The moment of truth for Pablo Ibar

will Not more. The hour of truth has arrived for the spaniard Pablo Ibar, convicted to death in the state of Florida in the year 2000, accused of a triple murder which has always been declared innocent.

This Monday, the jury that will decide whether he is innocent or guilty, is going to be definitely formed. Twelve men and women who will have to decide if Ibar can return home with his wife Tanya and the rest of his family after 24 years behind bars, 16 of them on death row.

this selection has come after two months of legal battle between defence and prosecution discarding profiles. A first sieve of 250 persons has been reduced to 12 jurors and 6 alternates. In the midst, interviews, questions, and bans in which lawyers and prosecutors tried to make the judge had profiles that were more conducive to each of the interests. Those who declared themselves to be opposed to the death penalty were automatically discarded.

The training has definitely left moderately satisfied to Pablo Ibar and their lawyers. They believe that it is a jury that will be able to work and do understand the innocence of Paul. “Still, satisfied we're never going to be because we have a lot of fear, a lot of tension. We see that the judge is being very hard with us and accomodating with the office of the prosecutor. And it scares us,” explains Candido Ibar, father of Paul and brother of the deceased boxer Urtain, of whom Paul was nephew.

The prosecutor, a veteran known for his aggressiveness, he returned from his retirement only to form part of the judgment against Ibar

“For example -continues to Candide - the judge has prohibited during the trial to talk or mention it to Seth Penalver, and that is something that we do not understand”. Seth Penalver was the coacusado with Pablo Ibar in the same case, sentenced also to death and subsequently acquitted after a retrial of his case. The Ibar do not understand now how, a case so clear, and that can serve as an example to demonstrate the innocence of Paul, it may not be used in the trial. “These are things that we don't Betorder understand and that make us who we are afraid, we are not to trust,” says Candido.

The start of the oral hearing shall be witnessed by an official delegation of the Senate of Spain, consisting of the senators of the groups, Socialist, Popular, together we Can-In Developed by Can-In Tide, Esquerra Republicana, PNV and Mixed Group, as well as several deputies.

The situation is of tremendous stress. It is understandable: literally Pablo Ibar is playing the life in this trial. “You are nervous, very nervous, gets angry easily, is afraid...”, explains Candido. “How is it going to be. It is normal. Has suffered and continues to suffer so much.”

there was No trial short. The antecedent nearest to it is, precisely, the trial of Seth Penalver six years ago, when he was acquitted after spending 12 years on death row next to Paul. “That process lasted six months. And is the estimate that I do for this trial. Is going to be long”, predicts Andrew Krakemberger, president of the Association Pablo Ibar against the death penalty. Taking into account that already have advanced two months since you started the selection of the jury, this scenario does not yield a sentence of up to the month of march.

to Open turn the Prosecutor's office. Chuck Morton is the prosecutor who will be the voice of a singer, a veteran already retired have been asked to return the exercise only to be able to deal with this case. Morton was the attorney who won the death sentence for Ibar in the year 2000. It is a tax aggressive with a lot of experience. “I remember that when we held the first trial of Paul, Morton appeared in the room full of boxes, boxes everywhere, saying that all of that was evidence. In the end, most of the things in those boxes cannot be used for anything, but the jury caused him a great impact. Dominates very well this type of things and sure that tomorrow [today, Monday] will repeat something like that,” says Candido.

The difference, this time, will be that Paul has a defense of collateral. A team of lawyers, with a fee of $ 1.3 million road to be raised through grants of the Spanish Government and private donations, will guarantee to Ibar a fair trial. Precisely that was not in your first occasion. At that time, when he was accused in 1994 triple murder, was ex officio a lawyer named Kayo Morgan was not at the height of the circumstances: ill, addicted to various drugs and eventually arrested during the trial for assaulting his wife. Ibar suffered a helplessness that is recognized by the Florida Supreme Court, which has led him to where he is today: at the gates of a new process, this time just, to corroborate what has always advocated. His innocence.