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THE ‘BOAT PEOPLE TRIAL’ Smith satisfied with jury’s verdict
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Posted on Oct 08 1999
The court-appointed attorney for one of the two defendants convicted Wednesday of alien smuggling charges said yesterday he was satisfied with the jury’s verdict as it guaranteed his client less severe punishment.
Eric Smith said Xue Jian Hui, who was found guilty of one of the three charges lodged by the US government, is facing only a maximum of one year in jail.
“It would have been longer if he was convicted of all charges,” Smith said.
Xue was convicted of smuggling alien for financial gain, but was cleared from charges of conspiracy and attempting to smuggle alien into a place other than a designated port.
The other defendant, Shi Peng, was found guilty of all charges.
The two will be sentenced on Jan 18, 2000.
During the three-week trial, Xue was identified by most of the witnesses as the leader of the “enforcers.”
“During my argument, I asked to jury to find my client guilty of attempting to go to Guam,” Smith said.
The second offense, Smith said, can be interpreted as “smuggling other people” or “smuggling himself.”
“He tried to smuggle himself into Guam and that was a less offense,” Smith said.
Defendants He Xi Di, Shi Guo Ri, He Xiu Jin, and Gao Liang were acquitted of all charges.
Smith said that although the trial was tedious, it went smooth because “the defense attorneys have had a good working relationship with the prosecution.”
“It was a trial where all the lawyers were pleasant to one another. It did not get out of hand in any way,” he added.
The only aspect of the trial that delayed the proceedings, Smith said, was the language barrier involving the material witnesses who speak only Fujian and Mandarin.
“The translation doubled the time that the witnesses stayed on the stand,” Smith said.
Smith said he supports lawyer Darrin Class’ motion to detain the acquitted defendants as material witnesses for his client, Gao Xing.
“If their (acquitted defendants) testimonies would exonerate his client, then it is proper to keep them here and not allow the [Immigration and Naturalization Service] to send them back to China,” Smith said. (MCM)
