MIAMI -- Opponents of capital punishment are closely watching
the federal trial of an alleged triggerman in a botched 1996 drug
heist, a case in which U.S. prosecutors are seeking the first death
penalty in Florida.
Prosecutors say Jose Denis shot Rick
Valdez, 40, of Tampa in the head after Denis and a gang of thieves
ransacked the security specialist's motel room in Hialeah, expecting
to find a large amount of cocaine. When they found none, they
allegedly tied Valdez up and killed him.
Denis, 29, who was a
Florida State University business major when he was arrested, is
charged with murder and torture. His prosecution represents the
fifth time federal prosecutors have attempted to obtain a death
sentence in Florida.
Death penalty opponents are concerned
that the number of federal death penalty cases nationwide will grow
under U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has been criticized
for increasingly asking for the death penalty when prosecutors have
not asked for it.
Ashcroft has approved prosecutors' attempts
to seek the death penalty at about the same rate as his predecessor,
Janet Reno, court observers say. But when his own prosecutors have
decided not to seek the death penalty, he has overruled them to a
greater degree.
During Ashcroft's two-year tenure, he has
overridden prosecutors 30 times, compared with the 26 times Reno did
over a five-year-period, said Kevin McNally, a Kentucky-based
defense lawyer who helps run the Federal Death Penalty Resource
Counsel Project.
"This could be the start of a trend,"
McNally said. "The jury's still out."
The federal death
penalty usually is reserved for defendants convicted of the most
heinous crimes, as in the case of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy
McVeigh. It has also been sought in cases in which there is a
compelling federal interest to fight terrorism or interstate
gangs.
Death penalty opponents say seeking capital punishment
in federal courts against defendants like Denis is unnecessary and a
waste of money because the death penalty is better sought in state
courts, where putting on trials is less expensive.
Under a
policy Ashcroft initiated in 2001, federal prosecutors have had to
get the attorney general's approval before entering plea deals that
would eliminate the death penalty. Ashcroft has said the change was
intended to ensure that defendants across the country are treated
equally when it comes to facing the death penalty.
"On the
one hand it's laudable, because he's saying it doesn't matter where
you do the crime, but on the other hand, it points out one of the
biggest problems of the death penalty, which is that most people who
get the death penalty are black or brown," said Abe Bonowitz,
director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "What
you have here is the federal government getting on the bandwagon of
getting tough on crime."
In court Thursday, prosecutors
described how in April 1996 Denis and six others burst into room No.
14 of the Hialeah Motel. When they didn't find the cocaine they were
looking for, they beat up Valdez, demanding to know where the drugs
were hidden. They bound his legs with electrical cords, tied his
arms behind his back with electrical tape and shot him in the
head.
Prosecutors said Denis and fellow gunman Evelio Guzman
wore gloves so they would leave no fingerprints in the room. Though
no physical evidence links Denis to Valdez, six co-defendants have
pleaded guilty and are listed as possible government
witnesses.
Investigators said they found a small packet of
cocaine in Guzman's possession. Because of the involvement of drugs
in the case, it is being tried in federal court.
Assistant
U.S. Attorney Joseph Cooley said Denis talked about wanting to kill
one of his co-defendants, a conversation taped by a government
informant.
"The one on the hot seat is me, because I was the
one who pulled the trigger," Cooley quoted Denis as
saying.
Denis also said on tape that he "popped" someone.
Cooley claimed Denis was trying to find Willie Martinez, one of his
partners in the botched killing, to get rid of him and traveled to
Ohio with a silencer-equipped .22-caliber gun hoping to track him
down. "This one dies, I'll be able to sleep at night," Denis told
longtime FBI informant Francisco Avila, according to the
prosecution. "What I'm interested in is getting rid of this
guy."
Denis' defense attorney Tom Allman attacked Avila, once
Denis' uncle by marriage, as a professional tattletale who was
two-timing the agency as a double agent for Cuba.
If
convicted and sentenced to death, Denis would be one of the few
people ever executed by the federal government.
Information
from The Associated Press was used to supplement this
report.
Diana Marrero can be reached at
dmarrero@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5005. |
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