Ashley Marie Torres is “very happy” to receive the governor’s pardon

Ashley Marie Torres Feliciano has already received the news that she will be released from prison soon and is preparing to comply with the restrictions imposed by the conditional pardon granted today by Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced, said lawyer and founder of the University Innocence Interamericana project, Julio Fontanet.

“She is very happy, very aware of the challenges that await her once she is released from prison,” said Fontanet, dean of the Faculty of Law.

Torres Feliciano is jailed for 11 years, sentenced as a co-perpetrator for the murder of her brother in 2009. She was sentenced to 111 years in prison, while the perpetrator was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Fontanet said four lawyers came to the Bayamón Correctional Complex this afternoon following the president’s announcement. Two of them were able to talk to the 28-year-old mother, who had learned she had been pardoned because the news had spread among detainees, she said.

Vázquez Garced announced today that he has granted 31 executive leniencies, including a conditional pardon for Torres Feliciano. As part of the conditions, Torres Feliciano must spend a year under house arrest under electronic surveillance. Then, you must remain at the residence between 21:00 and 06:00 and you will not be able to commit any crime or use controlled substances, among other restrictions, before you receive a full pardon that will remove your criminal record.

The governor stressed that the year of house arrest will help her adapt to life outside prison.

“He has to make this transformation from prison life to normal life … This is what is expected of a young woman who has been in prison since the age of 16,” Fontanet said.

The date of the leniency makes it difficult to complete the bureaucratic procedures before next week, the lawyer explained.

“I think that if today had not been December 31, everything that could have happened today, but today is 31, tomorrow is 1 (January) and then it is Saturday and Sunday. The bureaucratic process, I know it has already begun, I know it has already begun and we are very grateful. Everything should be able to culminate on Monday, “he said.

Due to the restrictions imposed by the Correctional and Rehabilitation Department on prison visits to avoid COVID-19 infection, Torres Feliciano is unlikely to receive his relatives in prison. The meeting will take place when he leaves, possibly on Monday, Fontanet said.

“The important thing is that the young woman comes out,” he said.

The first executive granted conditional pardon to Torres Feliciano after meeting with Fontanet last week at La Fortaleza. The petition for executive clemency was made more than a year ago. When she was secretary of justice in 2018, Vázquez Garced was tasked with announcing that a new trial against Torres Feliciano would not be authorized, after Proyecto Inocencia indicated that the exculpatory evidence was suppressed during the first trial.