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US Urges 20 Years for Honduras Cop Zelaya Romero Who Led Killing of Journalist Barrow

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Song Filing
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN

SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 26 – Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez took a briefcase of cash and said he would stuff drugs up the noses of the gringos, a jury was told on March 16, 2020.  Inner City Press live tweeted it, morning here and then the afternoon, about the video(s), here and below. Geovanny Fuentes was found guilty, and his lawyer told Inner City Press he thinks JOH will be or has already been indicted.

 Now on April 26, for the sentencing of Honduras police officer Ludwig Criss Zelaya Romero, the US has filed a sentencing memo asking for imprisonment of 235 to 293 months. The US the Leonel Rivera "tasked the defendant will murdering a journalist who had been critical of Leonel. As a result, a journalist named Anibal Barrow - though not the intended target - was murdered." The sentencing is in May. Watch this site.

  Also on March 16, the US Attorney's Office filed its sentencing memo for JOH's brother Tony Hernandez, previously convicted in a jury trial also covered by Inner City Press. The US is asking for life in prison, and money.
Full memo on Patreon here.

  Now on March 26, Tony Hernandez has countered with a request for the minimum of 40 years, with a submission citing brothers but NOT Juan Orlando Hernandez. The word Orlando does not appear in the filing, on Patreon here, which says: "His brother, Juan Arnaldo Hernandez Espinoza, states, “Family and friends are able to attest to the fact that Juan Antonio is not or has ever been a problem to neither society nor a criminal who has infringed the law in any way, including those of your country and his own. Therefore, your Honor, aware that serving justice is the mission of the court, is that write to you to plead MERCY for Juan Antonio when issuing his sentence so that the just rigor of the law becomes evident in the undertaking of the difficult task of administering justice.”

A question still: Does the right to access to Federal court proceedings extend to listen-only telephone lines, in the time of COVID and beyond? Should it?

 The question has been further raised in the ongoing Honduras narco-trafficking case US v. Geovanny Fuentes, which Inner City Press has been covering in-person in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where it is "in-house press."

   On the morning of March 13, Inner City Press filed a challenge to the cut-off of audio access to the US v. Fuentes trial, citing the First Amendment, COVID and real-world politics, see here and below.

  Late on the evening of March 14, the US Attorney's Office filed a three page letter into the docket, specifically arguing the the call-in line be eliminated for two entire Witnesses and everything they say. US Attorney's Office's letter, now uploaded on Inner City Press' DocumentCloud, here.

 Inner City Press has immediately responded in opposition, here, stating among other things that "the US Attorney's Office seeks to specifically ban public access to two of their Witnesses, while saying that a transcript would be available at some unspecified date afterwards. Given that the Office has yet to unseal improperly redacted portions of their filings, there is little reason to have confidence in the speed of transcription, or that such transcripts would not be too expensive for the public or media. 

Inner City Press after its first filing waited nine hours, including this song, here, to report about it. Full first letter on Inner City Press' DocumentCloud, here.

  Inner City Press itself obeys all existing rules and is grateful for the additional access as in-house media (particularly since it is banned from covering the UN, which now Constitutional rights such as the First Amendment exist).

  But others have rights too - including journalists and regular citizens of Honduras. If the SDNY prosecutors are going to exercises essentially universal jurisdiction for any wire transfer that passes through lower Manhattan, how ever briefly, they should not oppose access to their trials by those impacted, for better and worse.

Judge Castel is a good judge, in Inner City Press' experience. When petitioned he has ordered the unsealing of certain court documents, in a North Korea crypto-currency conference case and the tech / child sex sentencing of Peter Bright former of ArsTechnica, both of which Inner City Press covered and requested. And Judge Castel is certainly in the mainstream in his March 12 psoition. But should it be rethought? Is there a right? Should there be? Watch this site.

The case is US v. Diaz, 15-cr-379 (Castel).

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Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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