2024-03-25 18:40:00
NEW YORK, USA
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Southern District of New York sent a request to Judge Kevin Castel in relation to the request presented by the legal defense of the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, for a retrial.
Specifically, prosecutor Damian Williams asked Judge Castel this Monday, March 25, for a deadline (April 12) for the response to the petition presented by the former Honduran president’s lawyers to expire.
“The Government (of the United States) writes to respectfully request that its response to the defendant’s Rule 33 motion in the case of Juan Orlando Hernández, filed on March 22, 2024, expires on April 12, 2024,” it says. Williams’ letter.
Ana García, wife of former President Hernández, reported last Friday that lawyer Renato Stabile, through a letter, asked Judge Kevin Castel to repeat the trial against his client, based on rule 33 of the Federal Regulations of Criminal Procedure.
The former president’s defense presented two reasons for the request, based on the testimony, during the JOH trial, of the expert and analyst of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Jennifer Taul.
First: the US government’s expert witness, DEA analyst Jennifer Taul, misled the jury by testifying that cocaine trafficking through Honduras increased during the Presidency of Juan Orlando Hernández, when in reality, there was a notable decrease recorded in multiple reports and official documents from the United States Government itself.
The Prosecutors, instead of correcting that testimony, emphasized it during their closing arguments. The available evidence suggests that Ms. Taul’s testimony that between 2014 and 2019, cocaine trafficking through Honduras “increased” was false.
The Prosecutor’s Office knew or should have been aware of this false testimony before the conclusion of the trial and did not correct it, so the conviction should be vacated when there is “any reasonable probability that the false testimony could have affected the jury’s judgment.” Knowingly introducing false testimony leads to a “virtually automatic” reversal.
Second: the trial against Juan Orlando was improperly carried out in the Southern District of New York, since according to rule 18 USCS 3238, it should have been held in the Southern District of Florida, which was the district to which he was first brought , upon being extradited from Honduras.
The plane that carried Juan Orlando Hernández landed for the first time in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where Juan Orlando was taken off the plane by DEA agents, who after a waiting time put him back on the plane, which took him to Westchester in New York.
The Prosecutors, knowing this information, presented false information to the defense arguing that it had arrived directly from Honduras to Westchester (the plane used by the DEA did not have flight range to New York).
Accordingly, venue in the Southern District of New York was inappropriate and the indictment should be dismissed for that reason. See United States v. Holmes., 670 F. 3d 586 (4thcir. 2012).
Juan Orlando Hernández, who governed Honduras between 2014 and 2022 during two presidential terms, was found guilty on March 8 in a historic trial on three counts of conspiracy to traffic drugs and use of weapons.
The former Honduran president will learn his prison sentence on June 26, 2024, one day after the former head of the National Police, Juan Carlos “El Tigre” Bonilla, received his prison sentence for the same crimes.
Juan Orlando Hernández could be sentenced to life imprisonment for the three crimes of which he was found guilty on March 8 in the Southern District Court of New York.
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