Legal News

Circuit Upholds Convictions of ?Cuban Five,? but Knocks Down Sentences

By Dan Slater

In 2006, the LB had the good fortune to travel to Cuba. One memorable aspect of the trip was the billboards. Since Cubans don’t have much private industry to speak of, the billboards, rather than advertising products, hawk the messages of Fidel Castro’s regime: “Vamos bien” (”We’re doing well!”); “El camino es la unidad!” (”The road is unity!”).

But many of the billboards advertised the plight of the so-called Cuban Five — five Cuban intelligence agents who were accused of spying in the U.S. Yesterday, a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld their convictions, in an opinion found here, but vacated the sentences of three of them, including two who are serving life terms. Here are reports from the AP and the Miami Herald.

Writing for the majority, Judge William H. Pryor concluded that “that the arguments about the suppression of evidence, sovereign immunity, discovery, jury selection and the trial are meritless, and sufficient evidence supports each conviction.” The court also rejected claims that their federal trial should have been moved from Miami because of widespread opposition among Cuban-Americans there to the communist Cuban government.

But Judge Stanley F. Birch, Jr., who concurred in the majority’s opinion, disagreed on the venue issue. He issued a separate opinion that the defendants’ motion for change of venue should have been granted. “Given the technological advances and 24-hour news cycle that have become prevalent in our nation since 1984,” he wrote, “I respectfully suggest that this case provides a timely and appropriate opportunity for the Court to address the issue of change of venue in this internet and media permeated century.”

The decision included the life sentence for Gerardo Hernandez, who was convicted of murder conspiracy in the deaths of four Miami-based pilots shot down by Cuban jets in 1996. The panel split 2-1 to uphold Hernandez’ life term. The pilots had flown planes that were part of the Brothers to the Rescue organization, which dropped pro-democracy pamphlets on the ground.

The panel vacated the life terms of three other pilots’ 19-year sentences, agreeing with their contentions that their sentences were improperly configured because no “top secret information was gathered or transmitted.”

The five acknowledged being Cuban agents but said they were not spying on the U.S. They said their focus was on U.S.-based exile groups planning “terrorist” actions against the Castro government.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 05, 2008 (boomark / email).