Latest news with #FederalPublicDefender
The Independent
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
South Carolina lawmaker awaiting trial on child sex abuse material charges resigns from office
A South Carolina Republican lawmaker in jail awaiting trial on charges he distributed sexual abuse material involving children has resigned his seat in the state House. RJ May's resignation letter was dated Thursday but didn't arrive at the offices of House leadership until Monday morning. May wrote that 'it is in the best interests of my family and constituents to resign immediately.' It does not mention the 10 charges he faces or the more than a decade in prison that prosecutors have suggested May could face if convicted. The return address on the letter was May's Lexington post office box. He is currently being held at the Edgefield County jail without bond as he awaits trial as soon as next month. May's federal public defender did not respond to an email Monday. The three-term Republican is accused of using the screen name 'joebidennnn69' to exchange 220 different files of toddlers and young children involved in sex acts on the Kik social media network for about five days in spring 2024, according to court documents that graphically detailed the videos. The files were uploaded and downloaded using May's home Wi-Fi network and his cellphone, prosecutors said. Some were hidden by the use of a private network but others were directly linked to his internet addresses. At his arraignment, May's lawyer suggested someone could have used the Wi-Fi password that was shown on a board behind a photo May's wife may have posted online. Each of the 10 charges carries a five-to-20-year prison sentence upon conviction. Calls for May's resignation were nearly unanimous in the South Carolina House, including members who were most closely aligned with May as he helped found the Freedom Caucus of the chamber's most conservative members. The House Ethics Committee last month started an investigation that appeared to be the first step in trying to kick May out of the House. May worked as a political consultant. He was elected in 2020 and in his five years in the House upset many mainstream Republicans as he continued to run campaigns for people looking to knock out incumbents in GOP primaries. The timing of May's resignation should allow his replacement to be chosen in a special election before the 2026 General Assembly session starts in January.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Yahoo
Kilmar Abrego Garcia enters not guilty pleas while federal judge defers decision on his release
Supporters of Kilmar Abrego Garcia protest outside the Fred D. Thompson Federal Courthouse in Nashville on June 13 before Abrego Garcia's arraignment on federal charges. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose wrongful deportation to an El Salvador prison sparked national debate over Trump administration immigration crackdowns, entered not guilty pleas on Friday to two federal human smuggling charges. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit and seated next to attorneys with the federal public defender's office, Abrego Garcia spoke only once, through a translator. 'I understand,' he said in response to the judge's reading of the charges. The charges against Abrego Garcia, 29, are 'conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain' and 'unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain.' Friday's hearing, in a downtown Nashville federal courtroom, turned primarily on the question of whether Abrego Garcia may be denied the opportunity to be released from jail pending trial. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes said she would take the matter under advisement. She said she will issue a written ruling on the prosecution's motion to keep Abrego Garcia detained 'sooner rather than later.' Advocacy organizations warn 'we are all Kilmar'; pledge to fight for immigrant rights The criminal charges stem from a federal investigation opened into a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop. Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding with nine Hispanic men in the back of a Chevrolet Suburban. Abrego Garcia was not arrested or charged in the incident. But a recent Department of Homeland Security investigation opened into the three-year-old stop gave rise to the charges he now faces, testimony in court Friday revealed. The investigation relied on cooperating witnesses, analysis of license plate readers to track Abrego Garcia's movements and a review of the Tennessee traffic stop evidence. Acting U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire alleged that Abrego Garcia was a danger to the community and a member of the MS-13 gang who, for nine years, engaged in an illegal smuggling operation that included transporting children, gang members and guns. Abrego Garcia has not been charged with gun crimes or crimes involving child victims. Attorneys for Abrego Garcia said the government's case should be looked at through a 'lens of suspicion and skepticism' and questioned why it took three years to bring. Federal prosecutors in Nashville ask judge to keep Abrego Garcia detained until trial 'The United States government from D.C. to Tennessee has exaggerated' allegations against Abrego Garcia, said Dumaka Shabazz, one of Abrego Garcia's public defenders. 'This is a house of cards built on the unverified credibility of unreliable corroborators,' he said. 'The only reason they're calling him dangerous now is to justify denying him due process and subjecting him to cruel and inhuman punishment they have to cover up,' said Shabazz, referencing Abrego Garcia's imprisonment for nearly three months in a notorious Salvadoran prison. McGuire countered that the charges against Abrego Garcia arose from following the facts. 'Since I've learned about this case, all I've tried to do is the right thing,' he said. 'The facts are I didn't … whip up witnesses and tell them to commit perjury.' 