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Illegal immigrant acquitted of murdering Kate Steinle charges federal government with 'vindictive prosecution'



Illegal immigrant acquitted of murdering Kate Steinle charges federal government with 'vindictive prosecution' In the wake of 5-time illegal immigrant Jose Ines Garcia Zarate's acquittal in the murder Kate Steinle, the country was split into two camps. The first, correctly, saw the verdict as yet another grotesque, unconscionable miscarriage of justice in America's worst state. The second looked the other way so it could keep banging the pro-sanctuary city drum. If you need a quick refresher, here's the outline of the - ridiculous - defense:


Then, news of the acquittal, via FOX:
Jose Ines Garcia Zarate was found not guilty Thursday of murdering Kate Steinle on Pier 14 in San Francisco in July 2015 in a case that sparked a heated national debate over illegal immigration and so-called sanctuary cities, and U.S. immigration officials said he will be deported. Zarate was acquitted of first and second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. He also was found not guilty of assault with a semi-automatic weapon. He was found guilty of possessing a firearm by a felon. The jury had deliberated for six days. Steinle was walking with her father and a family friend in July 2015 when she was shot, collapsing into her father's arms. Zarate had been released from a San Francisco jail about three months before the shooting, despite a request by federal immigration authorities to detain him for deportation.
Zarate was sentenced to three years in prison on the gun charge, but got off with time served. The case cemented California's status as a place that would stop at nothing - even if it meant letting murderers go unpunished - to protect its politically-correct stance on illegal immigration. There is nothing the left coast brain trust won't tolerate, as long as it advances their open border agenda. Back in December, Zarate was back in the news. This time, he was slapped with a set of federal charges stemming from immigration and gun violations.



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Now, as if we haven't had our fill of this guy, Zarate has decided to file complaints of his own. He's alleging that - get this - he's the victim of "vindictive prosecution" and that the federal charges constitute double jeopardy. From the Washington Times:
The illegal immigrant accused in the shooting death of Kate Steinle is charging the federal government with “vindictive prosecution” and collusion with city and state authorities, and using President Trump’s tweets and public statements by him and his attorney general to make his case. In a filing this week in federal court in San Francisco, lawyers for Jose Garcia-Zarate demanded that that the federal government hand over its communications with local law enforcement agencies — the San Francisco police, district attorney’s office and sheriff’s office — to let him prove collusion and double jeopardy. Attorney J. Tony Serra accused Mr. Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions of using his client as a political punching bag and said their words suggest that Mr. Garcia-Zarate is being unjustly prosecuted. “Immediately after Mr. Garcia-Zarate was acquitted of the murder and assault allegations, President Trump maligned the verdict on Twitter, stating: ‘A disgraceful verdict in the Kate Steinle case! No wonder the people of our Country are so angry with Illegal Immigration,’” the filing reads.

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The lawyer’s filing claims that the federal charges being brought against his client — being a felon in possession of a firearms and an illegal immigrant in possession of a firearm — five days after the state verdict are essentially the same conduct as the California charges. According to Mr. Serra’s filing, the charges are double jeopardy and being filed by the federal government purely from vindictiveness to satisfy a political vendetta of Mr. Garcia-Zarate.
Unfortunately for Mr. Zarate, that's probably not going to wash. He may have been acquitted of killing Steinle, but he was not cleared of gun crimes or immigration violations. He's not being "unjustly prosecuted" on either of those counts. As for double jeopardy, federal charges and state charges can run parallel - as Jazz Shaw writes over at Hot Air:
that claim runs into trouble because of an infrequently invoked principle known as the “dual sovereignty doctrine.” What this basically says is that if you commit a crime which is covered individually by both state and federal law, you can be prosecuted by both “sovereigns” (in this case, the United States government and the state government of California) as if it were the first time for each.
Usually, one of the "sovereigns" will back off, allowing the other to handle the case - but there's nothing that says they have to. So, under normal circumstances, I wouldn't expect this to turn out well for Zarate. However, as we've seen all too frequently, things in this country are currently not normal. I'd love to tell you justice will be served, but that seems to be an increasingly dicey proposition lately...


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