Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Defense Newsletter Blog

Criminal Law

: Defense Newsletter Blog

Zaldivar: Alien Smuggling Enhancement for Death on Board

By Tim Cone

In U.S. v. Zaldivar, No. 09-12035 (Aug. 24, 2010), the Court affirmed a ten-level sentence enhancement for a defendant convicted of alien smuggling, based on the death of one of the aliens.The alien died as a result of injuries sustained when the boat he was on was being chased by a Coast Coard cutter on the high seas. The defendant stated that he was not the person who operated the boat when it was fleeing from the Coast Guard, and that he requested the driver to stop for the Coast Guard. The Court noted that the relevant conduct for the offense included all ?foreseeable? actions that could result in death. The Guidelines do not require that an individual?s actions be the proximate cause of the death. Here, the death was foreseeable because Zaldivar participated in the illegal transportation of 32 Cubans in an overcrowded boat that was designed to travel at high rates of speed...continue to full post

Full post as published by Defense Newsletter Blog on August 25, 2010 (boomark / email).