The Diplomat in Spain

Pablo Ibar./ Photo: Asociación Pablo Ibar

The Diplomat. 14/08/2018

The new trial against Pablo Ibar, the Spaniard sentenced to death in Florida (United States), was postponed until February 6 next year, according to judge Dennis Baily of the Broward County Court (Miami) after a request from the prosecution in this sense.

On February 4, 2016, the Supreme Court of Florida annulled the death penalty passed in 2000 against Pablo Ibar and ordered the trial to be repeated on the grounds that he had had an ineffective defense and had been condemned with «scanty and weak» evidence.

As reported by the Association Against the Death Penalty Pablo Ibar, in principle it was planned that the new trial began on March 5, but the defense was forced to request a postponement in February after Alan Ross, probably the most important member of Ibar’s defense team, was diagnosed with an incurable disease that caused his death on April 27. This circumstance forced to postpone the trial so that the new lawyer, Kevin Kulik, could become familiar with the case.

The previous judge of the case, Lisa Porter, set the new date for August 22, but after leaving office on June 30, his replacement, Judge Dennis Bailey, finally opted to move forward in a week, until this 15 of August.

The defense had tried to reject, unsuccessfully, the new judge with the argument that he had been part of the same prosecutor’s office as Chuck Morton, the prosecutor who in the previous trial got a jury to find Ibar guilty, which led to the death sentence.

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The defense tried to challenge the judge because it belonged to the same prosecutor who got the first conviction

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The Association Against the Death Penalty Pablo Ibar, who estimates that the trial «probably ends in November or December 2018», has warned that «will be in permanent contact with the defense of Ibar and provide information and periodic assessments during the trial».

The Association has also assumed the case of another Spaniard sentenced to death, Artur Segarra, sentenced in April 2017 in Thailand for the premeditated murder of Spanish businessman David Bernat, perpetrated in 2016.

In the middle of this month of July, a court of appeal of Bangkok decided to maintain the sentence to find «without foundation» the appeal presented against the sentence. Segarra has announced that it will present a final appeal to the Supreme Court, the highest court of Thailand.