Court OKs conviction in torture of workers
The factory owner had argued the case belonged in Samoa
Associated Press
A former garment factory owner convicted in Honolulu of enslaving, starving and beating his workers in American Samoa was properly tried and convicted, the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled.
In the biggest human trafficking case in U.S. history, Kil Soo Lee was sentenced in June 2005 to 40 years in prison and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution for torturing workers at Daewoosa Samoa Ltd. The factory made clothes for J.C. Penney and other retailers before it was closed.
More than 200 Chinese and Vietnamese workers were held at Daewoosa for more than two years, until 2001 when the National Labor Relations Board and the Department of Labor intervened.
Lee's lawyer had argued Lee was "kidnapped by the FBI" and improperly prosecuted in federal court in Honolulu.
The trial should have gone before the High Court of American Samoa instead of U.S. District Court in Hawaii -- 2,300 miles away, Earle Partington said.
But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco affirmed the Hawaii District Court ruling Wednesday. The court ruled that because American Samoa is not within any judicial district, the Hawaii court was a proper venue.
"The holding is consistent with the plain language of the applicable statutes and Supreme Court precedent," Judge Stephen Trott wrote.