Thread: TN: Judge rejects drug dealer's argument

Judge rejects drug dealer's argument
Illegal immigrant says life sentence cruel and unusual

* By Jamie Satterfield
* Posted December 27, 2009 at 10:18 p.m.


A federal judge has rejected a bid by an illegal immigrant convicted in a massive mail order cocaine conspiracy to escape a mandatory life sentence.

Vicente Corona argued that a mandatory life term for even a thrice-convicted peddler like himself amounts to cruel and unusual punishment that not even his native Mexico, where drug cartels reign supreme, would impose.

But U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips disagreed, saying Corona should have stayed in Mexico the first time he got booted out of the United States if he wanted to avoid the control of U.S. drug laws.

"The United States deported defendant to Mexico in 1993, but he illegally re-entered the United States and continued his drug distribution activities," Phillips wrote.

Corona has been living in California for years and supported himself and his American citizen wife by peddling cocaine supplied by a Mexican drug cartel whose members killed his brother. He was twice convicted in California of drug-dealing, but authorities there never attempted to deport him, records show. In between those two convictions, Corona netted a federal drug conviction and was deported. He came back.

In 2005, Corona was indicted in Knoxville's federal court system for his role of cocaine supplier to a network that funneled via the mail some $2.6 million worth of the white powder from California to Knoxville. A federal jury convicted Corona in February 2008.

Corona's attorney, Steve Johnson, has been waging a legal battle to keep Corona from serving a mandatory life sentence ever since. He has attacked everything from the outcome of Corona's trial to California's spotty method of documenting criminal cases and labeled a mandatory life term for dope dealers as "cruel and unusual punishment."

In a recent ruling, Phillips served Corona a defeat on all those fronts.

Johnson hasn't admitted defeat yet, though. He now is challenging just how much cocaine Corona actually peddled, arguing Phillips should go with a figure a few kilos shy of what the jury opined and, therefore, a lesser sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Trey Hamilton calls the argument flawed. Phillips has set a March sentencing showdown.

www.knoxnews.com

Illegal Alien Says Drug Sentence Too Cruel


Last Updated: Mon, 12/28/2009 - 4:03pm

A thrice-convicted illegal immigrant drug dealer long protected by a sanctuary state is frantically trying to evade a life prison sentence by arguing that it’s “cruel and unusual punishmentâ€

"Vicente Corona argued that a mandatory life term for even a thrice-convicted peddler like himself amounts to cruel and unusual punishment that not even his native Mexico, where drug cartels reign supreme, would impose."

Hey, Corona, just be satisfied you got a mandatory life sentence and this isn't China, where you would have been put in front a firing squad and "shot dead"!!!!!!!!