Jurisdiction

United States v. Gongora-Parraga, No. 06-3133, aff'd (D.C. Cir. May 30, 2006 -- Appellants, Ecuadorian seamen, were seized aboard Ecuadorian ship in international waters 250 miles west of Guatamala by U.S Coast Guard and escorted to Mexico. Mexico expatriated them to the United States to be tried for smuggling aliens who intended to land in Central America and travel over land to this country. Court ruled that despite U.S. adoption of the Treaty on the Law of the High Seas, federal immigration statutes apply extraterritorially in international waters, even when the alleged smugglers never entered or intended to enter U.S. territorial waters.

1. Whether the Trial Court lacked jurisdiction to try Appellant as an adult because the counts in the indictment charging assault with intent to murder while armed were defective in that they failed to inform Appellant of the nature of the charges against him, and did not demonstrate that the Grand Jury found essential elements of the offense —malicious intent to kill and the absence of justification, excuse or mitigation, and therefore his conviction must be vacated?
2. Whether Appellant’s conviction for aggravated assault while armed on David Rodriguez must be vacated because the government failed to produce any evidence that he suffered serious bodily injury as a result of the stab wounds he sustained?
3. Whether, in the absence of evidence that Appellant had any direct contact with Omar Gonzales, Appellant’s conviction for assault with a dangerous weapon on Gonzales must be vacated because the government failed to produce evidence that Appellant aided and abetted the assault?