Thread: Supreme Ct upholds conviction of man arrested at AZ border

9th Circuit Court overruled again!

Published: 01.09.2007

Supreme Court upholds conviction of man arrested at Ariz. border
By Mark Sherman
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of a man caught trying to enter the country illegally in a case that initially was seen as a test of whether a flawed indictment could violate a defendant's rights.
But in an 8-1 opinion, the court said that the indictment of Juan Resendiz-Ponce itself was sound. The indictment "did not deprive him of any significant protection that the constitutional guarantee of a grand jury was intended to confer," Justice John Paul Stevens said.
Resendiz-Ponce, a Mexican national, sought to persuade the justices that there was a problem so serious in his indictment that it warranted reversing his conviction. Justice Antonin Scalia, the lone dissenter, agreed.
Resendiz-Ponce was charged with attempting to enter the country illegally after he was arrested at the border crossing at San Luis, Ariz., on June 1, 2003. He presented his cousin's green card and driver license to U.S. authorities.
But the grand jury indictment that followed fail to set out any specific acts showing how he tried to enter the United States. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the omission was so serious that it violated Resendiz-Ponce's constitutional rights and required automatic reversal of the conviction.
Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben, however, told justices at oral argument that this error was harmless because Resendiz-Ponce received a fair trial at which a jury determined that the government proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he had displayed two false pieces of identification in an effort to enter the country.
The case is U.S. v. Resendiz-Ponce, 05-998.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/163814

One for our team!

Thank you Supreme Court.

They really know how to work the system. This case is so ludicrous!

Can you hear La Raza crying??