Jun 15, 2009 12:33 pm US/Eastern
Supreme Court Refuses To Review ''Cuban Five" Case
WASHINGTON (CBS4) ―
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A statue sits on a flag pole in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington DC.
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The convictions against the so "Cuban Five" will stand.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court said they would not review the convictions of five men in Miami who were accused of being Cuban spies.
The men who composed the group; Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González were all 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. Hernandez 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. Hernández was sentenced to two life terms, to be served consecutively; Labañino and Guerrero both received life terms; Fernando González was sentenced to 19 years and René Gonzáles was sentenced to 15 years.
The men appealed their convictions claiming the trial should have been moved out of South Florida because of all 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. Later, the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the convictions. The appeals court did however order new sentences for Labañino, Guerrero and Fernando González.
The Obama administration lauded Monday's Supreme Court decision saying the convictions were fairly won and that high court review was unnecessary.
(© 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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.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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