El Chapo has promised that he will not kill any jurors in his upcoming federal court trial and feels it’s unnecessary to keep them anonymous or under armed guard.
In a recently filed motion, defense attorney A Eduardo Balarezo, wrote that any special protections to the panel ‘sends the message to each juror that he or she needs to be protected from Mr. Guzmán,’ according to the New York Post.
‘From there, members of the jury could infer that Mr. Guzmán is both dangerous and guilty,’ Balarezo continued.
The notorious drug kingpin, whose real name is Joaquín Guzmán, is believed to have tried to kill past witnesses.
El Chapo (pictured January 2017) has promised that he will not kill any jurors in his upcoming federal court trial and feels it’s unnecessary to keep them anonymous or under armed guard
For that very reason, prosecutors asked Brooklyn Federal Court Justice Brian Cogan to impanel an anonymous jury in El Chapo’s trial, which will now be taking place in September.
Prosecutors have also requested that jurors be kept partially sequestered and subject to armed escort to and from a safe location during the three- to four-month trial, according to the Post.
Defense attorney A Eduardo Balarezo, wrote that any special protections to the panel ‘sends the message to each juror that he or she needs to be protected from Mr. Guzmán’
Balarezo claimed the government is basing its fears on allegations of El Chapo’s violent behavior, based on ‘untested and suspect statements from cooperators seeking to reduce their own sentences’.
He insisted that jurors names could just be kept from El Chapo and media could be barred from reporting their identities.
Cogan, who just two weeks ago postponed El Chapo’s trial until September, has yet to rule on the motion.
The 60-year-old kingpin, accused of running one of the world’s biggest drug empires and who twice escaped prison in Mexico, was originally expected to go on trial in April.
But Cogan ordered lawyers to clear their calendars for a September trial, saying summer vacation schedules could reduce the jury pool for an August date.
At the time, Cogan also delayed the latest pre-trial hearing from January 19 to February 15, after Guzman’s lawyer demanded more time to review several hundred thousand pages of documents in the case.
El Chapo appeared in court on Friday and pleaded not guilty to charges that he ran the world’s largest drug-trafficking organization during a decades-long criminal career.
He was accompanied by two court-appointed lawyers during the appearance in federal court in Brooklyn.
The notorious drug kingpin (pictured January 2017), whose real name is Joaquín Guzmán, is believed to have tried to kill past witnesses
For that very reason, prosecutors asked Brooklyn Federal Court Justice Brian Cogan to impanel an anonymous jury in El Chapo’s trial, which will take place in September. Prosecutors have requested that jurors be subject to armed escort to and from a safe location ahead of the trial
After US Magistrate Judge James Orenstein asked El Chapo if he understood the accusations against him, he responded through a Spanish interpreter: ‘Well, I didn’t know until now.’
Later, when asked again, he said he understood.
On Friday, El Chapo’s public defender, Michael Schneider, told reporters outside the courthouse: ‘I haven’t seen any evidence that indicates to me that Mr. Guzman’s done anything wrong.
‘Most of you probably haven’t seen any evidence like that either,’ he added.
As leader of the notorious Sinaloa cartel, El Chapo oversaw perhaps the world’s largest transnational cocaine, heroin and meth smuggling operation, playing a key role in Mexico’s decade-long drug war that has killed more than 100,000 people.
El Chapo was captured a year ago after he had fled a high-security penitentiary in central Mexico through a mile-long tunnel, his second dramatic prison escape.
He has been held in solitary confinement in New York since being extradited to the US a year ago.
Accused of running the Sinaloa cartel, he is facing 17 charges, and if convicted, he is likely to spend the rest of his life in a maximum security US prison.