Ashley Marie Torres is “very happy” after receiving a pardon from the governor

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 to her today by Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced, the lawyer said. founder of the Innocence Project of Interamericana University, Julio Fontanet.

“She is very happy, she is very aware of the challenges that await her once she comes out of prison,” said Fontanet, dean of the Inter Law School.

Torres Feliciano is in prison for 11 years, convicted as co-author of her brother’s 2009 murder. 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 after the president’s announcement. Two of them were able to speak to the young 28-year-old mother, who had learned that she was being pardoned because the news spread among the inmates, she said.

Vázquez Garced today announced that he has granted 31 executive pardons, including a conditional pardon for Torres Feliciano. As part of the conditions, Torres Feliciano must spend a year under house arrest under electronic supervision. Then you must stay in your home from 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM, and you won’t be able to commit any crime or use controlled substances, among other things, until you can get a full pardon that would clear your criminal record.

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

“She has to make that transformation from prison life to normal life … That’s expected for a young woman who has been in prison since she was 16 years old,” said Fontanet.

The pardon date makes it difficult to complete next week’s bureaucratic procedures, the lawyer explained.

“I think if today wasn’t December 31, everything could have happened today, but today is 31, tomorrow is 1 (January) and then it’s 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 peak on Monday, ”he said.

Due to the restrictions imposed by the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation on visits to prisons to avoid contamination with COVID-19, Torres Feliciano is unlikely to receive his family members in prison. The meeting would be when he leaves, possibly on Monday, Fontanet said.

“The important thing here is for that young woman to come out,” he said.

The first executive pardoned Torres Feliciano after a meeting with Fontanet in La Fortaleza last week. The executive branch’s petition was filed over a year ago. When she was Minister of Justice in 2018, Vázquez Garced was in charge of the announcement that a retrial against Torres Feliciano would not be approved, after Proyecto Inocencia indicated that exculpatory evidence had been suppressed in the initial trial.