As two men convicted of capital murder under the federal death penalty statute await their sentencing on April 11, Puerto Rican Governor Anibal Acevedo and the Association of American Jurists, a non-governmental organization acting as a consultant at the United Nations, protested the use of the death penalty in Puerto Rico. Though Puerto Rico’s Constitution prohibits the death penalty and its residents have consistently voiced strong opposition to it, residents who commit a federal capital crime can be sentenced to die. Opposition to this practice is pervasive, crossing political and religious lines.

(El Diario, March 31, 2005). See Federal Death Penalty.