Luis Xadiel Cruz Vazquez v. United States

This petition presents published comments by the First Circuit Court of Appeal which cause the reasonable person to question the neutrality and fairness of the court’s denial of Petitioner’s Motion for Certificate of Appealability (COA). The unsettling comments by the First Circuit can be found in its prior published opinion, affirming Petitioner’s conviction and sentence on direct appeal, where the court prominently noted Petitioner’s exercise of his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial: Blood is often thicker than water…. Unlike dozens of others who entered guilty pleas ... Ayala [Petitioner’s co-defendant and brother] and Cruz hunkered down and stood trial together. They were both convicted, and each received a life sentence. United States v. Angel Ayala Vazquez and Luis X Cruz Vazquez, 751 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir. 2014), emphasis added. Explicitly, the First Circuit found it necessary to underscore Petitioner’s rejection of a plea agreement and election to exercise his absolute right to trial, unconditionally assured by Bordenkircher v. Hayes, 434 U.S. 357, 363 (1978). Therefore, this petition respectfully asks that this Court exercise its supervisory power to provide guidance to lower courts in the application of the standard for issuance of a certificate of appealability and the unquestioned right to protection against any hint of punitive judicial retaliation for exercising the right to trial. With this as backdrop, the questions for review are: