Defense Ends Closing Arguments in Trial of 11 Sanctuary Activists

Defense attorneys finished closing arguments Tuesday in the alien-smuggling conspiracy trial of 11 sanctuary movement activists, setting the stage for the case to go to the jury later this week.

Special Assistant U.S. Atty. Donald M. Reno Jr. was expected to begin his rebuttal today. Then the federal jury would hear instructions before beginning deliberations.

Tuesday morning, Stephen Cooper, one of the last of the defense lawyers to give closing arguments, accused Reno of “wild speculation and claims not supported by the evidence,” particularly in reference to Cooper’s client, retired Tucson rancher James Corbett.

Doubts Adequacy of Proof

Corbett is considered a founder of the sanctuary movement and is charged, as are the 10 other defendants, with conspiracy to smuggle Salvadorans and Guatemalans into the United States.

Cooper told the jurors that finding the 11 defendants guilty of conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens would be convicting them without proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

He challenged the jurors to recall any testimony in the nearly 6-month-old trial to support Reno’s contention that a three-tiered conspiracy existed “to recruit, encourage and induce illegal aliens.”

Sanctuary activists maintain that they are assisting political refugees from Central America, but the government says the aliens are fleeing bad economic conditions.