2026-08-24T09:00:29.848Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
特朗普政府曾在2025年3月庆祝一名据称的MS-13核心头目被押抵美国本土。
但真正在今年4月于华盛顿特区法庭上震惊又感激地跪倒在地的，是莫伊塞斯·里维拉-卢纳。美国司法部称，十多年前，此人曾在萨尔瓦多的一间牢房内下令在美国境内实施谋杀。
这是司法部五个月内第二次将他带到联邦陪审团面前受审。而这一次，他的陪审团依旧未能达成一致裁决。
被刻画为绰号“老圣徒”（Viejo Santos）的残忍帮派头目，里维拉-卢纳正是唐纳德·特朗普总统，以及由此延伸的华盛顿特区联邦检察官珍妮·皮罗，最希望定罪的那类刑事被告。但在过去一年里，针对里维拉-卢纳的案件先后在华盛顿遭遇了两组陪审团的僵持，两次都以司法部的起诉失败、宣布无效审判告终。
“我从事这个行业多年，从未见过像这样的案子，”在法官席位上任职近40年的罗伊斯·兰伯斯法官在第二次审判临近僵局收尾时说道。
目前尚不清楚两次审判中陪审团审议期间究竟出现了什么问题。
不过，该案的发展轨迹在今年华盛顿联邦法院已变得异常普遍。
皮罗的办公室在联邦法院获得了一些审判定罪，并吹嘘了多起在华盛顿地方高等法院成功起诉暴力犯罪的案件。
但皮罗的办公室正面临陪审团问题。今年，特区联邦法院中有越来越多的案件中途搁置——即便这些案件看起来是针对暴力犯罪的有力证据，相对容易举证，且由经验丰富的检察官负责审理。
在今年4月对MS-13案进行重审之前，自1月以来，特区联邦检察官办公室在华盛顿陪审团面前审理的8起联邦案件中，仅获得了4项定罪。
自4月MS-13案陪审团陷入僵局以来，联邦检察官办公室又在特区联邦法院审理了近12起刑事案件。
其中2起案件的被告被无罪释放。4起审判以僵局告终，陪审员在法庭笔记中称他们“毫无希望”地审议，完全陷入“僵持”。法庭随后宣布无效审判。
据二十多位华盛顿特区的调查人员、前检察官、辩护律师和其他法律专家表示，联邦检察官办公室的这一胜诉记录在近年记忆中几乎闻所未闻。法律界的许多人士要求匿名，因为他们在特区联邦法院执业，或与联邦检察官办公室存在关联。
根据联邦司法统计数据，全美范围内的联邦陪审团在刑事审判中定罪被告的比例通常约为90%。
几位与联邦陪审员有过接触的华盛顿法律界人士表示，或许陪审员们在政治上对特朗普政府不满，因此对司法部的指控持反对态度。
但许多法律界消息人士称，在MS-13这类案件中，陪审员似乎只是更细致地审查了司法部提交的案件证据。
“这不是一起政治案件。我认为这是证据不足，以及检察官办公室因绝望而生出的固执，”代表其中一名MS-13被告的两名律师之一罗伯特·费特尔近日告诉CNN。
尽管皮罗办公室在审判中难以定罪的每起案件都各不相同，但几位法律界人士将特区联邦法院陪审团的这一趋势称为“令人尴尬”，或形容为极其糟糕。这些案件——有些在数周或数月后被重审——正在拖垮本已因特朗普授意的解雇和人员流失而人手紧张，且因皮罗在总统关注的案件中出现政治失误而声誉受损的检察官办公室。
许多人担心，即便是该办公室经验最丰富的检察官，在未来几个月的审判中会有怎样的表现。其中包括定于本周开庭的一起案件，被告是1988年苏格兰洛克比泛美航空103号班机爆炸案的据称同谋。
老圣徒与“吃鸡”指令
至少可以说，MS-13案已成为华盛顿特区陪审团不可预测性的缩影。
“这只是正义的车轮在正常运转，”MS-13案一名合作证人的辩护律师克里斯托弗·戴维斯在4月审判期间告诉CNN。
“华盛顿的陪审团往往倾向左翼，且受教育程度很高，”戴维斯说。“他们认真对待自己的工作。会翻遍每一块石头。”
MS-13案涉及社区内的严重暴力行为，司法部称，多年前帮派头目下令犯下了五起谋杀或袭击案，此案因此开庭审理。头号被告里维拉-卢纳是一名面无表情的据称核心头目，庭审中每日佩戴眼镜，用西班牙语礼貌地与律师交流。危地马拉当局将其逮捕后，于去年将他引渡至美国羁押。
检察官称，2008年至2010年间，当MS-13成员在华盛顿特区地区枪杀、刺伤违反帮派守则的同伙时，里维拉-卢纳正处于帮派层级的顶端。
其中一名受害者在帮派会议上摆弄口袋里的刀具，违反了兄弟会的规则，地点就在特区外的一处公园。几天后，该男子被诱骗至树林中，遭枪击后弃尸。另一名骑自行车并佩戴红色头巾的男子被视为对手，遭MS-13成员枪杀，检察官表示。
那些年里，里维拉-卢纳在监狱中通过电话与华盛顿特区地区的一名男子交谈——这名男子多年后成为指证他的庭审证人之一。
两次审判的陪审团都听到了里维拉-卢纳用西班牙语对MS-13联络人说“你有13天时间吃鸡”的录音，检察官说道。
“他是让我在13天内杀个人，”证人后来在作证时谈及这通电话。
