On April 11, a jury in Puerto Rico reject­ed a death sen­tence for a defen­dant con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing an under­cov­er police­man. Instead, Lashaun Casey will be sen­tenced life in prison with­out parole. The defen­dant was eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty because the case was tried under fed­er­al law rather than the law of Puerto Rico, which abol­ished the death penal­ty under the con­sti­tu­tion it enact­ed in 1952. The Commonwealth has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 1927. Anti-death penal­ty pro­tes­tors demon­strat­ed every day dur­ing the tri­al. A recent poll indi­cat­ed that 57% of Puerto Ricans oppose the death penalty.

(“Puerto Rican jury rejects death sen­tence in police killing,” Reuters, April 12, 2013). Governor Garcia Padilla of Puerto Rico has asked the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment not to seek the death penal­ty there because the peo­ple oppose it. Despite numer­ous fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tions, no death sen­tences have been hand­ed down. See DPIC’s Federal Death Penalty and Puerto Rico page.

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