Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – A Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman lawyer asked a U.S. appels court to reverse the Mexican drug kingpin’s conviction on Monday. He cited juror misconduct as well as Guzman’s conditions in jail.

2nd U.S. The Circuit Court of Appeals Manhattan seemed to be open to Guzman’s argument that Brooklyn’s trial judge should have investigated whether jurors were following the case improperly in the media.

The claim by Guzman that Guzman was imprisoned in solitary in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center for 2 1/2 years was not supported. Marc Fernich, his attorney, called it a “modern prison”.

Guzman (64), was found guilty in February 2019 for trafficking millions of dollars worth of drugs and conspiring with others to kill enemies. He is also a leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

His life sentence is at Colorado’s Supermax federal prison. He was also ordered to forfeit $12.7 million.

Guzman’s appeal was based on Vice News articles in which an unnamed juror stated that five jurors were following media coverage about the trial. He then told U.S. district Judge Brian Cogan.

Guzman was accused of drugging and raping teenage girls. Guzman’s attorneys have refuted this claim.

Fernich stated, “You have five jurors that don’t understand the meaning of an Oath.” “If it doesn’t cry for instant inquiry then I don’t know what would.”

Hiral Mehta the Federal Prosecutor argued that online juror claims should not be used to support convictions.

Mehta stated that the evidence was not conclusive.

Minimum two of three members on the appeals panel, consisting of three judges, suggested that it was not as simple.

Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch stated to Mehta that if we believe the district court misunderstood in saying ‘taking everything as true, it still doesn’t matter’, then this would undermine a lot of your abuse-of-discretion argument.

However, the panel asked Guzman why he didn’t protest more quickly and forcefully to prison conditions, which he described at his sentencing, as “psychological emotional mental torture 24 hour a day.”

Fernich was informed by Jon Newman, Circuit Judge: “To say he’s an Escape Threat has very little to do with whether his confinement prohibited him communicating with lawyers.”

Guzman was twice freed from maximum-security Mexican prisons. One time he had hidden in his laundry cart, and another by crawling through tunnels dug into the cell. Then, Guzman was captured after a brutal gunfight in 2016.

Emma Coronel Aispuro (32) pleaded guilty last June to her husband’s drug exploitation. At her November 30 sentencing, she could be sentenced to a decade imprisonment.