里维拉-卢纳的同案被告托基罗·罗达斯·拉米雷斯于2022年在洪都拉斯首都的一场足球赛中被当局逮捕。目前也在美国羁押，这名被告身材高大宽肩，在法庭上表情丰富，经常向陪审员和旁听庭审的其他人微笑。根据法庭记录，他在MS-13内部的绰号是“变态”（Perverso），检察官指控他在袭击发生时是该帮派在华盛顿特区地区的当地头目。
自2013年起主持这起共谋案的兰伯斯法官，在过去一年里推动两人迅速于2025年12月进行了首次审判。
该案的首席检察官尼哈尔·莫汉蒂和特区联邦检察官办公室的其他人员此前曾在2013年的审判中成功让同谋者定罪。司法部还获得了一系列认罪协议和其他人的合作。
“这类案件有既定的办案流程，”曾审理过近12起类似MS-13共谋案的证人律师戴维斯说。“从政府的角度来看，这些案子很难搞砸。”
12月的审判陪审团在经过9天庭审、听取了司法部传唤的22名证人作证后开始评议。最初，12月的陪审团告知兰伯斯法官，他们至少对三项指控中的一项已接近达成一致。
随后又过了一个上午的评议。法官再次收到陪审团的字条。陪审团称，任何共识都已破裂，并表示有一名陪审员拒绝保持公正，拒绝与其他陪审员继续评议。
兰伯斯法官从该陪审员口中得知，他认为评议过程演变成了欺凌。
“我觉得我已经多次表明了我的最终决定，”这名未被公开身份的固执陪审员告诉法官，根据法庭 transcripts 记录。“然后这感觉就像是一场有组织的攻击，一遍又一遍地问同样的问题。”
该男子称他在陪审团休息室里哭了。
当被CNN问及12月的审判为何陷入陪审团僵局时，皮罗直言不讳地表示，莫汉蒂和其他检察官只需再次审理此案即可。
“我们会在法律允许的范围内竭尽所能，将罪犯绳之以法。竭尽所能，”皮罗说。“你知道吗？负责此案的检察官都非常优秀，我认为（陪审团的）字条本身就说明了一切。”
到了4月，莫汉蒂和另一名检察官将被告里维拉-卢纳和罗达斯·拉米雷斯再次带到兰伯斯法官的法庭，面对新的陪审团候选人。
莫汉蒂在4月的第二次审判中向陪审团发表的开场陈述与12月的审判几乎一模一样。
莫汉蒂在开场陈述中解释道，帮派的一条规则是“抓住一切机会杀死敌对帮派成员”，并“批准”或杀死不遵守帮派规则的MS-13成员。
辩护律师向陪审团坚称，他们的当事人与MS-13的关联或帮派纹身并不能证明其有罪。
到4月的第三周，新陪审团已完整听取了案件陈述。然而，审议开始仅一天后，陪审团的工作似乎再次陷入混乱。
陪审团在字条中表示，无法就三项刑事指控中的两项达成一致。
到了周四，也就是审议的第二天，又一张下午送达的字条显示情况进一步恶化：
“我们无法达成一致，一些陪审员表示他们坚定支持自己的投票……我们不知道该如何继续。我们确认，即便经过进一步审查和持续讨论，这些陪审员仍坚决认为他们的投票不会改变。”
兰伯斯法官开始表现出沮丧，拒绝宣布无效审判。
陪审员们于4月17日周五上午返回法庭继续评议。几乎一整天，陪审团都没有向法官传达任何信息。
下午4点，兰伯斯法官的副手传唤检察官和两名被告的辩护律师回到法庭，查看陪审团新送来的、更令人困惑的字条。
“我们已经就一项指控达成了裁决；然而，讨论再次陷入停滞。我们有一名陪审员多次表示，他们坚定支持自己的决定。这名陪审员在第一天就曾表示，他们接受无法达成共识，”陪审团团长写道。“我们不知道该如何继续，因为我们似乎无法达成共识。”
里维拉-卢纳的律师阿尔弗雷德·纪尧姆是一位通常着装考究、神态放松的律师，口袋里还塞着口袋巾，他反复阅读了字条。罗达斯·拉米雷斯的律师费特尔则更容易坐立不安，他在法庭上来回踱步，嘴里不停地嚼着薄荷糖。
辩护律师请求兰伯斯法官接受部分裁决。这可能会结束这起长达15年的案件。
“驳回，”兰伯斯法官厉声说道。
辩护律师们在法庭角落挤在一起，试图谋划下一步行动。
坐在检察官席最前方的莫汉蒂将头埋在手中，揉搓着太阳穴。
法庭需要更多时间来决定下一步行动，兰伯斯法官将陪审员和律师们送回家过周末。
4月20日周一上午晚些时候，当第12名陪审员抵达法庭准备再次开始评议时，陪审团休息室里传出了欢呼声。
然而，15分钟后，陪审团又送来了一张字条。法庭副手向法庭内的律师们大声宣读了陪审团的留言：“我们作为陪审团进行了讨论，但对于我们之前已经达成裁决的那项指控，我们不再有共识。”
“这是一起永远不会结案的案子，”纪尧姆回应道。
“我想好消息是，我还能再见到你，法官大人，”检察官莫汉蒂说道。
兰伯斯法官宣布无效审判后，检察官和辩护律师前去与陪审员交谈，了解案件出现的问题。
4月审判的全部12名陪审员在离场时都拒绝接受CNN的采访。但了解情况的人士表示，他们似乎确实无法达成结论，即便他们在陪审团休息室的白板上写下了大量笔记。他们看起来曾像一个团体一样团结，在最后一天还有人带来郁金香和纸杯蛋糕。
“我对他们认真对待工作的态度感到鼓舞，”纪尧姆在离开法院时说道。
但记者问他是否愿意再次审理此案。“这是我的工作。我必须审理这个案子，”他说道，显然很沮丧，摇着头。
针对这两名据称的MS-13头目的案件定于9月中旬再次进行第三次审判。
