Wrongly Convicted Database Record

 

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Rosario Vazquez-Hernandez

 

Charge:

Immigration Violation (Illegal entry)

Sentence:

"40 months, 3 years supervised release & $100 special assessment"

Years Imprisoned:

2.91

Year Crime:

2014

Year Convicted:

2014

Year Cleared:

2017

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Arizona - Federal Case

County or Region of Crime:

Santa Cruz

City of Crime:

Nogales

Result:

Judicially Exonerated

Summary of Case:

"Rosario Vazquez-Hernandez was a Mexican national wrongly convicted on October 8, 2014 of illegally entering the United State from Mexico. Vazquez-Hernandez was convicted in 2010 of illegally entering the United States. In 2013 he was captured in the U.S. and deported for illegal reentry into the country. On April 5, 2014 he was again arrested in the U.S., but because he was a repeat offender he was indicted for illegal reentry at the Mariposa port of entry in Nogales, Arizona. He was arrested about 100 yards north of the Mexican border in the north bound traffic pre-inspection area where vehicles on U.S. soil wait to be inspected by customs agents. It is common that people try to illegally enter the U.S. by jumping to the south bound lanes in an effort to evade the northbound traffic custom's inspection stations. The agents who arrested him said he was nervously looking around and was monitoring everything around him. Vazquez-Hernandez did not deny that he was in the U.S. without permission after he had previously been convicted of illegal entry and deported. He claimed he was washing the windows of cars waiting to be inspected at the U.S. customs stations, but the record of his case makes no mention he had any cleaning equipment of supplies at the time of his arrest. He was indicted on October 1, 2014 for violating 8 U.S.C. § 1326 -- Reentry of removed aliens. During his trial the prosecution offered three theories on which the jury could convict: he had illegally entered the U.S. to make money washing windows; to act as a scout for drug trafficers; or to flee further into the U.S. in the southbound traffic lanes. After his conviction by a jury, he was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and payment of a $100 special assessment. During Vazquez-Hernandez' trial his federal public defender did not object to the jury instructions given by the jury. However, on appeal, his lawyer argued that it was plain error for the judge to fail to give an instruction that he had to have the specific intent to illegally enter the U.S. free from restraint. On March 3, 2017 a three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Vazquez-Hernandez' conviction on the basis the judge's failure to give a specific intent instruction was a "plain" error that violated his "substantial rights" -- and hence that overcame his trial lawyer's waiver of raising the issue on appeal by failing to object to the jury instructions. The 9th Circuit relied on its own precedents that Section 1326 requires proof of a person's specific intent to enter the country free from official restraint -- because the U.S. Supreme Court, and no other federal circuit has ruled Section 1326 is a specific intent crime. On March 4, 2017 Rosario Vazquez-Hernandez was releaased from the Reeves III CI in Pecos, Texas, which is a private prison that contracts for the imprisonment of federal prisoners, for deportation to Mexico."

Conviction Caused By:

Jury instruction error by the trial judge.

Innocence Proved By:

"On March 3, 2017 a three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Vazquez-Hernandez' conviction on the basis the judge's failure to give a specific intent instruction was a "plain" error that violated his "substantial rights" -- and hence that overcame his trial lawyer's waiver of raising the issue on appeal by failing to object to the jury instructions."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Hispanic

Information Source 1:

"Court overturns re-entry conviction for man arrested in Nogales port, By Kendra Penningroth, Cronkite News (Arizona PBS), March 3, 2017"

Information Location 1:

https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2017/03/03/court-overturns-re-entry-conviction-for-man-arrested-in-nogales-port/

Information Source 2:

"USA V. Rosario Vazquez-Hernandez, No. 15-10009 (9th Cir. 3-3-2017) (Reversing conviction and ordering acquittal based on insufficient evidence to prove the intent element.)"

Information Location 2:

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2017/03/03/15-10009.pdf

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