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January 17, 2007

Jury considers death penalty for driver convicted...

By Juan A. Lozano, Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON (AP) _ Whether a truck driver intended to kill 19 immigrants trapped in a sweltering trailer and whether he did it in a depraved and cruel manner are among the questions jurors are grappling with as they decide on his sentence.

Jurors recessed Wednesday after deliberating for about 5 1/2 hours in the retrial of Tyrone Williams. Since last week they have spent about 23 1/2 hours deciding his fate and will resume Thursday for a fifth day of deliberations.

''The longer they stay out, the greater the chance he won't get the death penalty,'' said Douglas McNabb, a Houston attorney who represented a man executed in 2001 for killing or ordering the deaths of three people.

Williams was a key figure in what became the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt. Nineteen illegal immigrants who were locked in his trailer for hours eventually died from dehydration, overheating and suffocation.

The jury must decide whether to sentence Williams to death or life in prison without parole, or to let a judge issue a sentence that could range from no incarceration to life in prison without parole.

Williams was convicted last month on 58 counts of conspiracy, harboring and transporting immigrants, including 20 counts that were eligible for the death penalty.

More than 70 immigrants were packed inside Williams' airtight trailer for a trip from South Texas to Houston. Williams abandoned the container when the immigrants began succumbing to the heat.

Defense attorneys told jurors Williams never intended for the immigrants to die and questioned why he is the only defendant in the case facing the death penalty.

But prosecutors said Williams deserves the death penalty because he knew the immigrants were dying and didn't help them.

Williams, 35, a Jamaican citizen who lived in Schenectady, N.Y., is one of 14 people charged in the case.

In 2005, 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 the 20 other counts.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the verdict, saying the jury failed to specify his role in the crime.