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At the U.S. District Court of Puerto Rico.

Two (2)Acquitted In Puerto Rico - Death Penalty Case:

In San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday July 31, 2003, a federal jury within the US District Court of Puerto Rico, acquitted two men of kidnapping and murdering a grocer. In fact this the first death penalty case to reach Puerto Rico for over 75 years.

The jury found Hector Acosta Martinez and Joel Rivera Alejandro innocent in the killing and kidnapping of grocer Jorge Hernandez Diaz, who was murdered and dismembered in 1998. This proved that Puerto Rico doesn't want the death penalty, and the jury demonstrated so.

Prosecutors,asked for the death penalty. The capital punishment was outlawed in Puerto Rico since the year 1929. Seems that the jury's ruling was motivated by the island's anti-death penalty stance, among other things.

The members of the jury had qualms with the death penalty,reason why it is believed they were influenced by their personal beliefs in reaching the verdict.

The accused were charged with first-degree murder and extortion; also accused of kidnapping and demanding a $1 million ransom from his family.

Prosecutors say the accused killed him, hacked off his body parts and dumped them on a roadside.

This case iss the first of 59 cases in Puerto Rico in which federal prosecutors have invoked the 1994 Federal Death Penalty Act.

The prosecution's star witness, Jose Perez Mojica, who acknowledged being addicted to cocaine and heroin at the time of the killing, testified the two men paid him to serve as a lookout where Hernandez was killed and that he saw plastic bags filled with body parts but did not see the killing.

Also, on May 2005 the jury decided life sentence for 2 convicts who murdered a security guard viciously who beg for his life, instead of death punishment.

And. . .on October 27, 2006, the Jury Refused again to Impose Death Penalty in the District of Puerto Rico, this time in the case of Carlos Ayala-López, found guilty of murdering a federal security guard. The defense was represented by Bill Matthewman (of Florida) and PRACDL member Juan A. Pedrosa.  Both did great!

The Government has not once been able to convince a Puerto Rico jury to vote for death. Capital punishment is prohibited under the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.  It is believed that the Department of Justice should refrain their effort to seek capital punishment anymore in Puerto Rico.

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Our Computer-Internet Room	Ralph Stevens in action	Hon. Chief Justice of Puerto Rico Federico Hernandez-Denton after few drinks. What a judge!
George Hendricks, Carla Shapiro and Dimitri Gibson reviewing Online jurisprudence of Puerto Rico.	Lorean Palermo and Ralph Stevens going to Court.	Puerto Rico Country side Johanna Silver smiling Jorge A.Farinacci-Garcia reinstatement-practicing law while disbarred in Puerto Rico. She noticed about "Tati" Fernos, his wife, protected by Supreme Court's majority of the Popular Democratic Party.
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