Inmates Found Innocent in Death Penalty Case Moved to Different Prison

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By Associated Press

Published: 08/06/2003

Two men found innocent in a death penalty case were transferred from federal custody August 1 to another prison, where they will serve sentences for previous convictions, officials said.
A jury on Thursday acquitted Joel Rivera Alejandro, 25, and Hector Acosta Martinez, 32, of first-degree murder in the 1998 kidnapping and killing of a grocer in this U.S. Caribbean territory.
With federal prosecutors seeking the death penalty, the trial caused strong opposition in Puerto Rico which outlawed capital punishment in 1929.
On Friday, the two men were moved to a territorial prison in the San Juan suburb of Bayamon. Rivera Alejandro is serving 48 years for attempted murder, while Acosta Martinez is serving 21 years on three counts of second-degree murder, according to Corrections Dept. spokesman Jose Guillermo Aponte.
It was unclear if those convictions were related to the federal case, Aponte said. 'The department is investigating the background.'
Justice Secretary Anabelle Rodriguez asked federal prosecutors recently for their evidence on the case, saying 'there's been a killing here that cannot go unpunished.'
Many speculated the verdict might have been motivated by opposition to the death penalty among jury members. The defendants had pleaded innocent.
'We will never know why the jury returned this decision,' prosecutor Humberto Garcia said Friday. 'All of us in the U.S. Attorney's office are very disappointed, especially considering the severity of the charges.'
Rivera Alejandro and Acosta Martinez were charged with first-degree murder and extortion. They were accused of kidnapping Jorge Hernandez Diaz the night of Feb. 11, 1998, and demanding a $1 million ransom from his family.
The grocer was killed the next day, after his family alerted police.
The case was the first of 59 recent cases in Puerto Rico in which federal prosecutors have invoked the 1994 Federal Death Penalty Act, which broadened the range of crimes punishable by death. The rest have yet to be tried.

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