May 05,2021

Dear Governor Pedro Pierluisi,

My name is Kayla Gerdes and I am writing on behalf of Women Who Never Give Up, Inc. (“WWNG”), to request your support regarding a clemency campaign for Ms. Cristine Cortes Rodriguez. Ms. Cortes was convicted of killing her two-month-old baby, Emily, but evidence strongly suggests that she was a domestic violence survivor who, instead of being protected, was wrongfully criminalized by the justice system of Puerto Rico. I respectfully ask you to commute her harsh, unjust and dehumanizing sentence.

I am a National and International Criminal Justice Reform Activist, a Domestic Violence Advocate, a founding member of The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, a Justice-in-Education Scholar from Columbia University, and Chair for The Women’s Task Force for WWNG, a non-profit organization that confronts a wide range of criminal justice issues. As an advocate for Cristine Cortes Rodriguez, and founder of the Free Cristine Now Campaign, I am writing in strong and substantial support of Cristine Cortes Rodriguez’s petition seeking the commutation of her 99-year prison sentence for a crime she did not commit.

Cristine and Emily endured horrific conditions at the hands of Hector, a man who lured her back after she had left him and moved on with her life. Hector convinced her to give him another chance, but her pregnancy with another man’s child enraged him. Hector and his mother resented Emily and tortured her and Cristine. While pregnant, Cristine was isolated deep in the mountains in Ponce, Puerto Rico and starved, denied medical and maternity care, and monitored on the rare occasion she spoke to her mother. Hector beat Cristine while she was eight months pregnant and threw her to the ground. Cristine begged Hector’s mother to help, but she never did. Cristine was trapped with no resources and nobody to protect her. Hector and his mother were in charge of all of her movements and she relied upon them for her needs.

On April 15 2011, Cristine’s two month old daughter Emily N Pacheco Cortes tragically died. The last person to take care of Emily before she died was Hector. Cristine had asked Hector to put her to bed and when Cristine woke up Hector was standing over the crib. Horrifyingly, baby Emily was dead. The authorities ruled it a crib death. A year later, Cristine was told she had to attend a meeting to discuss the autopsy report, which revealed that Emily’s death was not a crib death. Rather, someone had broken her ribs.While being questioned, Cristine was in complete shock and couldn’t understand how this happened to her baby. Hector, on the other hand, immediately blamed Cristine and based off of that on November 12, 2012, Cristine was arrested and brought to jail in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico where she spent six months before being released on Habeas Corpus. They were forced to release her based on the fact that they had absolutely no evidence against her.

When Cristine was released, she had no where to stay in Puerto Rico, so she relocated to Newark, New Jersey. Cristine moved in with her brother Jesus Breban Rodriguez and was living with him for 2 years and she was going to school and got a job and was doing her best to put this horrible tragedy behind her.Unfortunately, she missed a court date in  Puerto Rico shortly after relocating to New Jersey, because at the time she was unemployed and couldn’t pay her way to get there. Because of this Cristine became a fugitive and a phone call to the police in Newark from her then boyfriend’s ex-wife led police to Cristine over two years later. On August 3,2015 Newark police picked Cristine up and detained her in Essex County Jail until her extradition to Puerto Rico on August 21,2015. When Cristine went before Judge Jose M. Ramirez Legrand on November 6, 2015, he sentenced her to the maximum sentence of 99 years because of the fact that she missed her court date back in July of 2013.