Trump admin celebrated the prosecution of accused MS-13 ringleaders. Then the case fell apart twice
2026-08-24T09:00:29.848Z / CNN
The Trump administration celebrated the arrival of an alleged MS-13 mastermind on American soil in March 2025.
But it was Moises Rivera-Luna — a man whom the Justice Department says ordered murders in the US from inside a Salvadoran jail cell more than a decade ago — who fell to his knees, stunned and grateful, in a Washington, DC, courtroom this April.
It was the second time in five months the Justice Department had tried him before a federal jury. And for the second time, his jury failed to reach a verdict.
Portrayed as a brutal gang leader known as “Viejo Santos,” or “Old Saint,” Rivera-Luna was squarely among the types of criminal defendants President Donald Trump and, by extension, DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, has most sought to convict. But over the past year, the case against Rivera-Luna has run up against two juries in Washington that simply couldn’t agree, ending both rounds of the Justice Department’s efforts in mistrials.
“I’ve done this a long time and haven’t seen one quite like this one,” Judge Royce Lamberth, who’s been on the bench for nearly 40 years, said as the second trial neared its deadlocked end.
It’s unclear exactly what broke down during jury deliberations in both trials.
The arc of this case, though, has become unusually commonplace in the federal court in Washington this year.
Pirro’s office has secured some convictions at trial in federal court, and touted several successful prosecutions of violent crime in Washington’s local Superior Court.
Yet Pirro’s office has a jury problem. An increasingly alarming number of cases have fallen apart this year in DC’s federal court — even when the cases appear to be strong arguments against violent crime, relatively straightforward to prove, and tried by experienced prosecutors.
Before the MS-13 case was re-tried in April, the DC US Attorney’s Office had secured convictions in only four of the eight federal cases tried before Washington juries since January.
