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MIAMI - A federal appeals court has agreed to rehear arguments on whether five suspected Cuban spies got an unfair trial because of intense publicity, voiding a decision by a panel of judges that the group deserved a new trial.
The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said all 12 active judges on the court would reconsider the case. "The previous panel's opinion is hereby vacated," the order said.
The three-judge panel on Aug. 9 tossed out the convictions and sentences of the Cubans because of heavy pretrial publicity, community prejudice in Miami and inflammatory remarks by prosecutors. It ordered a new trial to be held outside Miami.
Now, attorneys for the five Cubans will have to make those arguments again.
The Cubans were convicted in June 2001 of illegally acting as agents of a foreign government as part of the so-called Wasp Network. The five admitted being Cuban agents but said they were spying on U.S.-based anti-Castro exile groups, not on the United States.
The ringleader, Gerardo Hernandez, was also convicted of murder conspiracy for his role in the deaths of four Cuban exiles whose planes were shot down by Cuban MiGs in 1996.
Three of the five Cubans received life sentences in federal prison, one got 19 years and one got 15 years.