In addition to the support of her family and friends, Cristine also has the support of an entire movement that will not stop fighting for her until justice is served. Thankfully, Cristine’s case has gained the support of Women Who Never Give Up, Inc. (“WWNG”), a New Jersey based non-profit organization that has been helping families get justice in the criminal justice system for over 21 years. When the Founder and President of Women Who Never Give Up (WWNG Up, Inc.), Gale Muhammad, found out about Cristine’s case and learned that Cristine was residing in Newark, NJ, where she was extradited to Puerto Rico and sentenced to 99 years from, she immediately got on board and has been tirelessly fighting for Cristine’s clemency with us. Women Who Never Give Up has been instrumental in advocating on Cristine’s behalf to rally support from Senator Corey Booker, legislators, members of congress and other government officials that work closely and side by side with WWNG Up. In addition, through WWNG Up, Reverend Bolivar Flores, The Vice President of New Jersey Coalition of Latino Pastors and Ministers, Founder of Ministerio El Sol Sale Para Todos, has joined Cristine’s clemency campaign. Last but not least, the founder of the Innocence Project of Puerto Rico, Dr. Julio E. Fontanet Maldonado, who took a personal interest to Cristine’s case after hearing about her case in December of 2020. At that time Dr. Fontanet was all over the media in Puerto Rico advocating for the release of a woman named Ashley Torres who was serving 111 years in the same prison as Cristine. After reaching out to him and telling him Cristine’s story and the advocacy efforts and support she has in the States and reading her file, Julio promised to personally go see Cristine to interview her after Ashley’s campaign  was finished. To even be afforded the chance to have such an extremely influential and high profile figure in Puerto Rico fight for your freedom meant big moves would be made on your behalf. Dr. Fontanet sat down with then at the time Governor Wanda Vasquez Garced in a meeting and advocated on Ashley’s behalf a week later. The Innocence Project’s campaign strategy was  successful in securing Ashley’s freedom and as promised by Dr. Fontanet, after Ashley was released, he personally interviewed Cristine. Through that meeting Dr. Fontanet brought his lawyers on board and The Puerto Rico Innocence Project has partnered up with us and is working to get Cristine clemency by Christmas of 2021. 

It has now been 6 years in total that Cristine has been held in the women’s prison in Bayamon, Puerto Rico for a crime she has been wrongfully convicted of and is completely innocent of. Cristine is a victim of many tragedies. Not only did she suffer at the hand of her abuser, she lost a child. Can we please sit with that for a moment. A woman so broken down and beaten had to bury her baby she had just conceived not even a year prior. Then she is wrongfully convicted of this same child’s murder. Not only was she failed by her partner, but sadly the law failed her and continues to do so everyday she remains in custody for this heinous crime, sentenced to 99 years —- a death sentence if we do not act and do everything possible to make sure she is given back her freedom. Please help Cristine get justice for her and her innocent baby, who lost her life as a result of the abuse her and her mother endured. 

The time has come to act. Cristine has a severe chronic disease, Diabetes Type 2, and the department of corrections is hazardous to Cristine’s health and survival in the midst of a pandemic. We can no longer delay and wait for the system to act. We must act! We are critical thinkers, we are creative, we are abolitionists who envision what the world could be like and we are bold enough to right the wrongs and failures of the system by speaking up and introducing bills that will humanize the dehumanized and then the rest will be history. 

On behalf of all the victims and survivors of domestic violence, I am asking you to show your support, solidarity and commitment to breaking the cycle of violence by validating victim’s voices and vindicating them. Cristine and many other women are a product of an unjust criminal justice system that perpetuate the cycle of domestic violence by criminalizing victims and ignoring their voices and stories. By supporting Cristine, you can change the entire landscape of justice for women all across the world. Let us show the rest of the world how to put theory into practice and send a message to abusers and the enablers of abusers. Let us do this together.

Dr. Martin Luther King’s wife Coretta Scott-King once declared: “[T]he woman power of this nation can be the power which makes us whole and heals the rotten community, now so shattered by war and poverty and racism. I have great faith in the power of women who will dedicate themselves whole-heartedly to the task of remaking our society.” Governor Pierluisi, please join us in our mission to heal this nation and bring justice to a system that has been so unjust to women like Cristine. 

Attached to this petition, you will find over 1700 signatures  from men and women all across the world. When we humanize victims of domestic violence and validate their voices, that is how we show others what it means to defend and protect and stand in solidarity with victims and survivors of domestic violence.

 

Sincerely,

 

/s/ Kayla Gerdes

Free Cristine Now Campaign

The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls

 

 

/s/ Gale Muhammad

Women Who Never Give Up, Inc.

100 Camden Avenue ♦Moorestown, NJ ♦ 08057

WWNG.ORG ♦ 347.726.3222