The shooter had a string of convictions, in addition to his immigration violations. He had a drug conviction in Arizona in 1991, three convictions in Washington state in 1993 for heroin possession and narcotics manufacturing, another drug conviction in Oregon in 1994, after which he was deported for the first time. But, anxious we suppose to “live the dream” he reentered the US, and was soon had another heroin conviction in Washington, another deportation, then tried to reenter the US, was intercepted and in 1998 was deported again. He was caught reentering again, a mere six days later, and received a term of five years and three months in federal prison on a charge of unauthorized reentry. He served that sentence and was deported (his fourth) in 2003. But he tried again to reenter the US, was caught, again was sentenced to prison, served a term and was deported in 2009 for the fifth time. Three months later, you guessed it, he was again caught trying to enter the US, and this time he pled guilty and was sentenced to be placed in a federal medical facility. In March of 2015 the US Bureau of Prisons honored a request from the San Francisco Sheriff and turned Mr. Garcia Zarate over to that department on a drug warrant from 1995. Incidentally, that charge was immediately dismissed – so the city evidently had no intention of incarcerating Mr. Garcia Zarate, or even charging him, but nonetheless that 1995 charge pried him from federal custody.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement had requested that he be kept in custody until ICE agents could pick him up, but here’s where San Francisco’s Sanctuary City rules came into play. Because his prior convictions and warrants (He was on probation in Texas for an earlier conviction) were for non-violent offenses, the city did not turn him over to ICE but released him, on April 15, 2015. A bit more than two months later, there he was on the Embarcadero, and you already have been told what happened next.
He was tried, but was acquitted of all California charges relating to the death of Miss Steinle, except for illegal possession of a weapon by a felon. He still faced several federal charges, but appealed his conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and, unsurprisingly, just this week a California court overturned that conviction, on the grounds that the judge had improperly instructed the jury on “momentary possession” of a firearm, which probably should be irrelevant in this case, because the “momentary” possession applies only to instances where someone is in the process of disposing of a weapon or destroying it, although after the weapon discharged he did throw it into the bay.
The shooter is facing his sixth deportation, but it is unlikely to be any more effective than the first five. He does face about ten years’ worth of federal charges, and some in Texas, but odds are that even if he is convicted again, or deported again, he will soon be back in the USA, using more drugs and committing more crimes.
The outcome is that, apparently no one killed Kate Steinle, but it is hard to keep track of how many judges, jurors, Sheriff’s deputies, policemen, federal agents, prosecutors, et al in how many states or countries had the opportunity to take some step that would have kept Mr. Garcia Zarate either in custody or in Mexico, but had any one of them done so, Kate Steinle would not have died from a gunshot inflicted on that pier. It truly is unfortunate that judges or public officials who engineer the release of a convicted felon are not somehow held responsible when that felon commits a subsequent crime, but wouldn’t it be a more just world if they were made to pay some penalty for their folly and misplaced trust?
Well, as you can see from this long and sad story, even though he is not a US citizen, Mr. Garcia Zarate’s rights have been protected every step of the way, even to the point of acquittal on the manslaughter charge and overturning the felony firearms possession conviction. Miss Steinle’s right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” did not enjoy the same regard.