'I understand there are strong feelings about this case on both sides,' he said. The day-long hearing focused on the government's arguments to detain Abrego Garcia until trial. Evidence that minors were present, and potentially placed at risk during Abrego Garcia's alleged illegal acts could trigger legal justification for detaining Abrego Garcia and prosecutors presented allegations involving the safety of minors. Abrego Garcia has not been charged with crimes related to minor victims. Kilmar Abrego Garcia's wife shares message ahead of hearing: 'Continue fighting … God is with us' But prosecutors said a Department of Homeland Security investigation into the circumstances behind the 2022 traffic stop uncovered evidence that Abrego Garcia transported minor children, including his own, in part to provide cover for his allegedly illegal activities. Abrego Garcia, McGuire alleged, acted as the driver in a human smuggling operation that involved transporting migrants already in the country illegally to different points around the nation over a nine-year period. McGuire cited a witness who said that Abrego Garcia engaged in sexual, but not physical, exchanges with her several years ago when she was a teen and referenced a list of passengers the Tennessee Highway Patrol obtained during the 2022 traffic stop. One of the passengers listed his age as 15. 'Migrant transportation is inherently dangerous,' McGuire said. 'The defendant transported his own children in an unsafe manner.' McGuire argued that Abrego Garcia is a flight risk, and that his newfound notoriety could give him access to resources provided by those opposed to Trump administration immigration policies. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes, who presided over the case, called the flight risk argument largely 'academic.' Kilmar Abrego Garcia arraignment in Nashville Immigration officials have already placed a hold on Abrego Garcia, giving them the authority to take immediate custody should he be released from jail, she noted. The sole witness at Friday's hearing was Peter Joseph, a Department of Homeland Security special agent who said he was first assigned to investigate Abrego Garcia on April 28, three years after the Tennessee traffic stop. By then, Abrego Garcia was incarcerated inside the Center for Terrorism Confinement prison in El Salvador. The Supreme Court had, on April 10, ordered the federal government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the United States. Joseph testified that he had reviewed License Plate Reader software in multiple states that contradicted Abrego Garcia's statements about his movements to troopers at the time of the Tennessee traffic stop. He also testified that five confidential witnesses, including co-conspirators in the alleged years-long human smuggling operation, had implicated Abrego Garcia in the scheme. Richard Tennant, another of Abrego Garcia's defense attorneys, noted that some of the cooperating witnesses have their own liberty at stake. Three of the witnesses entered cooperation deals that could aid their ongoing criminal and immigration cases. Four of the five witnesses are from the same family, testimony revealed. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hundreds of migrants arrested after entering military area at NM border
May 11—Another 209 people were arrested last week in southern New Mexico after entering the newly established New Mexico National Defense Area along the U.S.-Mexico border. Where they end up could soon be decided by the state's chief U.S. Magistrate judge. Traditionally, individuals would face illegal entry charges, but now they are also subject to additional charges of entering a restricted military area and violating a defense property security regulation as part of the Trump administration's enhanced immigration enforcement. That means up to an additional 18 months of incarceration, if convicted of the two misdemeanors. "To allow this novel charging theory runs the risk of supporting the Government's attempt to strike a foul blow against undocumented immigrants," wrote assistant federal public defender Amanda Skinner, of the Federal Public Defender's Office in New Mexico, in a filing last week in U.S. District Court in New Mexico. The U.S. Attorney's Office in New Mexico has contended that it doesn't matter if an individual knew he or she was entering a prohibited military zone, as long as the person understood he or she were crossing illegally into the United States. A USAO spokesperson would not say where the 209 migrants are being detained as they await resolution of their cases. "Most aliens who enter the District of New Mexico from Mexico through an area that is not a designated port of entry ... and thereby enter the (restricted military area) without authorization — are not 'engaged in apparently innocent conduct,'" federal prosecutors wrote in a May 5 court filing. Typically, unless there are other charges, those convicted of the misdemeanor of illegal entry without inspection are given time served and deported. On April 15, the U.S. Department of Interior transferred to the U.S. Army more than 109,651 acres of federal land along the U.S. border in New Mexico, including a 60-foot-wide strip along the Mexican border in Doña Ana, Luna and Hidalgo counties. That enabled the Secretary of the Army to designate the area as the New Mexico National Defense Area and issue a security regulation to formally prohibit any unauthorized entry onto the land. In the past several weeks, an estimated 300 or so cases have been filed in New Mexico that have also included the trespassing on military property, including 209 such cases in the week that ended Friday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Skinner wrote in her filing that her agency "immediately" brought to the government's and the court's attention that the additional charges "are unsupported by probable cause." On April 30, the federal public defender asked that all such charges be dismissed, but chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory Wormuth of Las Cruces denied the motion. A day later, Wormuth filed an order asking both sides to detail what proof would be necessary for a conviction on the two misdemeanor charges related to trespassing on military property. In her filing Thursday, Skinner included a sworn affidavit from an investigator with her agency who toured the