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Oct 2, 2009 12:23 pm US/Eastern
Judge Blocks Evidence Effort In "Cuban Five" Case
The Men Are Accused Of Spying For Cuba
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
The United States does not have to continue searching for national security damage assessments in the case of three Cubans convicted of spying, a federal judge decided Friday.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard on Friday blocked another judge's decision on the damage assessments. Federal prosecutors had appealed the original order, arguing it would require prosecutors to produce classified and sensitive material, possibly causing a delay.
The three defendants wanted the damage assessments in an effort to obtain lighter prison sentences, claiming the material would show the information they sought did not create a security risk.
Antonio Guerrero, Luis Medina and Fernando Gonzalez, also known as "Ruben Campa" are scheduled to be resentenced on October 13 after an appeals court vacated their original sentences. The men are part of the so-called "Cuban Five" group treated as heroes in Cuba.
The men who composed the group were Cuban nationals and belonged to the so called Wasp Network, which spied on Cuban-American groups. They also tried to infiltrate the U.S. Southern Command headquarters in west Miami-Dade.
In 2001, the "Cuban Five" were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage and other illegal activities. One was also convicted of murder conspiracy in the deaths of four Brothers to the Rescue pilots who were shot down off the coast of Cuba in 1996.
The men appealed their convictions, claiming the trial should have been moved out of South Florida because of the anti-Castro sentiment in Miami. In 2005, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Atlanta agreed with the men, overturned their convictions and ordered new trials for them to be held outside Miami. The full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals then reinstated the convictions, but did order new sentences.
Originally, Guerrero and Medina were sentenced to life in prison. Gonzalez was initially sentenced to 19 years behind bars.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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