PENA MORTE: USA TENTANO DI ESPORTARLA ANCHE A PORTORICO DUE KILLER RISCHIANO PENA CAPITALE, ABOLITA SU ISOLA DA 1928

NEW YORK, - La pena di morte sta diventando un possibile prodotto da esportazione per gli Stati Uniti. Mentre i militari preparano il braccio della morte per i presunti terroristi detenuti nella base americana di Guantanamo Bay, a Cuba, la giustizia federale degli Usa sta cercando di imporre la pena capitale anche nell'isola caraibica di Portorico, dove l'ultima esecuzione avvenne nel 1927 per iniziativa del governo militare statunitense dell'epoca.

Portorico e' un territorio degli Usa e lo status speciale ha portato molti privilegi ai quattro milioni di abitanti -tra cui la cittadinanza americana e facilitazioni per il lavoro negli Usa-, ma ha anche provocato svariate tensioni con Washington.

Adesso un processo in corso a San Juan rischia di creare nuovi attriti. I procuratori federali degli Usa che rappresentano l'accusa nel procedimento hanno annunciato di voler chiedere la pena di morte per due killer che nel 1998 rapirono un commerciante per ottenere un riscatto e poi lo uccisero, facendone a pezzi il cadavere.

L'isola caraibica ha abolito la pena di morte nel 1928 ed ha inserito il divieto delle esecuzioni anche nella Costituzione.

Ma la giustizia federale degli Usa e' ritenuta in grado di scavalcare quella locale. Una tesi avvalorata anche dalla Corte suprema di Washington, che ha valutato il caso dei due imputati di San Juan, Hector 'Gordo' Acosta Martinez e Joel Rivera Alejandro, dando ragione ai procuratori federali.

Il processo e' finito in una corte federale perche' il commerciante svolgeva affari tra Portorico e gli Usa, ma la circostanza viene ritenuta dai difensori degli imputati solo un pretesto per cercare di ottenere la pena di morte. Se i due imputati venissero condannati alla pena capitale, la sentenza non verrebbe comunque eseguita a Portorico, ma nel carcere di Terre Haute, in Indiana, dove si trova la camera della morte per i reati federali.

Varie organizzazioni locali, nonche' esponenti politici di Portorico, hanno avviato campagne antiamericane contro la possibilita' della condanna a morte, sollevando per gli Usa lo spettro di nuove proteste popolari come quelle che negli ultimi anni hanno accompagnato le esercitazioni della Marina militare statunitense a Vieques, una localita' utilizzata per diverso tempo dal Pentagono come poligono di tiro.

PUERTO RICO: Puerto Rico Death Penalty Case Draws Fire

By all accounts, the crime was horrific. Kidnappers demanding a $1 million ransom killed and dismembered a suburban grocer in 1998 after his family alerted police.

Now, federal prosecutors in this U.S. territory are seeking the death penalty for the accused killers, a strategy that is stoking debate about the Caribbean island's relationship with the United States. That debate already has reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Most people here contend that seeking the death penalty in the trial starting Monday infringes on Puerto Ricans' right to self-government and violates their constitutional ban on capital punishment. Puerto Rico carried out its last execution in 1927.

"It's not right for the U.S. to impose a law that Puerto Ricans had no hand in crafting," said territorial Sen. Fernando Martin, a member of the Independence Party.

The island's 4 million people are American citizens, but have no vote in Congress.

The Puerto Rico Bar Association, two anti-death penalty groups and defense attorneys also argued that the death penalty could not be sought because the island's constitution banned it. Their argument ultimately was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the island is subject to federal law.

"We do not believe in capital punishment and we feel that what has happened is an affront to our relationship (with the United States)," said Arturo Luis Davila-Toro, president of the Puerto Rico Bar Association.

Gov. Sila Calderon, who has called capital punishment immoral, said it would be inappropriate for her to intervene. However, her mentor, former Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon, said the case exemplifies why his political party seeks more self-governing powers in the commonwealth's current arrangement with Washington.

Hector "Gordo" Acosta Martinez and Joel Rivera Alejandro are accused of kidnapping Jorge Hernandez Diaz during the night of Feb. 11, 1998, as he left his store in the San Juan suburb of Rio Piedras. The grocer's kidnappers warned he would be killed and "cut to pieces" if his family notified authorities or refused to pay the ransom.

When they learned police were investigating, the kidnappers shot the grocer, hacked off his head and limbs, and dumped the body parts along a road.

The defendants are charged with first-degree murder and extortion.

This is the 1st of 59 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.

Puerto Rico abolished capital punishment in 1929, two years after farmworker Pascual Ramos was executed for beheading his boss with a machete. The U.S. military government had executed a total of 23 people -- mostly poor or illiterate, and black -- since American troops seized the island in 1898 during the Spanish-American War.

Chief U.S. District Judge Hector Laffitte has imposed a gag order on prosecutors and defense attorneys involved in the case.

But Rivera Alejandro's lawyer, Rafael Castro Lang, has argued that the case should be taken out of federal court, saying it is there only because prosecutors contend the grocer was involved in interstate commerce.

The U.S. Supreme Court became involved after Puerto Rican Judge Salvador Casellas in 2000 ruled in favor of an argument by the suspects' defense attorneys, the bar association and anti-death penalty groups.

The judge agreed that applying the death penalty would violate Puerto Rico's constitution and the federal statute concerning its status as a self-governing entity.

However, that decision was overturned a year later by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which ruled that Puerto Rico is subject to federal law. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld that decision.

If Acosta Martinez and Rivera Alejandro are convicted and sentenced to death, they will not be executed in Puerto Rico, prosecutors have said. Rather, they will die by lethal injection at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind.

Death penalty case stirs Puerto Rico

A murder trial in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico is prompting protests over the extent of United States federal influence on the American territory.

US prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case, although capital punishment is banned by the island's constitution.

The trial involves a gruesome murder. The two defendants are accused of kidnapping a grocer as he left his store in the island's capital, San Juan, one night in 1998.

They demanded $1m ransom, but when they found the police were investigating the case they are alleged to have shot the man, hacked his body to bits and left the pieces strewn along a roadside.

What has alarmed Puerto Ricans is not just the details of the case itself, but the fact that it has prompted an attempt by the US Government to impose the death penalty on their island.

Culture clash

Puerto Rico - a self-governing commonwealth of the US - banned capital punishment in 1929.

But American prosecutors have successfully argued that this case is serious enough to enable federal law to be applied.

The decision appears to be opposed by the majority of Puerto Ricans.

Religious and community organisations have vowed to fight it to the very end, describing capital punishment as an affront to their culture.

But US prosecutors seem unmoved, even giving details of where the two men will die if successfully convicted.

They would be transferred to a prison in the US state of Indiana and killed by lethal injection.