The Houston Chronicle reports, "Delay in driver trial extended so lawyer can recuperate."
A recess in the penalty phase of truck driver Tyrone Williams' trial will be extended until next week to give defense attorney Craig Washington time to recuperate from an illness, Washington said Thursday.
The trial was halted Wednesday after Washington complained about a painful, but unspecified, condition.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal had ordered that the trial resume today. Washington said the judge agreed to the further delay Thursday and scheduled a meeting with attorneys today to work out a new schedule based on his health.
The Chronicle also has, "Juror from first trial isn't expecting a death sentence."
The second member to come forward from a jury that deadlocked last year in Tyrone Williams' first trial said Thursday that he does not expect the current jury to recommend a death sentence.
"I'd be horrified if they gave him the death penalty," said Walker Knott, who was on the deadlocked jury of March 2005.
Knott, 41, a Houston contractor, is the second member of that jury to come forward after the gag order was lifted.
Jurors in the retrial returned a guilty verdict Monday against Williams, 35, a legal Jamaican immigrant from Schenectady, N.Y., on 58 smuggling counts. Twenty of those carry a possible death sentence.
The penalty phase began Wednesday, but the trial was recessed after defense attorney Craig Washington became ill.
The San Antonio Express-News has an editorial, "Verdict in smuggling case sends warning to coyotes."
A jury's guilty verdict in the deadliest human smuggling case in recent U.S. history sent a clear warning to "coyotes" everywhere.
Preying on and endangering the lives of undocumented immigrants will not be tolerated.
Risking another person's life for profit is a heinous crime. Unfortunately, it happens all too often.
Earlier coverage of Willams' trial (and other federal death penalty issues) is here. Journalist Alan Berlow's excellent 2002 documentary, "Deadly Decisions: How do jurors decide who should live and who should die?" is here.
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