U.S. v. Williams

• Decision Date: 10 May 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-20430.,05-20430.
• Citation: 449 F.3d 635
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Tyrone Mapletoft WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

449 F.3d 635

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Tyrone Mapletoft WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 05-20430.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

May 10, 2006.

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James Lee Turner, Asst. U.S. Atty., Tony Ray Roberts (argued), Houston, TX, for U.S.

Craig A. Washington (argued), Houston, TX, for Williams.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before HIGGINBOTHAM, DeMOSS and OWEN, Circuit Judges.

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:

Returning to this Court for the third time, this case arises out of an illegal alien smuggling conspiracy that caused the deaths of nineteen undocumented aliens secreted in the trailer of a tractor-trailer driven by defendant Tyrone Mapletoft Williams from Harlingen, Texas, to Victoria, Texas. Five days after receiving the case at the close of Williams's trial for various alien smuggling offenses in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324,¹ the jury returned the verdict form with both an entry of "guilty" and an express statement of "hopeless[] deadlock[]" on Counts 21 through 58. The government appeals, and we now confront questions relating to the scope of Williams's second trial, if any.

I

In the evening of May 13, 2003, Williams and Fatima Holloway, one of the fourteen individuals charged in the conspiracy, loaded approximately seventy-four illegal aliens into Williams's tractor-trailer. With Williams driving, they departed Harlingen, Texas, for the 120-mile trip to Robstown, Texas. During the trip the aliens began banging on the sealed trailer, screaming to be released due to heat exhaustion and suffocation. Holloway suggested that Williams turn on the refrigeration unit in the trailer, but he refused. Shortly after passing a Border Patrol checkpoint, Williams noticed that the aliens had clawed a hole in the back door of the trailer and that his tail light was dangling from the door. Angered, Williams contacted the other individuals allegedly part of the conspiracy and demanded more money. They directed Williams to proceed to Houston, Texas, extending the trip by approximately 210 miles.

Upon reaching Refugio, Texas, Williams backed his trailer into a dark area and entered a nearby convenience store, where he purchased four or five small bottles of water. Williams continued north, stopping next in Victoria, Texas, where he parked the trailer in a dark field near another convenience store. Williams made three trips into the store, each time purchasing water. Then, Williams asked Holloway to enter the store to purchase water, which she did. When Holloway returned to the store a second time, again to purchase more water, one of the undocumented aliens from Williams's trailer ran into the store, shirtless, shouting that someone was trying to kill him. As Holloway returned to the trailer, she noticed that the doors were open and that some of the aliens were walking into a nearby field. Williams grabbed the water from Holloway, forced her into the cab, and sped away, abandoning the trailer. Nineteen undocumented aliens died from dehydration and suffocation.

Williams and the other individuals were charged together in a sixty-count indictment with various alien smuggling offenses in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324. Count 1 charged Williams and the others with conspiracy to conceal, harbor, shield from detection, and transport illegal aliens. Counts 2 through 20 charged Williams, both as a principal and as an aider and abettor, with unlawful concealment of illegal aliens.

Counts 21 through 58 are the focal point of this appeal. Counts 21 through 39 involved aliens that were allegedly injured during the unlawful transportation. Specifically, Counts 21 through 39 charged that Williams

did knowingly and in reckless disregard of the fact that the aliens identified in Counts Twenty-One (21) through Thirty-Nine (39) herein, were aliens who had come to, entered, and remained in the United States in violation of law, did transport, move, attempt to transport, and attempt to move said aliens in furtherance of such violation of law within the United States, namely, from a location at or near Harlingen, Texas to another location at or near Victoria, Texas and other places, by means of a semi-tractor-trailer rig, for the purpose of commercial advantage and private financial gain. During and in relation to said violation, the defendants caused serious bodily injury to a person and placed in jeopardy the life of a person.

Counts 40 through 58 mirrored Counts 21 through 39, except that Counts 40 through 58 involved aliens that died as a result of the transportation.

