Thread: Jurors say they were misled to convict agents

http://www.elpasotimes.com/breakingnews/ci_4506471

Jurors say they were misled to convict agents (6:09 p.m.)
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched:10/17/2006 05:56:14 PM MDT
One man and two women on the jury that convicted two former El Paso Border Patrol agents of shooting a drug smuggler in the buttocks last year said they were misled into agreeing with a guilty verdict, according to a motion filed this evening.

Mary Stillinger, the lawyer for one of the agents, Ignacio Ramos, thought the jurors' statements should be grounds for setting the verdict aside and having a new trial for Ramos and fellow agent Jose Alonso Compean.

The men are scheduled for sentencing Thursday and face a 10-year mandatory sentence that legal experts said they have almost no chance of getting out of.

There was no way of knowing tonight whether U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone would consider the motion for a new trial before the sentencing.

Officials with the U.S. Attorney said they hadn't had an opportunity to review the motion and could not comment on it.

The three jurors, identified in court documents as Robert Gourley, Claudia Torres and Edine Woods said they were still holding out on a guilty vote by the second day of deliberation.

"I did not think the defendants were guilty of the assaults and civil rights violations," Woods wrote in her sworn affidavit.

Compean and Ramos were found guilty of assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, a civil-rights charge and obstruction of justice in the Feb. 17 shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete Davila near Fabens.

Stillinger, the lawyer, said she saw some jurors crying after the guilty verdict and later got in touch with them.

The problem was that the jurors were under the impression that a hung jury was not an option. Gourley, a Northeast special education teacher, and Torres said that the foreman of the jury told them that Judge Cardone would not accept a hung jury. Woods said she heard the same statement but could not remember which juror said it.

"Essentially, when they saw they could not convince the majority in favor of voting guilty, they conceded their votes, believing that they did not have the option to stick to their guns and prevent a unanimous verdict," Stillinger wrote in the motion.

Gourley said he thought the foreman was relating something he heard directly from the judge and when he found no mention on hung juries in the court's printed instructions, "I had no reason to doubt the foreman," he wrote.

After the trial, Gourley told the media that he felt pressured by other jurors who wanted to resume their normal life after more than two weeks of trial. He also said he thought 10 years in prison was a grossly inappropriate punishment for the agents.

"Had we had the option of a hung jury, I truly believe the outcome may have been different," he said.

Flores said she believed the foreman because, "he was very experienced in serving on juries. I felt like he knew something about the judge that we did not know. ... I did not think that Mr. Ramos or Mr. Compean was guilty of the assaults and civil rights violations.

The third juror, Woods, wrote "I don't remember exactly what it was that made me change my vote to guilty on these charges, but I know I was very influenced by my belief, based on the other juror s statement, that we could not have a hung jury. I think I might not have changed my vote to guilty if I had known that was an option."

Officials with the U.S. Attorney said they hadn't had an opportunity to review the motion and could not comment on it.

Man, this burns me up. They've had months to review this case. Where are you hiding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales??? Do you live in the Bush-Rove bubble too???

Originally Posted by jean

Officials with the U.S. Attorney said they hadn't had an opportunity to review the motion and could not comment on it.

Man, this burns me up. They've had months to review this case. Where are you hiding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales??? Do you live in the Bush-Rove bubble too???

Gonzales is just serving his masters at LaRaza.