Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada would be willing to plead guilty to the crimes that the United States accuses him of to avoid the death penalty, according to his legal advisor, Frank Pérez. However, he would not cooperate with authorities as an informant or protected witness. "The problem now is trying to determine whether the government will seek the death penalty or not," Pérez mentioned.
"Once the decision is made to do what they call 'not seeking', that is, that they are not going to request the death penalty, then yes, he is interested in a plea deal," the lawyer explained. Although it seems complicated for Zambada to receive the death penalty, in the event that it were to occur, due to his age and the legal resources available, the execution could be delayed for decades.
The next hearing for 'El Mayo' Zambada is scheduled for April 22 in the Eastern District Court of New York, where negotiations between the drug trafficker and the U.S. Prosecutor's Office are expected to be defined.
To date, 13 Mexicans have been executed in the United States. The first of them was Ramón Montoya Facundo, and the most recent was Abel Revilla Ochoa. All the condemned have been men. Twelve of them were sent to death row in Texas, while only one was executed in Virginia. The method used in all cases was lethal injection.
According to data from the Death Penalty Census, since 1972 there have been at least 9,800 death sentences in various states of the U.S. Among those sentenced to death in this country are 23 individuals of Latin descent, including Cubans, Salvadorans, Hondurans, Argentines, and Mexicans.
