Superior court

An undocumented immigrant who was acquitted in the shooting death of a San Francisco woman was seeking to overturn his weapons conviction.

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, 46, was found not guilty of murder in the death of Kate Steinle in November 2017. The jury found that Garcia Zarate “did not commit a willful act in firing the gun—that it went off accidentally just as the defense contended,” his attorney, Cliff Gardner, said in a filing on Friday.

Gardner filed an appeal with the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco in the hopes of overturning his client’s conviction for illegally possessing the fatal weapon in Steinle’s death. Garcia Zarate’s defense team argued that momentary and accidental possession of a gun was not a crime, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

In the appeal, Gardner said that the jury had no choice but to convict his client of illegal firearms possession by a previously convicted felon after Superior Court Judge Samuel Feng failed to tell jurors that “momentary possession” of a gun was not a crime. Gardner asked the appeals court to overturn Garcia Zarate’s conviction and to order another trial.

Garcia Zarate claimed that he picked up the gun, which was wrapped in rags under a swivel chair he was sitting on at the pier, but that he did not know it was a weapon. He only realized he was holding a gun when it fired accidentally and he threw it in the bay immediately afterwards.

The bullet ricocheted off Pier 14’s concrete floor and fatally struck 32-year-old Steinle, who was walking on the pier with her father in July 2015. Garcia Zarate was sentenced to three years in prison for gun possession in January 2018 and has been in prison awaiting deportation.

At the time of the shooting, Garcia Zarate had been deported five times and as wanted for a sixth deportation proceeding, the Associated Press reported. He had been released from jail despite a request from federal immigration officials to detain him for deportation proceedings.

San Francisco’s sheriff claimed the city’s sanctuary city policy limited local cooperation with immigration enforcement.

The jury’s verdict was called a “complete travesty of justice” by President Donald Trump, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The Trump administration filed federal gun charges against Garcia Zarate, which could extend his time in prison by 10 years before his deportation.

The city of San Francisco cannot be held liable for failing to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or deport the seven-time felon undocumented alien who shot and killed 32-year-old Kate Steinle in 2015, a court ruled Monday.

A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Northern California district judge’s dismissal of negligence brought by the parents of Kathryn Steinle against the City and County of San Francisco after she was killed by an undocumented alien on July 1, 2015. Steinle’s murder was placed under the national spotlight by President Donald Trump and other Republicans demanding increased Southern border security and a multibillion-dollar wall project in the years following.

The appellate court as well as Republican-led backlash focused on the city of San Francisco’s so-called “sanctuary city” policies that limited cooperation with ICE and other federal immigration authorities.

The Steinle family’s May 2016 lawsuit blamed her death on San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi for his agency’s refusal to notify ICE prior to the incident. Steinle was shot dead near San Francisco’s Pier 14 in July 2015, and the case was referenced by Trump during his 2016 Republican National Convention speech as he claimed the GOP nomination.

The three-judge panel’s ruling Monday found Sheriff Mirkarimi acted within his power after his office issued a March 2015 policy memo to San Francisco deputies that limited their cooperation with federal ICE agents. The circuit judges had concluded Mirkarimi cannot be sued for negligence in the shooting.

In January 2017, U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero dismissed the negligence claims against the city and found Sheriff Mirkarimi’s office had no legal duty to help federal immigration agents deport and detain suspect Jose Ines Garcia-Zarate a.k.a. Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez. He had been deported to Mexico five times prior before landing himself in a San Francisco jail on a marijuana possession charge.

“The memo, on its face, reflects a basic policy decision entitled to discretionary immunity,” U.S. Circuit Judge Mark Bennett, who is a Donald Trump appointee, wrote for the three-judge panel in Monday’s ruling.

In November 2017, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate was found not guilty of murder in Steinle’s death. The jury concluded he “did not commit a willful act in firing the gun—that it went off accidentally just as the defense contended,” according to attorney Cliff Gardner.

“A disgraceful verdict in the Kate Steinle case! No wonder the people of our Country are so angry with Illegal Immigration,” Trump tweeted in November 2017. “The Kate Steinle killer came back and back over the weakly protected Obama border, always committing crimes and being violent, and yet this info was not used in court. His exoneration is a complete travesty of justice. BUILD THE WALL!” he followed up in a December 2017 tweet .

Newsweek’s requests for comments from several Republican state officials in California have not yet been answered as of publishing Tuesday afternoon.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) Irfan Qadir has said that setting up a “constitutional court” is a good idea as he asserted that parliament is the “mother of all instiutions”.

“Non-controversial” members of parliament, mediapersons, lawyers, judges and people from different walks of life should be appointed to the constitutional court, he suggested during a press conference in Islamabad Monday.

“Institutions are bound to follow the Constitution. No one person can control the country. We have to make the Constitution supreme,” Qadir emphasised.

