Proceedings against 13 alleged prison gang and organized crime members will exit New Mexico for Arizona. It's the first time, notes the The Arizona Republic, that federal prosecutors have dropped a death penalty case in one jurisdiction in order to pick it back up in another. The government cited a trail of eight dead witnesses and a courthouse security leak to make the claim that it could not safely pursue the case against Luis and Felipe Cisneros in New Mexico. The defense charges that the government moved the trial to find a friendlier judge ...

The Government says court officials in Santa Fe leaked security information to the defense. Prosecutors say they are too scared now to try the case in New Mexico. They say Arizona is the only safe place for the trial to take place.

Lawyers for the defendants point out that prosecutors have yet to win a single homicide conviction. Lacking physical evidence and witnesses to support their allegations, they say, the government has resorted to a fear and smear campaign.

"The accusation that these defendants pose any security risk to judges . . . or anyone involved in the judicial process is, I think, totally without merit," said Larry Hammond, a Phoenix attorney for Felipe Cisneros. As for the government's list of homicides, Hammond said, "There's going to be a huge dispute over who committed those murders."

....Natman Schaye, a Tucson attorney in the case, said federal prosecutors continually talk about dead witnesses without showing how the Cisneros-New Eme suspects were responsible. "It's sort of a 'where's-the-beef?' question. If they did it, why hasn't there been any evidence that they did it?" Schaye said.
As for courthouse security, he said, "Our clients have been perfectly well-behaved since they have been in (a New Mexico jail)."