The U.S. Supreme Court is balking at a lower appeals court’s approval of an immunity claim by a Border Patrol agent who killed a 15-year-old boy on the Mexico side of the U.S. border outside of El Paso, Texas.
It directly impacts a similar case in Arizona where the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has waited to hear the Supreme Court’s decision.
In 2010, Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz fired more than a dozen shots across the Nogales border into Mexico at 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.
Swartz claimed the boy was throwing rocks at the agent when he opened fire.
But, an autopsy report showed the teen was shot 11 times in the back of the head as he was turned away from the officer.
Swartz has admitted to the shooting, but his attorney has borrowed the same argument of immunity as in the Texas Border Patrol shooting.
In that case, the lower court had ruled the victim’s family rights for a wrongful death claim was not valid because the Rodriguez was a Mexican national, standing on Mexican soil when he was shot, and with no significant connection to the U.S.
The U.S. Supreme Court justices called that assumption legally baseless and sent the lower court back to review its own decision.
Until it re-emerges in October, or possibly later, Arizona’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will likely wait on making its decision.
