For the lawyer of Pablo Ibar, convicted in the U.S., his goal is acquittal.
The lawyer for the Hispanic-American citizen Pablo Ibarsentenced to life imprisonment in the United States for three murders, assured that his client is “really hopeful” about the new appeal and he hoped that the trial would be retried with the “aim of achieving acquittal.”
U.S. attorney Joe Nascimento made these statements Monday at a press conference in the city of San Sebastian (north), prior to imparting a lecture to students of Criminology and Law. at the University of the Basque Country.
Nascimiento acknowledged that he came away “quite encouraged” from the oral hearing held last February 28 in Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal, in which he asked for the revocation of the life sentence imposed on Pablo Ibar and the holding of a new trialThe previous trial was also plagued by “errors”.
Pablo Ibar, who spent 16 years on death row until 2016 when an appeals court overturned the sentence considering the evidence “too flimsy,” he is confident that now something similar can happen, that his life sentence will be overturned and a new trial will be held in this case, whose docket totals more than 20,000 pages.
In fact, his lawyer recognizes that that “hope” is precisely what sustains Pablo Ibar.who has been imprisoned in the United States since 1994 for three crimes he claims he did not commit.
Ibar, de 50 years old, married and father of two childrens, and nephew of Basque boxer José Manuel Ibar ‘Urtain’, he has been in prison for more than half his life and has been tried four times for the deaths of Casimir Sucharski, a nightclub owner, and models Marie Rogers and Sharon Anderson.
His family is now pinning its hopes on the upcoming appellate court ruling.which publishes its decisions once a week.
Unanimity is not required
“It could happen at any time” or take “a few months.”The “twelve legal motives” were alleged by his lawyer to demonstrate “the errors” that, according to him, took place in the trial for which Ibar avoided the death penalty in exchange for life in prison.
The “insufficient” DNA evidence located on a T-shirt, lack of link to those killed or the “inconsistency of the statement” of a key witness for the prosecution are some of the arguments put forward by Ibar’s defense.
The lawyer assures that in the event that the court admits their motives and the trial is repeated they will have to “deal with the entire State of Florida”, one of the 29 U.S. states that maintains the death penalty and that a few weeks ago lowered the requirement to impose it to the agreement of 8 of the 12 members of the jury, no longer requiring unanimity.
Counsel expressed his fear that he would have to Dealing with “prosecutors desperate to win.” and with “adversaries who do not seek Justice but simply their professional success”, but he made it clear that they “will not stop” and that, in the hypothetical case of not achieving their objective now, they will appeal to the Supreme Court.
