Photo: Julio Anderson Luciano and Isaac Ali Dani Pérez Triviño (l-r) who were brutaly murdered in Vigo, Spain on January of 2006.
Stunning news: On January 13th, 2006, Jacobo Piñero stabbed Julio Anderson Luciano and Isaac Ali Dani Pérez Triviño to death 57 times. The victims were a gay couple. He then threw clothing all around the apartment, poured gasoline over everything and set everything on fire. Firemen arrived in time to quickly put out the fire and, within hours, leads led to Piñero's arrest.
When the case finally came to trial last year, Piñero stood up in court and confessed to the murders but a jury accepted a gay panic defense and found him innocent of every single charge against him, including murder and arson. It was the presiding judge who then stepped in to 'correct an error' and found him guilty of setting the fire ("Outrage at aquittal of man who stabbed gay couple 57 times and set their bodies on fire", March 2, 2009).
On April 3rd, 2009, the judged sentenced Piñero to twenty years in prison, the maximum term allowed by the law.
The acquittal on murder charges considering the extreme violence and gruesome details of the attack, drew orldwide outrage with several rallies throughout Spain demanding justice. A few LGBT advocates in New York also gathered outside the Spanish embassy in New York City.
Today Piñero walked out of jail a free man ("Man accused in double homophobic crime, goes free", Público, July 13, 2010).
At issue was an ruling earlier this year by a higher court which actually annulled last year's verdict and ordered a new trial.
Spain's penal laws limit the maximum time that a person can be held in custody without charges to four years in prison. The court ruled that, since Piñero had been held in custody from the day he was arrested in 1996, he could not continue to be held in prison unless he was found guilty of a crime on a later date.
The court ordered Piñero to hand in his passport, recognizing that there was a risk he might try to leave the country, and required that he meet with authorities every single day until the next trial. But they also turned down a request by friends and family of the murdered couple to require that Piñero use an electronic ankle bracelet to pinpoint his whereabouts at all times.
A new trial in the brutal murder has been scheduled for September 16, 2010.