Ángel Nieves Díaz

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Ángel Nieves Díaz (August 31, 1951 - December 13, 2006) was a Puerto Rican convict that was executed by lethal injection on 2006 in Starke, Florida. Díaz was convicted for the shooting of the manager of a strip bar in 1979.^[1] He always maintained his innocence and said that he wasn't willing to declare himself guilty for a crime that he didn't commit.

1 Biography
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Youth and early crimes

Born near poverty in Puerto Rico, Nieves Díaz was quickly involved in the world of crime and drugs. He even went by the nickname Papo la Muerte (Papo Death). In 1978 he was sentenced to 10-15 years in prison for second-degree murder of a director of Hogares Crea (a drug rehabilitation organization in the island) by stabbing him nineteen times while asleep.

He was imprisoned in the Río Piedras State Penitentiary in Puerto Rico (also known as "Oso Blanco"). While imprisoned he was a member of the Convicts Association. However, a year later, he managed to escape and fled to the Mainland United States. In 1981, he fled the Hartford Correctional Center in Connecticut by holding one guard at knifepoint while another was beaten as he and three other inmates escaped.

According to the Puerto Rican socialist newspaper Claridad, the FBI approached Nieves Díaz and offered to "clean his slate" if he signed a sworn declaration which would implicate Puerto Rican Socialist Party politician and Claridad publisher Carlos Gallisá, whom he had previously met through the prison gang the Ñetas, in activities of the terrorist group Los Macheteros, but that Nieves Díaz denied the petition.

[edit] Crime and conviction

On December 29, 1979, Nieves Díaz and two friends, Angel Toro and another yet-unidentified man, robbed the Velvet Swing Lounge, a strip-club in Florida. During the robbery, Joseph Nagy, the manager, was shot to death. There were no eyewitnesses because most of the employees and patrons were locked in a restroom.

In 1983, Nieves Díaz's girlfriend at the time told the police that he was involved. In 1986, he was tried and convicted for the crime despite alleging that Toro was the one that committed the crime. Finally the jury sentenced him to death by an 8-4 vote. Toro is currently serving life sentence for murder in second degree. Nieves Díaz was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, attempted robbery and possession of a firearm.

The testimony of a fellow inmate of Dade County, Ralph Gajus, was also crucial on Díaz conviction and sentence. In 1984, Gajus testified that Nieves Díaz had confessed in his cell that he had shot Nagy. This despite the fact that Nieves Díaz hardly spoke English and Gajus understood no Spanish. Still, his testimony was taken in consideration.

Recently, one of Nieves Díaz attorneys asked the Supreme Court to consider a sworn declaration of Gajus taken more recently where he confessed he lied in his initial declaration. Gajus was allegedly mad at Nieves Díaz for leaving him out of an escape attempt earlier, and because the police allegedly promised to help him with his case.

In 1989, then-Governor of Florida, Bob Martinez, ordered his execution. However, the state court suspended it when Nieves Díaz presented his appeals.

[edit] Execution

In 2006, Nieves Díaz's last appeal was denied. As the date of the execution came closer, the case was again brought to the public knowledge. In November 28, 2006, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá asked the Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, for clemency in the case. However, the petition was denied.

On December 13, 2006, Nieves Díaz was executed by lethal injection in the Florida State Prison in Starke. A great amount of controversy surrounded the execution because, contrary to the usual practices, Nieves Díaz needed an additional dose of drugs to be executed. The whole process took approximately 37 minutes as opposed to the usual 15 minutes. The family declared the procedure a botched execution.

Initially, Gretl Plessinger, Department of Corrections spokeswoman, said that Díaz didn't feel any pain and that a kidney condition was the cause of the delay. The family then denied that Nieves Díaz suffered any such condition.^[2] A further investigation concluded that there was negligence in the colocation of the needles in Díaz' arms which prevented the drugs from fully reaching his organs.^[3] As a result of this, Jeb Bush postponed all other pending executions until further notice.^[4]