Outrage Over Not Guilty Verdict in Kate Steinle Murder
Article subtitle:
Illegal alien from Mexico was protected by San Francisco's sanctuary city policy when he killed the 32-year-old woman
Article CAIRCO note:
San Francisco's sanctuary city polity ultimately killed Kate Steinle
Article publisher:
Polizette
Article date:
3 December 2017
Article category:
National News
Medium
Article Body:
The illegal [alien] immigrant from Mexico who fired the gunshot that killed 32-year-old Kate Steinle on a pier in San Francisco in 2015 was found not guilty of murder by a California jury on Thursday.
Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, who had been deported five times and had several felony convictions, had been protected by San Francisco’s sanctuary city policies, and local police had refused to comply with a request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold him so that the agency could take him into custody for deportation proceedings.
The prosecutor had said in his closing argument last week that Garcia Zarate had played a game of Russian roulette with a stolen Sig Sauer .40-caliber handgun, shooting it off as Kate Steinle was passing nearby with her father, walking on Pier 14 along the Embarcadero, at the city's waterfront. The bullet ricocheted off the concrete pier and hit Steinle in the back, piercing her aorta and killing her almost immediately.
The jury deliberated for six days and, in the end, acquitted Garcia Zarate of first and second-degree murder charges and also of involuntary manslaughter. He also was found not guilty of assault with a semi-automatic weapon.
Garcia Zarate was found guilty of just one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions released a statement following the verdict, saying San Francisco's decision to provide sanctuary to sometimes dangerous illegal immigrants led to the death of Steinle.
"San Francisco's decision to protect criminal aliens led to the preventable and heartbreaking death of Kate Steinle."
"When jurisdictions choose to return criminal aliens to the streets rather than turning them over to federal immigration authorities, they put the public's safety at risk," the statement said. "San Francisco's decision to protect criminal aliens led to the preventable and heartbreaking death of Kate Steinle."
"San Francisco's policy of refusing to honor ICE detainers is a blatant threat to public safety and undermines the rule of law. This tragedy could have been prevented if San Francisco had turned the alien over to ICE, as we requested, instead of releasing him back onto the streets," ICE acting Director Thomas Homan said...
But it's worse now in California, since Gov. Jerry Brown declared the entire state a sanctuary state earlier this year...
Related
Kate Steinle: Politically Motivated Jury?, by Douglas V. Gibbs, December 2, 2017.