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Court junks appeal on drug conviction
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Posted on Dec 02 1999
The Supreme Court has denied for the third time the appeal of a man convicted for delivery of methamphetamine hydrochloride or popularly known as “ice” in a case decided by the lower court seven years ago.
In a ruling issued the other day, the Supreme Court said defendant Francisco M. Cabrera failed to present new arguments to reverse prior decision that included a sentence of five-year probation instead of imprisonment. .
“The issues are the same, the parties are the same and the requests being made by Mr. Cabrera are the same. Since these issues were already heard and decided by this Court, Mr. Cabrera cannot seek to raise them a second time,” said the decision.
The defendant appealed the conviction and the sentence to the Supreme Court in August this year after his earlier two attempts were denied.
He was convicted by the trial court in March 1993 and was sentenced two months later. But Mr. Cabrera filed an appeal in which the Supreme Court granted partly his motion by ordering the lower court to remand the case for further hearings on the sentencing.
In February 1998, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment, all of which suspended in exchange for a supervised probation for the same period.
But Mr. Cabrera again filed another appeal with the Supreme Court, this time against the conviction, but the ruling issued on Nov. 29 upheld the decision handed down by the lower court.
According to the Supreme Court, only the sentencing portion that was vacated twice, not the actual conviction. “Mr. Cabrera is not appealing the sentence by the lower court…, but the merits of the conviction. This he cannot do because that final, valid judgment of conviction has already been upheld on appeal,” it said.
“There has to be an end to litigation between parties. Individuals are entitled to their day in court, but they are not entitled to have several tries in court on their claim,” the ruling added.
