Inmate's Death Leaves Lessons for U.S. 'Justice' System
Inmate's Death Leaves Lessons for U.S. 'Justice' System
Feb 03, 2016
by Nat Hentoff and Nick Hentoff
Carlos Tapia-Ponce, the 94-year-old federal prisoner we have been writing about ("A Slow, Lonely Death in Prison" and "Dying in Prison for Love of Family"
is finally going home. Tapia-Ponce died on Monday in a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) medical facility in Raleigh, North Carolina. His remains will be cremated and mailed to his daughters in Juarez, Mexico. His death leaves us with important lessons for the future of the U.S. criminal justice system
A week ago, Ellen Lake, Tapia-Ponce's pro bono attorney, emailed U.S. Attorney Eileen Decker. She asked for an urgent meeting to discuss Decker's continued opposition to her dying client's request for a compassionate release. Under federal law, only the BOP can petition a court for the compassionate release of a federal prisoner.
Attached to Lake's email was a letter from Mexico's Ambassador to the United States, Miguel Basanez, the former director of the Judicial Reform Program at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Ambassador Basanez reported that during a recent consular visit at the BOP's medical center, Tapia-Ponce was found to be suffering from a severe gastric ulcer that made it difficult for him to eat. The condition, Basanez said, reduced Tapia-Ponce's life expectancy "in the short term."
Basanez argued that Tapia-Ponce had "a consistent history of good behavior in prison," "no history of violence" and was "not likely to pose a threat to any of our societies, if released and repatriated to Mexico."
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http://www.uexpress.com/sweet-land-of-liberty/2016/2/3/inmates-death-leaves-lessons-for-us
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Sweet Land of Liberty
Dying in Prison for Love of Family
Jan 27, 2016
by Nat Hentoff and Nick Hentoff
As we wrote last week ("A Slow, Lonely Death in Prison" , it is hard to understand why the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) denied 94-year-old prisoner Carlos Tapia-Ponce's request for a compassionate release earlier this month. Federal law gives the BOP authority to petition a court for a compassionate release/reduction in sentence (CR/RIS) if certain criteria are met.
Since 2013 two wardens have twice recommended Tapia-Ponce for a CR/RIS, but the BOP's assistant director and general counsel, Kathleen Kenney, denied the request each time. While Tapia-Ponce's second request for a CR/RIS was still pending, he was transferred to a BOP medical facility in North Carolina, where he suffered another heart attack.
Kenney's latest denial letter states that Tapia-Ponce "meets the criteria for a RIS," noting his medical history of congestive heart failure and prostate cancer. Nevertheless, Kenney's letter explains that the compassionate release request was denied because "Tapia-Ponce was the head of a family-based organization that was responsible for transporting 42,800 pounds ... of cocaine into the United States."
The real reason why Tapia-Ponce's CR/RIS was denied is because it is being opposed by Eileen Decker, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. Given the fact that murderers are routinely granted reductions in their sentences for testifying in federal prosecutions, Decker's opposition can be attributed to Tapia-Ponce's refusal to act as a cooperating witness for the U.S. government.
At Tapia-Ponce's initial bail hearing in 1989, the prosecutor told the court that he was at "the top hierarchy" of a smuggling ring that transported several thousand pounds of cocaine a week into the U.S. In reality, Tapia-Ponce was a salaried, midlevel, supply-chain manager of an El Paso-to-Los Angeles drug transportation network run by Juarez, Mexico, and Colombian drug cartels. The 68-year-old retired Mexican customs official had no prior convictions at the time of his arrest and was never accused of any violence.
More:
http://www.uexpress.com/sweet-land-of-liberty/2016/1/27/dying-in-prison-for-love-of
