When the FBI Comes Calling…®

February 22, 2005

Jury selection begins in smuggling deaths trial

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press Writer The Associated Press

Race and the death penalty have come to the forefront of the prosecution of a New York man accused of driving and abandoning a hot, airless tractor-trailer in what became the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt.

The legal wrangling over whether truck driver Tyrone Williams is facing the death penalty because he is black isn't over but jury selection in his trial began Tuesday.

Twenty-four potential jurors out of a pool of 250 arrived Tuesday at the federal courthouse, where a judge asked what they had seen or read about the case and if the coverage would influence them.

Attorneys and U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore then began questioning them individually, focusing on jurors' thoughts about the death penalty.

The first two jurors questioned separately were excused by Gilmore. One of them, a priest, said he could never vote to execute someone. The other said he already believed Williams was guilty.

Williams' trial has been postponed four times since its original Jan. 5 start date because of appeals over the race issue.

An appeal is still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. But a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel has said the trial could proceed in the meantime.

Prosecutors have said Williams is facing the death penalty because he alone had the power to free the more than 70 illegal immigrants who were stuffed in his tractor-trailer as the interior temperature neared 173 degrees and they screamed for help.

Authorities say Williams, 34, of Schenectady, N.Y., was paid $7,500 by a smuggling ring to transport immigrants from South Texas to Houston.

Williams, a Jamaican citizen, abandoned the trailer at a truck stop near Victoria, about 100 miles southwest of Houston, prosecutors say. Seventeen immigrants died inside the trailer. Two others died shortly after they were discovered.

Williams was indicted on 58 counts of harboring and transporting illegal immigrants. Federal law allows the death penalty in fatal smuggling cases.

But Williams' defense attorneys note that Williams is the only one of 14 indicted defendants facing the death penalty and claim that's because he is black.

Douglas McNabb, a Houston federal criminal defense lawyer who isn't connected to the case, said he believes the trial should be delayed until the Supreme Court rules on the race issue.

"I'm not sure how the defense is supposed to have a thorough cross-examination of government witnesses if it doesn't know it can bring out these points or not," he said.

But Sandra Guerra Thompson, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said the trial could begin before the race issues are resolved.

"At some point you have to keep the engines of justice moving," she said.

The jury selection could last up to two weeks. Each day, 25 prospective jurors of a pool of 250 will be called for questioning.

McNabb said prosecutors will have an advantage in the selection process because the jury cannot include anyone who opposes the death penalty.

In December, two other defendants in the case were convicted of various smuggling charges while a woman had all charges against her dismissed.

The trial of another defendant in the case is on hold. Five others previously pleaded guilty. Three others are set to go to trial in April. One man remains a fugitive.


This article can also be found at Plainview Daily Herald, ABC 13 Texas, and San Angelo Standard-Times.