DALLAS — After the doors to trucker James Matthew Bradley Jr.’s sweltering tractor-trailer were finally thrown open in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in San Antonio, 10 people would be found to have died as a result of their harrowing ride inside.

Now, in the wake of Bradley’s arrest, the question for federal prosecutors looms: Should they seek the death penalty over the egregious case of human smuggling?