Immigrant Smuggler Convicted

A truck driver was convicted Monday for his role in the nation’s deadliest human smuggling attempt, in which 19 illegal immigrants died from dehydration, overheating and suffocation. The trial’s punishment phase was set to begin on Wednesday and was expected to last about a week. Jurors will decide whether the driver, Tyrone Williams, should be sentenced to death or life in prison. The federal jury convicted Williams of 58 counts for the transport and deaths of illegal immigrants during a May 2003 smuggling attempt. His sweltering tractor-trailer was packed with more than 70 immigrants who scraped at the insulation, broke out the tail-lights and screamed for help escaping the tomb-like trailer.Prosecutors said Williams was responsible for the deaths because he didn’t free the immigrants or turn on the trailer’s air conditioning, which could have saved their lives. Williams, 35, a Jamaican citizen who lived in Schenectady, New York, is the only one of 14 people charged in the case who is facing the death penalty. Last year, a jury convicted Williams on 38 transporting counts, but he avoided a death sentence because the jury couldn’t agree on his role in the smuggling attempt. The jury deadlocked on 20 other counts. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected the decision, saying the verdict didn’t count because the jury failed to specify his role in the crime. In his retrial, Williams faced 58 counts of conspiracy, harboring and transporting illegal immigrants, 20 of which were death penalty eligible. Since the new jury convicted him on counts eligible for the death penalty, it will hear evidence in a punishment phase before deliberating on whether to sentence Williams to death or up to life in prison.   Click here for the full story and links to related materials.

KJ