National Boricua Human Rights Network: We write to ask you grant the immediate release Oscar López Rivera from prison. He has served 31 years for his commitment to the independence of Puerto Rico. He was not convicted of harming or killing anyone, yet he is serving a sentence of 70 years. When you compare his sentence to what the media termed “stiff” and "lengthy" sentences of 38 and 65 years given to New Orleans police officers convicted of shooting, harming and killing innocent, unarmed civilians in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there is no doubt that his sentence is disproportionate, and politically punitive. Three U.S. presidents have exercised the constitutional power of pardon to commute the sentences of men and women in U.S. prisons for Puerto Rican independence.
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