MARINE EXONERATED IN BORDER KILLING

Washington A Marine who shot and killed an American teenager along the
Texas-Mexico border will not face criminal civil-rights charges, a federal
grand jury has decided.

The U.S. Justice Department is expected to announce Friday that the
civil-rights probe of the tragedy has cleared Marine Cpl. Clemente Banuelos
of criminal wrongdoing.

Banuelos and three other Marines were in camouflage on an anti-drug patrol
near Redford, Texas, on May 20, 1997, when he shot and killed 18-year-old
Esequiel Hernandez Jr., a Redford high-school sophomore who was herding
goats.

Banuelos has said he fired because Hernandez had fired twice at the patrol
with a rifle and was preparing to shoot again.

A state grand jury declined to indict Banuelos or the other Marines.