Mexican drug lord ‘El Chapo’s’ appeal efforts rejected by US court; attorneys intend to appeal to SCOTUS

January 25, 2022:

A United States appeals court on Tuesday upheld the federal conviction of reputed Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, lauding the judge who oversaw the trial for his handling of a case that drew international attention.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected claims that Judge Brian Cogan allowed a jury to hear faulty evidence at Guzman’s 2019 trial.

EL CHAPO’S WIFE SENTENCED TO THREE YEARS IN PRISON

Cogan “conducted the three-month trial with diligence and fairness, after issuing a series of meticulously crafted pretrial rulings,” the appeals court panel concluded in its ruling.

Authorities escort Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, center, from a plane in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.
(U.S. law enforcement via AP)

Known as Mexico’s most notorious drug lord, Guzman, 64, was convicted in New York on Feb. 12, 2019, of running an industrial-scale smuggling operation. He was sentenced to life in prison in July of that year.

His attorney, Marc Fernich, told Fox News after Tuesday’s ruling that he expects his client will want to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

DRUG KINGPIN ‘EL CHAPO’ APPEALS CONVICTION, ARGUES JURY BIAS AND CONDITIONS IN ‘MODERN DUNGEON’

“While respecting the Court’s ruling, we’re disappointed that substantial allegations of grave jury misconduct continue to be swept under the rug and left wholly unexamined in a case of historic proportion — all, it appears, because of the defendant’s matchless notoriety,” Fernich said.

At the trial, Guzman’s lawyers argued that he was the fall guy for other kingpins who were better at paying off top Mexican politicians and law enforcement officials to protect them while the U.S. government looked the other way. They said witnesses’ descriptions of El Chapo leading a lavish lifestyle featuring private planes, beachfront villas and a private zoo were overblown, and that there’s no chance the U.S. government could collect the multi-billion-dollar forfeiture.

Guzman, whose two dramatic prison escapes in Mexico fed into a legend that he and his family were all but untouchable, was extradited to the United States in 2017.

As Mexico’s most powerful drug lord, he ran a cartel responsible for smuggling mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States during his 25-year reign, prosecutors said in court papers.

EL CHAPO: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT CONVICTED DRUG KINGPIN

Under Guzman’s leadership, the Sinaloa Cartel – one of the world’s largest drug trafficking organizations – was responsible for multiple murders and smuggling mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States, officials said. Prosecutors also previously said Guzman’s “army of sicarios,” or “hit men,” was under orders to kidnap, torture and kill anyone who got in his way.

Guzman’s lawyers argued in their appeal that jurors reportedly sought out news accounts about sex abuse allegations against him that were barred from the trial, and said the judge mishandled the issue when he did not order a hearing regarding the allegations.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“The decision seems like it was decided and written before the argument even occurred,” another of Guzman’s lawyers, Jeffrey Lichtman, said in a statement Tuesday. “How can there be justice here when the jury was exposed to scurrilous claims against Mr. Guzman which were not part of the government’s case?”

Cogan was correct in finding “that the jury was not prejudiced by any extraneous information to which they might have been exposed,” the appeals court ruled. It added: “Any possible prejudice was harmless in view of the overwhelming evidence of Guzman’s guilt.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source link

tags

Abkhazia Afghanistan Africa Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curacao Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guam Guatemala Guinea Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Northern Cyprus Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Lucia Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Uganda UK Ukraine United Arab Emirates Uruguay USA Uzbekistan Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe