Gerardo Hernandez Moved to Victorville Prison in California

Bernie Dwyer
Radio Havana Cuba
August, 2004



Gerardo Hernández, one of the five Cuban political prisoners in the United States has been transferred to Victorville USP, a newly completed federal detention center in the state of California. Gerardo is serving two life sentences plus fifteen years having been accused, tried and sentenced in a Miami court of conspiracy to commit murder, among other charges, without a shred of evidence.

Up until recently, Gerardo was serving his time in USP Lompoc, a high and medium-security prison. However, all high-security prisoners are now being transferred to the new high-security prison in Victorville.

About 785 such prisoners will be transferred out of Lompoc, which holds more than 1,400 inmates. Prison officials said they could not estimate the number of prisoners heading to the Victorville federal prison in San Bernardino County, but eventually former Lompoc inmates will comprise the majority of its prisoner population.

Lompoc made public plans to move inmates to Victorville in November 2003 but controversial plans to construct a 1,000-inmate high-security prison in Lompoc were squashed in 2001 after local public outcry. The Victorville prison finished construction in November 2003. It has been undergoing the process of reviews and security measures for the last eight months.

The new prison will feature six housing buildings and a number of security upgrades from USP Lompoc's outdated facility. Security upgrades include improved lock-down capabilities, more sophisticated technology, and walled cells instead of bars, according to various prison officials.

The Unsubstantiated Charges against Gerardo Hernández

Gerardo Hernandez was sentenced to two life sentences plus fifteen years on three counts: general conspiracy (Count 1), conspiracy to commit espionage (Count 2), and conspiracy to commit murder (Count 3).

During the trial the US Government did not seek to present substantial evidence to back the Count 3, but relied instead on a climate of secret activity and a strongly derogatory and antagonistic view of Cuba’s government to theorize that Hernandez knew of and joined an unlawful conspiracy. Relying on speculation derived from sparse circumstantial evidence, the Government failed to prove Hernandez’s knowledge of facts.

The outstanding legal flaws in the prosecution included:

1) This charge was added seven months after the others.

2) The U.S. Attorney’s office had admitted that it had been unable to prove this charge and therefore asked the Court of Appeal – in a rare move- to review the jury’s instructions and reduce the gravity of the charge.

In its emergency petition for writ of prohibition to the Court of Appeal on May 25, 2001, the U.S. Attorney’s office recognized that

“in light of the evidence presented in this trial, this presents an insurmountable hurdle for the United States in this case, and will likely result in the failure of the prosecution on this court” (page 21) since it “imposes an insurmountable barrier to this prosecution in contravention of the established law” (page 27).

The government was aware of the fact that “it is highly probable that the jury will request further elaboration on this issue” (pages 20 – 21 Emergency Petition for Writ of Prohibition).

However, although the Court of Appeal rejected the government’s petition, no further elaboration was requested. Without further ado and without a moment’s hesitation, the jury declared Gerardo guilty in the first degree of the alleged crime.

The Government’s evidence–even granting the inferences the Government asserted–fails to prove knowledge and willfulness.

Gerarrdo Hernández, along with René Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino and Fernando Gonzalez are presently waiting for the result of an appeal put to the 11th Circuit Court of Atlanta which was heard last 10th March in Miami.