Lawyer asks court
to throw out confession
in shipboard stabbings
A cook's admission to the stabbing deaths of the captain and first mate aboard a Taiwanese fishing boat last year was obtained improperly and should not be admitted as evidence at trial, a defense attorney said yesterday.
Shi Lei, the accused 22-year-old Chinese cook, was injured, disoriented, did not speak English and was unaware of his rights under the U.S. legal system when he was questioned by authorities, said Assistant Federal Public Defender Pamela Byrne after a hearing in U.S. District Court.
"He really had no comprehension of all the rights he was waiving," said Byrne, who is seeking to have some of Shi's statements to authorities dismissed as evidence.
Yesterday's hearing was to "determine the voluntariness of the confession" made in statements by Shi, said U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor.
Shi has been in federal custody since his arrest March 21, 2002, days after the vessel Full Means 2 pulled into Hawaii waters.
He is accused of stabbing his captain, Chen Sung-she of Taiwan, and first mate, Li Dafeng of China, during an argument on March 14 before hijacking the ship on the seas south of Hawaii.
The captain's body was thrown overboard and the first mate's body was found in a freezer aboard the ship. Other crew members later regained control of the ship by overpowering Shi, binding his hands and locking him in a room on board the ship by welding the door shut.
Crew members have said the argument arose when the captain denied Shi's demand to return home. Byrne has said Shi and other crew members also stated they were abused and treated poorly aboard the ship.
Authorities said Shi admitted to the stabbings.
Byrne argued in court yesterday that federal agents did not consider Shi's physical condition when they questioned him about the stabbing, nor did they fully inform him of his rights under U.S. law.
FBI Special Agent Linelle Toriaki, one of the agents who took custody of Shi, said the cook was provided with a document written in Chinese that explained his right to remain silent and right to an attorney.
Toriaki said Shi initially refused to sign the statement advising him of his rights but still said he wanted to cooperate with authorities. "He read the form and stated that he understood it," Toriaki said.
Byrne argued that Shi comes from rural China with only a ninth-grade education, and agents shouldn't have presumed he was familiar with U.S. law or even the role of the FBI. She also argued that Shi was confused about why U.S. authorities were taking part in the investigation when he felt the situation should have been handled by Chinese authorities.
Shi attended yesterday's court session, but did not speak.
The hearing on the motion to throw out his confession was continued until Oct. 10. His trial is scheduled for February.
Shi has pleaded innocent to charges of seizing a ship by force or threat. If convicted, he could face the death penalty, a decision that would be up to Attorney General John Ashcroft.
