Although no jury has returned a death sen­tence in a fed­er­al case in Puerto Rico in mod­ern times, more cas­es are pend­ing, rais­ing con­cerns among many cit­i­zens. Puerto Rico bars the death penal­ty in its con­sti­tu­tion. However, a U.S. Court of Appeals deci­sion in 2001 held that the fed­er­al death penal­ty can be applied there. This deci­sion over­turned a low­er court that ruled the use of the fed­er­al death penal­ty in the Commonwealth would be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The issue has not been reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. ​“It’s still an open issue for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide,” said death penal­ty coun­sel William Matthewman. Opponents of the death penal­ty point to the fact that American Indian tribes get to choose whether the fed­er­al death penal­ty applies on their land.

The fed­er­al death penal­ty may be sought even over the rec­om­men­da­tions of the local U.S. Attorney in Puerto Rico. U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez not­ed, ​“Sometimes we do not rec­om­mend a case for the death penal­ty and Washington cer­ti­fies it.” According to Esperanza López, the moth­er of recent death penal­ty defen­dant Carlos Ayala López, this was the case with her son. ​“The local U.S. Attorney’s Office was nego­ti­at­ing a plea deal with my son, but then the death penal­ty cer­ti­fi­ca­tion came down from Washington. It was [for­mer U.S. Attorney General] John Ashcroft who decid­ed to make the case against my son a death penal­ty one.” Ayala was even­tu­al­ly con­vict­ed but spared the death penal­ty by the jury.
(San Juan Star, Dec. 3, 2006). See Federal Death Penalty.

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