Feds Lose Death Penalty Case in Puerto Rico
For the second time since 2003, a Puerto Rico jury has rejected the death penalty in a federal case. The New York Times reports:
A 12-member jury decided that Hernando Medina Villegas, 24, and Lorenzo Catalan Roman, 25, will face life imprisonment for shooting and killing a security guard while robbing an armored truck on March 27, 2002. If the jury had decided for the death penalty, it would have been the first time in nearly 80 years that someone charged in Puerto Rico would have faced execution.
You would think the feds would have learned their lesson in 2003 when Ashcroft intervened in a Puerto Rico case to demand that the death penalty be sought. Not only didn't the jury return a death verdict, it acquitted the two defendants of the underlying crime. As I said then:
How fitting! Ashcroft picks a case in which he thinks the crime is so bad and the defendants so awful that his intervention is warranted. So while the Puerto Rico Consitution does not allow for the death penalty, Ashcroft says tough, the feds will step in and make you have one. The case is tried to a jury the past few weeks, and after three days of deliberations, the jury finds both defendants not guilty. No conviction, no penalty....no death penalty.
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