Mr. Sorto was held responsible for the killings committed by another man, killings which he never committed.  The charge of Party Liability violated Mr. Sorto’s rights under the Sixth Amendment and due process of the United States Constitution.

The evidence was legally insufficient to support a charge of criminal murder.  There was never any evidence from any source indicating consent, intent, or agreement to kill those two persons.

It was harmful reversible error for the trial court to refuse a requested jury charge on the lesser included offense of Aggravated Kidnapping as the State proved it up during their case and the jury had to choose between setting Mr. Sorto free and violating their oath to the truth.

The trial court should have suppressed the statements of Mr. Sorto as his rights under the Vienna Convention were violated.  Mr. Sorto’s Fifth Amendment rights were violated under the U.S. Constitution.  Sheriff Officers did not provide Miranda warnings prior to questioning Mr. Sorto – a violation of Mr. Sorto’s constitutional rights.

I have always proclaimed my innocence and continue to do so.  I travelled a long trip from El Salvador to the United States and I arrived here to work hard in construction as a labourer and later in the yards as a chemical handler in the ship channel.  I met a young woman and later we got married and we had three children.  I am a kind and considerate person and I never failed to send money to my Grandmother and family that are in El Salvador.

I sit here on death row because my trial attorneys were ineffective and they didn’t care about my case and my life.  The police had already portrayed me as a killer to the media and I was prejudged and convinced in the eyes of the public before I even went to court!  The trial judge was very biased and treated me with prejudice and denied every legal motion my attorney filed in the court room, denying me a fair trial and violating my constitutional rights.  The trial judge knew that I did not kill those two people because of the police reports – a statement from Mr. Edgar Cubas, a confession he gave to the police, that he had committed those murders.  The justice system and public did not see or hear that evidence, depriving me of a fair trial.