The list of legal perks is growing for one of El Chapo’s sons, who is being prosecuted on federal charges in Chicago.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez, who has been in custody for more than two years in a federal drug trafficking case in Chicago, will not face the death penalty according to federal prosecutors, even though officials had previously indicated it was a capital punishment-level case.
Stream NBC 5 for free, 24/7, wherever you are.
WATCH HEREAvoiding capital punishment by lethal injection may appear tied to Chapo’s kin entertaining cooperation plea deals with the US government. However, it is more likely to be the practical result of an extradition treaty that prohibits the death penalty for Mexican citizens.
Guzman Lopez was not officially extradited from Mexico to Chicago, but rather he arrived in the U.S. on a private flight across the border and effectively turned himself in. While legal experts say the Chicago case against him may technically be “death penalty eligible,” because it involves so many murders here and in Mexico, there would be little legal standing to impose the death penalty on someone who voluntarily came across the border.
According to experts, such a push could violate the spirit of the long-standing U.S./Mexico extradition agreement, according to former Chicago federal prosecutor Ron Safer. It would also discourage any Mexican resident wanted for a serious crime to surrender north of the border, if they knew it could carry the death penalty just because they weren’t extradited, Safer said.
There has been no official explanation for removing the death penalty from the table in a brief court filing obtained by NBC Chicago. The filing merely says that “if the defendant is convicted, the government will not seek a sentence of death.” It was submitted to Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman by Andrew Boutros, the newly installed U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois.
A spokesman for Boutros on Tuesday declined to provide additional information beyond what was filed.
Investigations
“We’re pleased with the decision not to seek the death penalty, as it’s the correct one” Guzman Lopez’s attorney Jeffrey Lichtman told NBC Chicago. “We have no plea agreement with the government and it’s (sic) decision not to seek the death penalty will not part (sic) of any future agreement either, assuming we reach such agreement.”
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the news you need to know with the Chicago Catch-Up newsletter.
SIGN UP The New York City-based criminal defense attorney currently represents El Chapo and his sons, who were all charged in Chicago federal cases.
El Chapo’s four sons took the helm of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel when their father was locked up for life in a U.S. prison. Although the death toll specifically from Sinaloa cartel killings is not broken out by Mexican authorities, there have been more than 400,000 drug cartel related murders there in the past 20 years-and Sinaloa is considered one of the most bloodthirsty illicit drug organizations in that nation.
Violence regularly spills onto American streets, especially where Sinaloa operatives are active. In Chicago it is estimated that Sinaloa drugs account for 80% of all street drugs sold.
Guzman Lopez, 38, initially received special treatment last October when he was moved from the MCC-Chicago to an unnamed facility with better living conditions.
Two weeks ago, as NBC Chicago first reported, 17 other relatives of El Chapo’s were whisked into the United States from Mexico as part of a plea arrangement underway for a second son Ovidio Guzman, who is also being prosecuted in Chicago and still being held at the MCC.
