19 immigrants dead; trucker convicted

Trucker convicted in smuggling deaths case.
Jurors to decide penalty in case of 19 who dies by suffocation in Texas.
Pat Sullivan/ AP file http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16039294

Truck Driver Tyrone Williams leaves the Federal Courthouse in Houston, Texas in March 2005

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HOUSTON - A truck driver was convicted Monday for his role in the nation’s deadliest human smuggling attempt, in which 19 illegal immigrants died from dehydration, overheating and suffocation inside a sweltering tractor-trailer.
The trial’s punishment phase was set to begin on Wednesday and was expected to last about a week. Jurors will decide whether the driver, Tyrone Williams, should be sentenced to death or life in prison.

The federal jury convicted Williams of 58 counts for the transport and deaths of illegal immigrants during a May 2003 smuggling attempt. His tractor-trailer was packed with more than 70 immigrants who scraped at the insulation, broke out the tail-lights and screamed for help escaping the tomblike trailer.

Williams had no visible reaction when the verdict was read, but accepted a long hug from his lawyer, Craig Washington, before being led away by U.S. marshals.
“I am deeply disappointed,” Washington said.

Washington told reporters he would present about 20 witnesses during the punishment phase to help the jury decide “whether they should take this man’s life.”
Prosecutors declined comment on the verdict.

Prosecutors have said Williams was responsible for the deaths because he didn’t free the immigrants or turn on the trailer’s air conditioning, which could have saved their lives. Some survivors testified they thought the air conditioning had been turned on.

Washington said his client transported the illegal immigrants but wasn’t responsible for their deaths because he didn’t know they were dying until it was too late. Washington blamed another smuggling ring member for causing the deaths by overstuffing the trailer.
Williams, 35, a Jamaican citizen who lived in Schenectady, N.Y., is the only one of 14 people charged in the case who is facing the death penalty.

Last year, a jury convicted Williams on 38 transporting counts, but he avoided a death sentence because the jury couldn’t agree on his role in the smuggling attempt. The jury deadlocked on 20 other counts.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the decision, saying the verdict didn’t count because the jury failed to specify his role in the crime.

In his retrial, Williams faced 58 counts of conspiracy, harboring and transporting illegal immigrants, 20 of which were death penalty eligible.

Since the new jury convicted him on counts eligible for the death penalty, it will hear evidence in a punishment phase before deliberating on whether to sentence Williams to death or up to life in prison.

The jury deliberated for a little more than four days, beginning Nov. 27 and taking a three-day weekend. They resumed deliberating for about two hours on Monday before returning the verdict.

© 2006 The Associated Press.
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WA: Personally I am anti-illegal immigration. We are a nation of laws and we have laws regarding proper and LEGAL immigration to this country. People who deliberately ignore these laws break the laws; as lawbreakers they are therefore criminals, no matter their motivation for doing so.

However, when the entire world sees our own President flout the Law with impunity, how can any foreigner (or citizen) respect our laws? Our President sets an example of "do what you want; to heck with the Law". I believe that the Law is the cornerstone of civilization; without laws we descend into anarchy. In instances when a law is bad, we have a system for getting it repealed. (Hear that, Democrats?)

I am anti-illegal immigration but am PRO-HUMANITY! I am very much opposed to the abuse and exploitation of the foreign people who enter our country illegally, and the offenses against them are legion. Our fellow human beings desperate to take advantage of the benefits offered by the United States are frequently treated as little better than slaves, and in some instances are actually held in slavery. It is true that many prosper and are an asset to the nation, but all too many become mere chattel or subsist on the tax- payer- paid welfare rolls. ( And oh yes, there are ways to get around the curbs against such abuse of the tax payers. ) The crimes against them are often far more severe than their own crimes of entering our country illegally.

The "coyotes", the human smugglers who aid the illegals in entering the U.S. either by guiding them across the border or transporting them via vehicles rob, rape, and even abandon them to their deaths, hold them hostage when demanding more payments for their services from relatives, and sometimes "selling" them to individuals or businesses as virtual slave labor or indentured servant status. Coyotes are evil persons, exploiting these people for their personal gain with no humane consideration for their suffering at all. This is an outrage, worse than an outrage!

Coyotes and their associates must be prosecuted and punished to the full extent of the law and deserve no more mercy than that which they show their victims. Although only (ONLY??) 19 of the 70 human beings packed into that sealed, unventilated trailer died, imagining their slow, agonizing deaths is sickening. The trailer was equipped with air conditioning, yet the driver and coyotes failed to turn it on. Why? Who knows, but it appears they had absolutely no care for the helpless people in their charge.

Texas has a bad reputation for its death penalty laws. I am not in favor of the death penalty but there are times........!!