Koliedrus
03-08-2005, 07:25 PM
From: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=7&u=/nm/20050308/ts_nm/crime_texas_immigrants_dc
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A truck driver facing the death penalty in the deadliest human smuggling disaster in U.S. history was the worst of a criminal enterprise that "treated people worse than cattle on the way to the slaughter," the U.S. prosecutor said as the trial began on Tuesday.
There are several notable quotes in the article in Lawyer-ese. Not "party-of-the-first-part" stuff; "My client" and "the accused" type lingo.
For instance:
"Every tragedy is not a crime," Williams' lawyer Craig Washington told the jury in U.S. District Court. "What happened in Victoria was not a crime."
I agree with the first statement. The second one, however...
Well, let's just say the defense would have thrown me out of that particular jury pool.
Lawyers for Williams, who is black, have complained his race may have played a role in prosecutors' decision to seek the death penalty against him. Williams is the only one of the 14 people indicted in the case to face the death penalty.
When I first learned about this thing after it happened it was just another new article amidst the deluge. There were "bad people" and "dead people". I recall doing a "god, that's horrible, the driver should die of thirst" kinda thing but I paid no attention to his race.
I watched a film adaptation of the event that was made by a high-school kid graduate of Analy High with a $15K grant. Even after I saw it, my thoughts were on the victims, not the color of the driver. He could be aquamarine for all I care.
Victoria Para Chino by Cary Fukunaga (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/03/04/NBG21BI6U01.DTL) can still be seen at the
Sundance Online Film Festival (http://www.sundanceonlinefilmfestival.org/2005/index.aspx).
It's in Sundance Shorts under Films. Last one on the list.
Take a look.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A truck driver facing the death penalty in the deadliest human smuggling disaster in U.S. history was the worst of a criminal enterprise that "treated people worse than cattle on the way to the slaughter," the U.S. prosecutor said as the trial began on Tuesday.
There are several notable quotes in the article in Lawyer-ese. Not "party-of-the-first-part" stuff; "My client" and "the accused" type lingo.
For instance:
"Every tragedy is not a crime," Williams' lawyer Craig Washington told the jury in U.S. District Court. "What happened in Victoria was not a crime."
I agree with the first statement. The second one, however...
Well, let's just say the defense would have thrown me out of that particular jury pool.
Lawyers for Williams, who is black, have complained his race may have played a role in prosecutors' decision to seek the death penalty against him. Williams is the only one of the 14 people indicted in the case to face the death penalty.
When I first learned about this thing after it happened it was just another new article amidst the deluge. There were "bad people" and "dead people". I recall doing a "god, that's horrible, the driver should die of thirst" kinda thing but I paid no attention to his race.
I watched a film adaptation of the event that was made by a high-school kid graduate of Analy High with a $15K grant. Even after I saw it, my thoughts were on the victims, not the color of the driver. He could be aquamarine for all I care.
Victoria Para Chino by Cary Fukunaga (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/03/04/NBG21BI6U01.DTL) can still be seen at the
Sundance Online Film Festival (http://www.sundanceonlinefilmfestival.org/2005/index.aspx).
It's in Sundance Shorts under Films. Last one on the list.
Take a look.