped its privacy fight against a subpoena seeking 48 hours' worth of data from Bates' Echo, according to Fox News 59.

Similar to smartphone "assistants" like the iPhone's Siri and the Android Google Assistant, the Amazon Echo "listens" for key words that act as voice commands. Last month, Amazon argued that voice responses by "Alexa," the Amazon Echo digital assistant, have First Amendment protection, and the warrant should be thrown out, according to Forbes.

On Monday, Zellner tweeted, "Amazon Echo Case: Today agreed to release recordings. My client James Bates is innocent," including a press release stating Bates has "agreed to the release of any recordings in his Amazon Echo device to the prosecution." Curiously, Zellner added the hashtag, "MakingAMurderer," the name of the Netflix documentary series about a different client, Steven Avery.

By Tuesday morning, that tweet had been removed and replaced with a similar message that left out the "Making a Murderer" reference but was directed at several networks and television true-crime shows:

In November 2015, Bates reportedly had guests over to watch football at his home in Bentonville, Arkansas; in the morning, one guest -- Victor Parris Collins, 47, was found dead in a backyard hot tub. Police found multiple digital devices, including an Amazon Echo that was in the kitchen at the home, NPR reported. According to KFSM 5 News in Bentonville, police believe Bates strangled and drowned Collins, a former Georgia police officer.

Bates has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, according to Fox. A hearing is set for Wednesday to determine whether any information gathered by the Echo is pertinent to the case.

Photo: This July 29, 2015, file photo shows Amazon's Echo speaker, which responds to voice commands, in New York. A prosecutor investigating the death of a man whose body was found in a hot tub wants to expand the probe to include a potential new kind of evidence: the suspect’s Amazon Echo smart speaker. Amazon has called the request “overbroad or otherwise inappropriate." (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)