defense area May 7 with the U.S. Border Patrol. Investigator Horlando Lopez stated that he saw signs attached to stakes in the ground on the military land, but wasn't permitted to photograph them or their locations. The 12-by-18-inch signs warned that the area was restricted military property and that unauthorized entry was prohibited. But the words, in both Spanish and English, were not visible from the border wall, which appeared to be about 20-feet tall, Lopez's affidavit stated. The signs were spaced about 200 to 300 feet apart from each other and seemed to be more than 60 feet away from the border wall, he added. He said he didn't see any lighting in the area. Lopez wrote that it appeared to him that someone could scale the border wall in the space between two signs, walk straight into the desert and never see a sign. "Considering the placement of the signs, even if a migrant saw and read a sign, he or she would have already crossed through and exited the military land," Lopez stated. Skinner wrote that she also toured the area and it was "readily the location of the signage is wholly inadequate to inform anyone approaching the alleged military land from either side of the border that they are entering the space prior to entering it." She asked Wormuth to hold a hearing so attorneys for both sides "may be questioned as to their positions and to develop a complete record on these emerging and important legal issues." Absent proof that defendants willfully violated a military regulation and entered military property with a prohibited purpose or with knowledge the entry was prohibited, "this Court cannot allow the Government to continue to prosecute (the military property-related) charges." The U.S. Attorney Office says offenders by law don't need to see posted warning signs or know they were violating the no-trespassing edict in order to be found guilty. "If an illegal alien enters the U.S. from Mexico without going through a designated port of entry and knows that such conduct is unlawful, then he or she has violated the military regulation, even if he or she never saw a sign designating the area as restricted, never knew he or she was entering military property, was unaware the military had restricted entries onto this property, and didn't specifically intend to violate the security regulation," stated the government's filing. The government, nonetheless, has posted about 199 signs along the 180-mile border with Mexico, and says placement of the signs "in light of the often difficult and unforgiving desert and mountainous terrain" is "conspicuous and appropriate." The federal government "is currently working on installing additional signs," the U.S. Attorney's Office filing added.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tennessee death row inmates want firing squad over lethal injection ahead of state's first execution in years
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — As Tennessee is set to carry out its first execution under the state's new death penalty protocol this month, some death row inmates say the firing squad would be more humane. Currently, the state's main method of execution is lethal injection, but death row inmates whose crimes were committed before Jan. 1, 1999, also have the option of the electric chair. Kelley Henry, the chief of the Capital Habeas Unit at the Federal Public Defender's Office, questions the constitutionality of the two options because they can both cause severe pain. 📧 Have breaking news come to you: → 'When that chemical enters your system, that poison, it's going to eat away the lining of your lungs, cause fluid to rush into your lungs, and then you will essentially drown in your own fluid,' Henry said. 'Or there's this other opportunity where you can be electrocuted and your internal organs will all be cooked, and it feels like you're being set on fire.' In addition, the lethal injection drug, pentobarbital, has strict procurement, storage, transportation, and administration guidelines, which a 2022 independent report revealed the state wasn't following under its old death penalty protocol. Henry told News 2 that, due to those issues and the potential for severe pain, many inmates would prefer the firing squad as an execution method. 'What our clients have proposed is the firing squad because that doesn't require sophisticated training. It's still brutal, it's still incredibly violent, but what we know now from science and the Department of Justice report that came out in Jan. of this year, where the United States Dept. of Justice said we are no longer going to use pentobarbital because of the ways in which it causes super added pain and suffering…' Henry said. 'With the firing squad, you're going to see a brutal death, but it will be much quicker.' Tennessee Republicans tried to add the firing squad as an execution option in 2023, but the bill never made it out of committee. 'Why would we want correctional officers to sit there and point guns at individuals as a form of killing? It's almost legalizing first-degree murder. That is not cool,' Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) said in 2023. 'Some people have survived an initial volley of bullets in a firing squad execution, leading to a second volley of bullets,' Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis) read from a lawsuit out of South Carolina during a 2023 committee hearing on the bill. 'If some of this information is accurate, we're probably going to end up in court on constitutional issues.' A similar bill was brought this past legislative session, but it never made it to committee. Henry and other groups will continue to push for what they call a 'constitutional execution' method. 'Even if they're going to be executed, if that's going to be the case, they're still entitled to a constitutional method of execution, and not only are they entitled to it, the citizens of Tennessee want to see a constitutional method,' Henry said. ⏩ It's unclear if lawmakers plan to bring legislation to legalize the firing squad in executions next session. The state plans to execute death row inmate Oscar Smith, by lethal injection, on May 22. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
