Federal Public Defender Matthew Campbell claimed in a motion filed in U.S. District Court Thursday that the federal government sidestepped the U.S. Attorney’s Office and its own protocols when it signaled its intent to seek the death penalty for Rosniel Diaz-Bautista last summer.
“The Court established deadlines for the government’s decision whether to seek the death penalty,” Campbell wrote in a 19-page motion to strike. “The defense, in good faith, agreed to four separate extensions of the authorization deadline set by the Court. Because the Government never requested mitigation materials, it was apparent that the U.S. Attorney’s Office recommended an expedited no-seek recommendation.”
Campbell cited a section from the Justice Manual — a reference text for U.S. attorneys and other federal Justice Department employees — which described expedited decisions as including “any other case where the United States Attorney or Assistant Attorney General is able to recommend the death penalty not be sought without first receiving input from defense counsel.”
“Inexplicably,” he wrote, the government then filed a notice of its intent to seek the death penalty on the fifth court-ordered deadline. “At no point before that filing did the government ask for, accept, or invite the submission of mitigation evidence, argument, or background materials relating to Mr. Diaz-Bautista’s history, mental health, social background, or any other relevant factors from the defense.”
Either the government filed the notice as a “protective notice” — before the Attorney General had decided whether or not to seek the death penalty — or it was “an unprecedented, improper and arbitrary decision by the Attorney General which ignored the reasoned decisions of both the United States Attorney and the Capital Review Committee, and denied the defense the ‘opportunity’ to present mitigation as required by the DOJ Protocols.”
The motion to strike comes several weeks after Campbell filed a motion to compel disclosure of all materials relevant to the government’s decision, which he called “a move wholly unprecedented in the thirty-plus year history of the modern federal death penalty.”
President Donald Trump ended a Biden-era moratorium on federal executions via an executive order titled “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety.” On the day she was sworn in, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo mandating that Justice Department employees adhere to the order and to review any no-seek decisions made since Jan. 20, 2021.
“Particular attention shall be paid to cases involving defendants associated with cartels or transnational criminal organizations, capital crimes committed by defendants present in the United States illegally, and capital crimes committed in Indian Country or within the federal special maritime and territorial jurisdictions,” according to the memo.
The charges against Diaz-Bautista stem from a September 2024 shooting in Frederiksted. Police arrived at the scene to find a woman, identified as Indierra Morales, with multiple gunshot wounds in the driver’s seat of a car. According to a charging document, security camera footage showed Diaz-Bautista approach the car before firing a gun into the driver’s side multiple times. He fled the scene and was arrested hours later.
