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 News from Around the Americas | August 2007 
Border Patrol Agent Wants Federal Trial
 Associated Press
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| | This photo from Reuters shows police officers standing next to the body of a man who was killed Aug. 8 in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez. |
Tucson, AZ - A Border Patrol agent charged with murder in the shooting of an illegal immigrant is asking to have his case moved from state to federal court, and prosecutors aren't objecting.
Lawyers for Nicholas Corbett argue that the agent's actions were necessary and proper to perform his duties as a federal law enforcement agent, so he is immune from state prosecution under the U.S. Constitution.
They have asked the U.S. District Court in Tucson to take over the case and asked Cochise County Superior Court this week to send the case to federal court.
Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer said Thursday that the petition "comes as no surprise, and we don't see any grounds to oppose it. We'll just let it run its course."
Sean Chapman, one of Corbett's lawyers, said he could not comment because the motion was pending before a federal court.
Corbett pleaded not guilty Aug. 20 to second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide in the shooting of Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, 22, of Puebla, Mexico.
Corbett, 39, told a supervisor he shot Dominguez Rivera on June 12 near the border east of Naco after the man threatened him with a rock. Witnesses said Corbett shot him without provocation. |
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