Because nineteen aliens died, Williams and most of the co-defendants were subject to the death penalty under § 1324(a)(1)(B)(iv). After complying with Department of Justice protocol, the government filed a Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty against Williams, and the district court severed Williams's case from the other defendants. Williams sought discovery of the government's capital-charging practices, alleging that the United States selectively prosecuted him on account of his race; the government objected, asserting that Williams had not carried his burden under United States v. Armstrong and United States v. Bass.² The district court ordered discovery into the government's capital-charging practices and issued a "sanctions" order, creating an affirmative defense based on selective prosecution. We granted the government's petition for mandamus, vacating the discovery order and the sanctions.³

Williams then renewed a previously denied motion to have the guilt/innocence phase determined by a non-death qualified jury and to have a new, death-qualified jury decide punishment, if necessary. The district court granted Williams's request, finding "good cause" due to "[t]he case management problems that have arisen in this case because of the Government's interlocutory appeal of this Court's discovery rulings." At the conclusion of a status conference on Friday, February 4, 2005, the district court announced that the trial would begin at 9:00 A.M. on Monday, February 7, 2005, with a non-death qualified jury. The next day, a Saturday, this Court ordered a stay of the trial until it could rule on the government's second petition for writ of mandamus. On February 14, 2005, this Court rendered its second published opinion in this case, holding that the district court "improvised a procedure at odds with the Federal Death Penalty Act." We vacated the order and directed that the case proceed promptly to trial with a single, death-qualified jury for both phases of the case.⁴

Jury selection began on February 22, 2005, with a jury panel of 250 citizens. Trial began on March 8, 2005, and the United States presented testimony and evidence from approximately eighty witnesses, including many foreign nationals requiring translation. The jury received the case on March 18, 2005.

Both the jury instructions and the verdict form are critical to the questions presented in this case. With respect to Counts 21 through 39, the jury instructions provided:

Title 8, United States Code, Sections 1324(a)(1)(A)(ii) and 1324(a)(1)(B)(i), make it a crime for anyone to transport an alien within the United States for the purpose of commercial financial advantage and private financial gain, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that the alien is here illegally, and in furtherance of the alien's violation of law.

For you to find the Defendant guilty of this crime, you must be convinced that the government has proved each of the following beyond a reasonable doubt:

First: That certain undocumented aliens had entered or remained in the United States in violation of law.

Second: That the Defendant knew or recklessly disregarded the fact that the aliens were in the United States in violation of the law;

Third: That the Defendant transported or attempted to transport the aliens within the United States with intent to further the alien's unlawful presence;

Fourth: That an offense was done for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain.

You will also be asked to determine if the Government has proved the following beyond a reasonable doubt: If, during and in relation to said violation Defendant caused serious bodily injury to a person and placed the life of a person in jeopardy.

These instructions tracked the Fifth Circuit's Pattern Jury Instructions, except that the district court included one of the facts necessary for punishment — that the offense was done for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain — as an element of the basic transportation offense.

Also following the Fifth Circuit's Pattern Jury Instructions, the instructions explained how Williams could be found guilty as an aider and abettor, and the instructions required the jury to make an independent determination of Williams's role in the offense:

You will also be asked to determine whether the Defendant acted as a principal, as an aider and abettor, or both. A "principal" is the immediate perpetrator of a crime; that is, the one who directly commits the offense. The principal is the actual offender rather than one who merely assists another in committing an offense. An "aider and abettor" is one who helps the principal during the commission of the crime, but may not have committed the crime with his or her own hands.

The instructions did not define what it meant or how it could be that a single defendant could be "both" a principal and an aider and abettor in the commission of a single crime.⁵

The verdict form tracked the jury instructions. The government concedes that it was "drafted differently" in this case. As the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia explained,

When a greater and lesser offense are charged to the jury, the proper course is to tell the jury to consider first the greater offense, and to move on to...