Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced granted 31 executive inclemencies, including 19 total pardons from people who are no longer convicted. Most of these are people who have already served their sentence, so that they can apply to have the record clean. In other cases they are people who have spent some time in the free community fulfilling all the conditions imposed by the Board of Freedom Under the Word satisfactorily.
Although an ex-convict can typically clear his or her record after five years of serving his or her sentence, in many of these cases people have shown a desire to excel by completing university degrees or being reintegrated into the world of work. . This speeds up this process.
The first executive also granted a minimum of three commutations so that these people could be evaluated by the Board of Freedom Under the Word, and granted nine conditional pardons.
“These actions were evaluated carefully, responsibly and in compliance with our constitutional faculty, and with the benefit of having the optics from the different positions I have held in the Puerto Rican justice system. I firmly believe in the law and order and that every action has consequences, but I also know that many people have the opportunity and the stubbornness to rehabilitate and overcome themselves, and this is the opportunity I give them today.After several days evaluating carefully all the requests, and to hold meetings with my team and the president of the Board of Freedom Baix Paraula, I have decided that these cases are meritorious for an opportunity to demonstrate their rehabilitation, “said the first executive .
Among the inclement weather granted, that of Ashley M. Torres Feliciano in the conditional pardon modality stands out. Torres Feliciano had been sentenced to 111 years in prison.
“After an in-depth analysis of the circumstances of his case, he granted Ashley M. Torres Feliciano a conditional pardon for a period of ten years from the date of signature of this pardon,” the document states, adding that he will have to remain in his residence under house arrest for a year electronically monitored, so that he can adjust to life outside prison, and then he must comply with being in his residence from 9:00 pm to 6:00 a.m., as well as not committing a crime or using controlled substances, among other conditions. Once the conditions were met he could clear his record.
Likewise, Sharelys López Pérez, a nurse accused of sexually abusing two adolescents in her care in a residential institution of the Administration of Mental Health Services and Against Addiction (Assmca), who was sentenced on July 30, 2013 to serve 15 years in prison, the first executive granted him a conditional pardon for a term of five years serving restrictions that include being at his residence from 9:00 pm to 6:00 am among others that, if not served, the pardon would be revoked.
The governor also granted an executive clemency under conditional pardon to Edwin Domínguez Torres, who had been sentenced to eight years and one day in prison. Leniency is for four years with various conditions, such as not communicating, directing or relating, directly or indirectly, or by any means of communication or electronic, with the injured parties or their relatives, and remain under house arrest for a term of two years, among other restrictions. Warning that any violation of the conditions would result in the revocation of the conditional pardon.
In addition to these inclemencies granted, the governor included nine total pardons that were a correction to conditional pardons granted by former governor Alejandro García Padilla and that did not have the necessary language so that once the imposed conditions were met, it was clarified that it would become a total pardon. On this matter, the Parole Board had received a letter from the former president requesting the arrangement so that these people could have it on their net record.