Lawyers for the Mexican drug lord say jurors violated the judge’s orders by following media coverage of the case

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Joaquín Guzmán, the Mexican drug lord known as “El Chapo”, on Tuesday asked a US judge to set aside his conviction for smuggling tons of drugs into the United States and grant a new trial, saying juror misconduct deprived him of his constitutional right to a fair trial.

In a filing with the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, lawyers for Guzmán relied heavily on a 20 February report in Vice News in which an unnamed juror said that at least five fellow jurors violated the trial judge’s orders by following the case in the media during the 11-week trial.

In the court filing, Guzmán’s attorneys wrote: “If a justice system’s measure is how it treats the most reviled and unpopular, then ours may have failed Joaquín Guzmán by denying him the fair trial before an untainted jury to which he’s constitutionally entitled. Because sunlight is the best disinfectant, that prospect merits serious consideration, close investigation and a new trial as appropriate.”

The Vice News article, based on an interview with an unnamed juror, said at least five fellow jurors violated Judge Brian Cogan’s orders not to follow Guzmán’s case in the media or on Twitter.

Guzmán’s lawyers said this exposed jurors to a “flood” of prejudicial information not admitted at trial, including a New York Times article based on public court filings that said Guzmán drugged and raped girls as young as 13 years old, and published just two days before deliberations began. Guzmán previously denied those accusations.

The Vice article also said jurors knew from Twitter that Cogan would ask if they had seen the Times article, and several lied when he asked. “We all denied it, obviously,” the unnamed juror said, according to Vice.

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“We believe that juror misconduct deprived Joaquín of a fair trial in a case in which the defense was extremely restricted to begin with,” Guzmán’s lawyers said in a statement on Tuesday. “We look forward to vindicating his rights in a new trial before a jury that will abide by its oath.”

John Marzulli, a spokesman for US attorney Richard Donoghue, whose office prosecuted Guzmán, declined to comment.

Guzmán, 61, was convicted on 12 February on all 10 counts he faced, after jurors heard evidence from more than 50 prosecution witnesses, offering an unprecedented look at the inner workings of the Sinaloa cartel.

The defendant faces life in prison at his scheduled 25 June sentencing hearing.