He pointed out that institutions stayed within their domain of authority in every democratic country. “The Supreme Court has no need to build a dam or railways or to operate the Pakistan International Airlines.”

The SAPM referred to Supreme Court verdicts that removed two premiers — Nawaz Sharif and Yousuf Raza Gilani — from office. “There was a time political engineering was done in Pakistan. There is no mention of lifetime disqualification in the Constitution [yet] Nawaz Sharif was disqualified for life.”

He continued that the top court had charged Gilani with contempt of court, which was “a clear violation of the law”.

Referring to the matter of polls in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — because of which the government and the judiciary are at loggerheads — Qadir said the president and the governor were not authorised to decide the date for elections to the provincial assemblies.

“We will not give anyone the right to rewrite the Constitution. Every institution’s limit is defined in the Constitution. Any verdict that is against the law is not implemented,” he stated.

The SAPM clarified, however, that he was standing with the Supreme Court. “Parliament or the government is not against the Supreme Court in any way.”

The government wanted to strengthen the judiciary, he said, adding that if there was division in the top court, the judges should resolve it themselves.

The SAPM’s presser came as the Supreme Court adjourned indefinitely a case related to holding polls in Punjab after the Supreme Court Review of Judgements and Orders Bill, 2023 came into effect.

The government and the judiciary have been at loggerheads in recent months as the top court ordered polls to be held in Punjab on May 14, while the government did not issue the funds for them.

Meanwhile, the government got two bills passed through parliament, aimed at reducing the chief justice’s powers to take suo motu notice and form benches, and giving the right to appeal suo motu verdicts.

RAWALPINDI: Eight accused of attacking the General Headquarters (GHQ) during the May 9 protests will be transferred to military courts after the move was green lighted by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi.

Enraged by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan’s arrest, party supporters allegedly pillaged government and military installations on May 9.

To contain the violence, the government called in the army and announced that the protesters would be tried under army laws. A large number of PTI workers and leaders were arrested in a countrywide crackdown.

The transfer of the cases was approved by ATC Judge Hamid Hussain after Deputy Prosecutor General Malik Rafqat Ali moved a petition seeking the transfer of the accused to military courts.

Two cases were registered, separately, at the Civil Lines Police Station and R A Bazaar Police Station against protesters that had attacked the GHQ following the arrest of Khan from the Islamabad High Court.

The accused booked in a first information report (FIR) registered at the Civil Lines Police Station are Ali Hussain, son of Khalilur Rehman; Lal Shah, son of Jahanzaib; Shehryar Zulfiqar, son of Zulfiqar Ahmed and Farhad Khan, son of Shahid Hussain Khan.

The request to transfer these men for trial at the military court was moved by commanding officer/military officer Farhan Nazir Qureshi.

The ones named in the FIR registered at the R A Bazar Police Station are Muhammad Idrees, son of Muhammad Sharif; Umar Farooq, son of Muhammad Sabir; Raja Muhammad Ehsan, son of Muhammad Maqsood; and Muhammad Abdullah, son of Kanwar Muhammad Ashraf Khan.

All the accused “were sent to judicial lockup as they were found guilty of offences under sections 3,7 & 9 of Official Secrets Act, 1952 read with section 2(1)(d) of Pakistan Army Act, 1952”.

The ATC also directed the superintendent of Adyala Jail to hand over the custody of accused persons to the commanding officers.

The Rawalpindi ATC approved the transfer of the accused after a similar decision was made by an ATC in Lahore last week.

On May 25, an ATC allowed the handover of 16 suspects, involved in the ransacking and vandalising of Jinnah House, to the commanding officer so they can be tried under the army laws.

In the order, ATC Judge Abher Gul Khan accepted the request of the army officer who had sought the custody of the vandals presently confined in Camp Jail, Lahore.

They were named in two separate cases filed in connection with the attack on the Corps Commander’s House also known as Jinnah House.

The accused included Amar Zohaib, Ali Iftikhar, Ali Raza, Muhammad Arsalan, Muhammad Umair, Muhammad Raheem, Ziaur Rehman, Waqas Ali, Raees Ahmad, Faisal Irshad, Muhammad Bilal Hussain, Faheem Haider, Arzam Junaid, ex-PTI MPA Mian Muhammad Akram Usman, Muhammad Hashir Khan, and Hassan Shakir.

WARRING couples will be forced to try mediation before taking divorce battles to the courts, under new rules announced today.

Husbands and wives will have at least one counselling session to see if they can agree the terms of their ­separation, although the rules will not apply in cases of violence and child abuse.

Ministers say the ­arrangements will be quicker and more civilised, but the initiative comes as the Government slashes the legal aid budget to cut costs.

Justice spokesman Jonathan Djanogly insisted that a voluntary agreement was in most people’s best interests.

He said: “Mediation is quicker, cheaper and more amicable, particularly where children are concerned.”