Hate Crime Victim Julio Maldonado Wrongfully Convicted, Now Being Deported

I was recently contacted by several family members of two men who came to the U.S. from Peru many years ago.  The men are Julio Maldonado and his cousin Denis Calderon.  Once I heard their story and checked it out, I knew I had to blog about it.

I will explain the facts and case history as the family explained them to me and based on my review of court transcripts, legal briefs, and Julio’s written statements.  Some of these documents are available along with a timeline on the website that the family (in particular, Julio’s cousin Maria Rolon) has created.

Julio and Denis were both long-time lawful permanent residents.  Julio has lived in the U.S. since the age of three and has a longtime U.S. citizen fiancée.  Denis has a U.S. citizen wife and U.S. citizen children.  The men are now in their early forties.  In 1996, Julio was visiting Denis at his home in Philadelphia when the two were victims of a racially-motivated attack by a group of white youths who insulted them with a racial slur.  When the cousins responded to the slur, the youths began throwing beer bottles at them.  The two cousins tried to escape, and then attempted to defend themselves.

Julio ran to his car and pulled out a “Club” anti-theft device and wielded it against the person he saw stabbing Denis with a knife, 18-year-old Christian Saladino.  Part of the Club detached and flew off, striking a nearby car.  Unbalanced, Julio brought the remaining portion down and struck Christian’s shoulder.  Christian got up, took a few steps back, and collapsed.  He was taken to the hospital and revived but fell into a coma.

Denis had run to his house where his wife called the police.  He grabbed a baseball bat and ran outside looking for Julio, who he believed was being attacked.  Denis did not see Julio, but swung the bat around his head to fend off his attackers, hitting no one.  The police soon arrived.

When the police arrived, they arrested Denis and Julio.  They recovered two knives at the scene but did not test them for blood or fingerprints since no witness testified that Denis or Julio had used a knife.  Denis and Julio were charged with aggravated assault.  None of the white youths were ever charged with any crime.

Seth Williams, the current Democratic nominee for District Attorney of Philadelphia, was then the young prosecutor on the case.  He fought hard on the case and Denis and Julio’s attorneys made some crucial errors, including failing to insist on a jury trial.  Judge Gregory Smith found the two cousins guilty of aggravated assault and other ancillary charges in a bench trial.  Each defendant served 2-3 years in prison for that conviction.

The cousins appealed the case on the basis that counsel had been ineffective in failing to submit key expert medical testimony.  The appeals court at some point remanded the case back down for an evidentiary hearing on these issues.

Tragically, Christian Saladino died in 1998.  Williams brought murder charges against Denis and Julio.  The case went before a jury and the defendants hired a forensic pathologist who testified that the victim had a pre-existing blood condition and had not died from injuries sustained in an attack.  Inconsistencies arose in the accounts of the witnesses and the jury acquitted both defendants (pdf).

Judge Smith, the original convicting judge, in his remanded evidentiary hearing decided the new evidence was material and ruled in favor of the defendants, vacating the guilty verdicts and calling for a new trial on the aggravated assault charges (pdf).  In a reasonable system, that would have been the end of the story and you would not be reading about it today.  But Seth Williams appealed the decision and the appellate court reversed Judge Smith because the cousins had failed to present the exculpatory evidence within the time prescribed by the statute of limitations.  The cousins’ criminal attorneys appealed the criminal case up to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost on technical grounds.

Several years ago, DHS got involved and put the cousins into removal proceedings on the basis of the conviction which was then being appealed.  Julio and Denis appealed their immigration case up to the Third Circuit and lost.

In 2005, Julio and Denis were charged and convicted with failing to cooperate in their own removal because they would not sign the papers necessary to request travel documents from Peru so they could be deported.  They have been in federal prison on those charges since 2005.  Julio's release date was moved up a year due to good behavior.  DHS has expressed its intent to deport him once he is released on September 12, 2009.

Julio recently filed for a pardon from Pennsylvania Governor Rendell.  His immigration attorney is exploring the possibility of a stay of removal based on the pending pardon.

Maria believes her cousins were the victims of a hate crime and that they are innocent of the convictions which the convicting judge himself later vacated.  Based on my review of the court documents, I agree.  They have lived here almost their entire lives and their families live here in the U.S.  They have nothing to return to in Peru, and no reason to return to the country they left so many years ago.  But falling as they do at the conjunction of the unforgiving and error-prone criminal justice and immigration legal systems, the government has reached the perverse conclusion that these two men must be exiled from their home.

I believe this is wrong.  I believe we should do something about it.  This is why I am sharing their story here.  Please go to the family’s website and review the documents for yourself.  In the coming days, I will be exploring opportunities to take action in this case, both on this site and elsewhere.  If you feel compelled, please join me in seeking justice for Julio and Denis.

Update: See new photos on the family's site here.

[Top image above: Julio and his mother pre-1996; bottom image: Denis and his mother pre-1996]