Since the MS-13 case’s jury hung in April, the US Attorney’s Office has tried nearly a dozen more criminal cases in DC’s federal court.
In two, the defendants were acquitted. Four of the trials ended in deadlock, with jurors reporting in courtroom notes that they deliberated “hopelessly” and were in complete “impasse.” Mistrials were declared.
That track record for the US Attorney’s Office is essentially unheard of in recent memory, according to over two dozen Washington, DC, investigators, former prosecutors, defense attorneys and other legal experts. Many of the people in the legal community asked not to be named because they practice in the DC federal courthouse or have ties to the US attorney’s office.
Federal juries typically decide to convict defendants in criminal trials nationwide at a rate of about 90%, according to federal judiciary statistics.
Several people in Washington’s legal community who’ve interacted with federal jurors say perhaps the juries are politically unhappy with the Trump administration and, thus, take issue with the Justice Department.
But in cases like MS-13, the jurors simply appear to be more closely scrutinizing the cases presented to them by the Justice Department, many of the legal community sources say.
“This is not a political case. I think this is a failure of proof and a stubbornness born of desperation on the part of the prosecutors’ office,” Robert Feitel, who is one of two lawyers representing one of the MS-13 defendants, told CNN recently.
While each case at trial where Pirro’s office has struggled to convict is different, several of the people in the legal community have called the trend with the DC juries in federal court “embarrassing” or described it as dire. The cases — some being retried weeks or months later — are bogging down a US attorney’s office that has already been stretched thin with Trump-prompted firings and departures and sullied by Pirro’s political missteps in cases the president has wanted.
Many fear how even the office’s most experienced prosecutors might fare in trials set for the coming months. That includes the trial to begin this week for an alleged conspirator in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Old Saint and the ‘eat chicken’ order
At very least, the MS-13 case has become the portrait of the unpredictability of Washington, DC, juries.
“It’s just the wheels of justice rolling along,” Christopher Davis, the defense attorney of a cooperating witness in the MS-13 case, told CNN during the April trial.
“DC juries tend to lean left, and they’re highly educated,” Davis said. “They take their job seriously. They overturn every stone.”
The MS-13 case grappled with severe violence in the community, putting on trial five murders or assaults the Justice Department says were prompted by the orders of gang leaders years ago. The top defendant was Rivera-Luna, a stone-faced alleged mastermind who wore glasses every day in court and politely interacted with his lawyer in Spanish. Guatemalan authorities had apprehended him, sending him to the US in custody last year.
Prosecutors say Rivera-Luna was at the top of the gang hierarchy when MS-13 members carried out several shootings and stabbings of their peers in the DC area who breached the organization’s codes from 2008 to 2010.
One of the victims had shifted a knife he had between his pockets at a gang meeting, breaking a rule of the brotherhood, at a park just outside DC. A few days later the man had been lured into the woods, shot and left to die. Another riding a bicycle while wearing a red bandana was perceived as a rival and gunned down by MS-13 members, prosecutors say.
Rivera-Luna was recorded on phone calls in those years speaking to a man in the DC area — whom years later has become one of the trial witnesses against him — from inside a Latin American prison.
Both juries at the two trials heard the audio of Rivera-Luna telling the MS-13 contact, in Spanish, “You have 13 days to eat chicken,” the prosecutor said.
“He was giving me 13 days to kill someone,” the witness testified later about that call.
Rivera-Luna’s trial co-defendant, Tokiro Rodas Ramirez, had been picked up by authorities in Honduras’ capital city during a soccer game in 2022. Now in the US in custody, the latter defendant is tall and broad-shouldered, and expressive in the courtroom, smiling regularly at jurors and others watching the case. His nickname within MS-13, according to court records, was “Perverso,” and he had been a local leader of the gang in the DC region when the assaults took place, prosecutors alleged.
Lamberth, who has presided over the conspiracy case since 2013, ushered the two men over the past year swiftly toward a first trial in December 2025.
The case’s longtime lead prosecutor Nihar Mohanty and others from the DC US Attorney’s Office had previously won jury convictions of co-conspirators at trial in 2013. The Justice Department also secured a string of guilty pleas and cooperation from others.
“These cases come with a playbook,” the witness’ attorney Davis, who has tried nearly a dozen similar MS-13 conspiracy cases, said. “It’s hard to screw up these cases” from the government’s perspective.
The December trial jury began deliberations after nine trial days and hearing from 22 witnesses called by the Justice Department. Initially, the December jury told Lamberth in a note they were close to unanimity on at least one of the three charges.
