Driver in Immigrant Deaths to Be Retried

A federal appeals court has ordered a new trial for the truck driver convicted in the nation’s deadliest human smuggling attempt -- a journey that ended in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants crammed into his sweltering truck trailer.

The ruling means Tyrone Williams could again face the death penalty.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the verdict was invalid because the jury failed to decide whether Williams was directly responsible for the deaths. When the jury couldn’t agree on that question before Williams was sentenced last year, the judge removed the death penalty as an option. Prosecutors appealed.