The defense lawyer of the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, Renato Stabile asked this Monday the Federal Court of the Southern District of New York for two weeks to respond to a motion from the United States Attorney’s Office, in which he opposes repeating the trial. .
“I am writing to request that the defense have until April 26, 2024 to respond to the government’s opposition to the defendant’s Rule 33 motion. The government filed a 54-page response to defendant’s 12-page motion; We request two weeks to respond. “I thank the Court for its continued consideration,” requested Renato Stabile.
After Juan Orlando Hernández’s defense presents its response, Judge Kevin Castel must issue a final resolution.
Juan Orlando Hernández’s defense argued that the testimony of DEA Drug Enforcement Administration specialist Jennifer Taul, who, according to the defense, “misled the jury and the government improperly referenced that testimony in its rebuttal summary, despite know that it was false.”
Likewise, the Southern District of New York “was not the right place” to try him.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office in New York that accused the former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández of drug trafficking, of which he was found guilty, asked the judge not to grant the request for a new trial for the former president.
”The Government respectfully maintains that the court should dismiss the motion” presented last March, indicates the 59-page document, close to the April 12 deadline ordered by the judge in the case, Kevin Castel.
Juan Orlando Hernández, who was president between 2014 and 2022, was found guilty of three counts of drug and weapons trafficking on March 8 after a jury trial in the federal court for the Southern District of New York, in Manhattan.
The Prosecutor’s Office presented as main witnesses Honduran drug traffickers who are serving sentences in the United States after reaching an agreement with the authorities to reduce their sentence, as well as a CC, among others.
The defense of Hernández, detained in a federal prison in Brooklyn County, asked Judge Castel for a new trial, alleging mainly that the Prosecutor’s Office did not provide them with all the evidence, including exculpatory evidence for their client.
”The evidence at trial overwhelmingly established that the defendant was at the center of a massive and violent conspiracy to traffic cocaine,” the Prosecutor’s Office responded in the extensive document, in which it cites case law to counter the argument that the Rule was violated. 33 on delivery of evidence.
The Prosecutor’s Office argued that a new trial should not be granted when the court is “convinced that there is competent, satisfactory and sufficient evidence” supporting the jury’s verdict.
He accompanies his refusal of a new trial by also citing evidence that he presented during the trial of testimonies from drug traffickers who met with Hernández on several occasions and who assured that he accepted bribes for his electoral campaigns, both to the national Congress and later to reach The presidency.
He also reiterated arguments that Hernández “abused his power” as president of Honduras “to, in his own words, shove drugs under the faces of the gringos.”
”The accused accepted millions of dollars in bribes from his drug trafficking partners and, in exchange, protected his drugs with all the power of the State, including the Honduran police, military and judicial system,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in the document sent to the judge.
The defense also argued to the judge to request a mistrial, that a DEA agent (Jennifer Taul) allegedly “misled the jury by testifying that cocaine trafficking through Honduras increased during the presidency” of Hernández.
In the opening arguments of the trial, the defense assured that drug trafficking had been reduced under the Hernández Government and also highlighted their alliance with the US Government in that regard and showed photos of the drug traffickers who were extradited to this country to face charges.
The Prosecutor’s Office indicated in its response to the judge that the defense’s argument that Taul “misled the jury” and that the Prosecutor’s Office made “improper” reference to that testimony in its closing statement at trial and its claim that the district Sur was not the place to hold the trial, “they lack foundation.”
”In summary, the evidence at trial was overwhelming and established the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The jury convicted the defendant on all three counts of the indictment on the second day of deliberations: March 8, 2024,” the Government further indicated. His sentencing is scheduled for June 26 and he faces life in prison. EFE