Then another morning of deliberation passed. Another note to the judge arrived. Any consensus had fallen apart, the jury said, indicating one juror refused to be impartial and continue deliberating with the others.
Lamberth drew out from that juror that he believed the deliberations had broken down into bullying.
“I feel like I have made my point that I have come to a final decision many times,” the holdout juror, who has not been identified publicly, told the judge, according to a court transcript. “And then it just seems like it’s an organized attack of over and over and over the same questions.”
The man said he had broken down crying in the jury room.
Pirro, when asked by CNN about how the trial in December resulted in a hung jury, matter-of-factly said Mohanty and other prosecutors would just need to try the case again.
“We’ll do whatever it takes within the bounds of the law to bring the guilty to justice. Whatever it takes,” Pirro said. “And you know what? I have great prosecutors on that case, and I think that that (jury) note speaks for itself.”
By April, Mohanty and another prosecutor had the defendants Rivera-Luna and Rodas Ramirez back in front of a new jury pool in Lamberth’s courtroom.
Mohanty delivered a nearly identical opening statement to this second jury in April as he did at the December trial.
One rule of the gang, Mohanty explained in his opening, was “kill rival gang members at every opportunity” and “greenlight,” or kill, MS-13 members that didn’t follow the gang’s rules.
The defense lawyers insisted to the jury that their client’s affiliation with MS-13 or their gang tattoos weren’t proof of criminality.
By the third week of April, the new jury had fully heard the case. Yet the jury’s work appeared to be going haywire, again, within a day of deliberations.
The jury said in a note they couldn’t agree to two of three criminal counts.
By that Thursday, the second day of deliberations, another afternoon note showed they had unraveled further:
“We are not in agreement and some jurors have expressed they are firm in their votes … We are unsure of how to move forward. We have confirmed that even after further review and continued discussion these jurors are adamant this will not change their vote.”
Lamberth, beginning to show his frustration, refused to call a mistrial.
The jurors returned Friday morning, April 17, to continue deliberations. They said nothing from the jury room to the judge nearly all day.
At 4 p.m., Lamberth’s deputy called the prosecutors and the two defendants’ defense lawyers back into the courtroom to see printouts of a new and more confusing note from the jury.
“We have reached a verdict on one count; however, discussions have once again stalled. We have one juror who has repeatedly stated they are firm on their decisions. This particular juror also stated on the first day that they are comfortable not reaching a consensus,” the jury foreperson wrote. “We are unsure how to move forward, as it does not appear we will reach a consensus.”
Rivera-Luna’s lawyer, Alfred Guillaume, a typically dapper and relaxed attorney with a pocket square, read it over several times. Rodas Ramirez’s attorney Feitel, more prone to fidgeting, paced around the courtroom, popping mints in his mouth.
The defense lawyers asked Lamberth to accept a partial verdict. That would likely bring to an end the 15-year-old case.
“Denied,” Lamberth snapped.
The defense lawyers huddled in the corner of the court room, trying to plot what to do next.
Mohanty, sitting at the top of the prosecutors’ table, hung his head in his hand, rubbing his temples.
The court would need more time to decide what to do and Lamberth sent the jurors and the lawyers home for the weekend.
A cheer erupted from the jury room when the final of the 12 jurors arrived late Monday morning, April 20, to try again with deliberations.
They sent a note, however, 15 minutes later. A courtroom deputy read the jury’s message aloud to the lawyers in the courtroom: “We discussed as a jury and no longer have consensus on the count we had previously reached a verdict on.”
“This is the case that will never die,” Guillaume responded.
“I suppose the good news is I’ll get to see you again, Your Honor,” Mohanty, the prosecutor, said.
After Lamberth declared the mistrial, the prosecutors and defense attorneys went to talk with the jurors about what happened.
All 12 jurors from the April trial declined to speak to CNN as they exited. But those in touch with them reported they appeared to be genuinely unable to reach a conclusion, even after having sketched out extensive notes in the jury room on white boards. They had appeared to gel as a group, with some bringing tulips and cupcakes to court on the final day.
“I was encouraged by how seriously they took their job,” Guillaume said as he was leaving the courthouse.
But would he want to try this case again, I asked. “It’s my job. I gotta try this case,” he said, clearly frustrated and shaking his head.
The case against the two alleged MS-13 leaders is set to be retried again, for a third time, beginning in mid-September.