El Chapo Trial: Sinaloa Cartel Boss Claims Jury Bias, Calls Supermax Prison a 'Modern Dungeon' in Appealing His Conviction
Drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted into a helicopter at Mexico City's airport on January 8, 2016 following his recapture during an intense military operation in Los Mochis, in Sinaloa State. Mexican marines recaptured fugitive drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman on Friday in the northwest of the country, six months after his spectacular prison break embarrassed authorities. ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP via Getty Images

A lawyer representing former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera urged a U.S. appeals court on Monday to overturn the Mexican drug kingpin's conviction, citing jury bias and the conditions at a "Supermax" facility.

According to Fox News, El Chapo's defense attorney Marc Fernich and prosecutors delivered oral arguments for over an hour to the panel of judges for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.

The said panel would be handing down their decision in a court filing, but it was still not clear when a ruling would be made.

Sinaloa Cartel Boss 'El Chapo' Appeals 2019 Conviction

In oral arguments just before noon, El Chapo's defense attorney argued that the conviction of the Mexican drug kingpin should be sent back to lower courts for further evaluation or overturned completely because his client deserved a new trial.

Fernich cited two reasons for the appeal. First was the conditions and treatment that El Chapo experienced inside the now-closed Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, New York.

In Fernich's words, the Sinaloa cartel leader's "indefinite pre-conviction solitary confinement in a modern dungeon." The second reason, Fernich said, was a news report that during deliberations, jurors were exposed to salacious claims barred from the trial.

It included a claim that El Chapo had drugged and sexually abused teenage girls he referred to as "vitamins" that gave him energy, which the Sinaloa cartel leader's lawyer has denied.

El Chapo's lawyer noted that the Vice News article also mentioned an unnamed juror who said at least five fellow jurors followed media coverage of the trial, and lied about it to presiding judge U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan, Reuters reported.

"You (have) five jurors who don't know the meaning of an oath... If that doesn't cry out for instant inquiry, I don't know what does," Fernich said.

El Chapo's lawyer noted that the court should order a new trial or call for a hearing on the alleged jury misconduct. He asked the judges to resist any "punitive impulse" toward a person who was cast as a "public enemy," like gangster Al Capone.

Fernich told the court that El Chapo would possibly spend the rest of his life "in a box" and "this is his last shot."

"I'm not asking you to play violins for him... Who can leave this cloud of uncertainty? And in a case of this magnitude? That's not what we do here," Fernich said.

El Chapo's Argument About Lower Court Rejected

Assistant U.S. Attorney Hiral Mehta argued the lower court was right to reject the defense request for a hearing on the jury issue since there was no valid evidence of misconduct.

For his part, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Reynolds said there was "no dispute that the district court here followed the correct standard," even with El Chapo's history of escaping jail and prison cells.

Reynolds said the Sinaloa cartel boss had already escaped from prison twice in Mexico, adding that El Chapo also had a history of intimidating and killing perceived rivals. The drug kingpin also reportedly run his criminal enterprise while being imprisoned with the help of his wife.

Based on the facts, Reynolds noted that there was no real dispute about the legal standard and there was no basis to overturn the district court's conclusion.

Meanwhile, Circuit Judge Gerard E. Lynch challenged Fernich's characterization that the ex-Sinaloa cartel boss was thrown into a "modern dungeon." Lynch noted that El Chapo's lawyers had constant access to him leading up to the trial so "he's not isolated from the world," and sees "people on a regular basis." The panel will rule at a later date.

El Chapo, 64, is serving a life sentence in prison after being found guilty in 2019 of all 10 federal charges he faced. The Sinaloa cartel boss is currently being held in Colorado's Supermax, the most secure federal prison in the U.S.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Jess Smith

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