Mark Osler, law professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, recently spoke to MPR News about the prison sentences for convicted human smugglers after an Indian family’s deaths on the Canada-U.S. border.
From the story:
More than three years after a family of four from India froze to death while trying to enter the U.S. along a remote stretch of the Canadian border in a blizzard, two men convicted in an international human smuggling plot were given prison sentences in Minnesota on May 28.
Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel was sentenced to 10 years in prison and Steve Anthony Shand, the driver who was supposed to transport the family to Chicago, got 6 1/2 years. ...
The sentences fell short of the nearly 20-year prison term federal prosecutors had recommended for Patel and nearly 11 years recommended for Shand.
“It certainly would seem that the defense got a result closer to what they wanted than the prosecution did,” said Mark Osler, a former federal and state prosecutor who now teaches law at the University of St. Thomas. “In a case like this, where you’ve got death involved, you’re very often going to have prosecutors pushing upward based on the facts at hand.”
Osler was not surprised, however, by the smaller-than-recommended gap between the two mens’ sentences.
“It’s a lot easier to cast Patel as a ringleader than Mr. Shand, who had a specific role, being the driver,” he said. “But they’re both important roles in a case like this.”
