Page "Cuban Five" Paragraph 14

After the arrests, motions by the defense for a change of venue, on the basis that Miami was a venue too associated with exile Cubans, were denied, despite the fact that the trial began just five months after the heated Elian Gonzalez affair.

The jury did not include any Cuban-Americans but 16 of the 160 members of the jury pool " knew the victims of the shootdown or knew trial witnesses who had flown with them.

" According to Ricardo Alarcon, President of Cuba's National Assembly, a year later, an application to change venue for the same reason was granted by the same court in an employment case with a Cuban connection.

As a result the Five applied for annulment of the trial and a change of venue for a retrial ; the motion was denied.

According to Alarcon, the Five's appeal to a higher court was inhibited by further month's solitary confinement in early 2003, and by denial of access to their attorneys.

On August 9, 2005, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta unanimously overturned the convictions and sentences of the Cuban Five and ordered a new trial outside of Miami, saying that the Cuban exile community and the trial publicity made the trial unfavorable and prejudicial to the defendants.

This was the first time a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a trial court's finding with respect to venue.

However, on October 31, 2005 the Atlanta court agreed to a U. S. government request to review the decision, and in August 2006 the ruling for a new trial was reversed by a 10-2 vote of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal sitting en banc.

Charles R. Wilson wrote the opinion of the majority.