Governor Pedro Pierluisi emphasized this afternoon that the federal prosecutor’s office knows his opposition to the death penalty, at a time when the US authorities have cataloged the case of Félix Verdejo, accused of the murder of Keishla Marlen Rodríguez Ortiz, as one in which he could request that punishment.
“It has been my personal position all my life, since I lost my own brother, in opposition to that punishment. I understand that there are ways one can pay back horrific crimes like the one that just happened without taking the life of a human being. The government of Puerto Rico is not the one that will be processing the case before the federal court, that will correspond to the federal prosecutors. But federal prosecutors know my position, and our Constitution also prohibits the death penalty. That is the public policy of this government, it has to be that this extreme punishment is not resorted to” Pierluisi said at a press conference.
In his response, Pierluisi alluded to the death of his brother José Jaime during a ‘carjacking’ in 1993, while the current governor was serving as Secretary of Justice.
The Secretary of Justice, Domingo Emanuelli, also maintained that, in his personal capacity, he opposes the death penalty. However, he acknowledged that the Puerto Rican government has not been consulted about this possibility.
“That is already one thing that will be the lawyers of the (accused) party who are going to take care of it. If the moment came that we had to appear as a government, it would be something else, but at the moment that has not come, “said Emanuelli in an aside with the press, after a conference in which the heads of various security agencies in the country participated. .
Last night, after the boxer’s arrest, the federal prosecutor for the District of Puerto Rico, Stephen Muldrow, issued the document that certifies that the charges filed against Verdejo qualify so that, if found guilty, the maximum penalty is requested.
In Puerto Rico, territorial laws have prohibited the death penalty since 1929 and the 1952 Constitution also expressly prohibits it, but there is no legal impediment for federal authorities to request it.
