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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The not-guilty verdict sent relatives of the two men jumping for joy.

Héctor Acosta Martínez's and Joel Rivera Alejandro's prayers were answered. The federal jury could not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that they had a hand in kidnapping, killing and dismembering a local businessman n 1998.

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Aside from the horrific details of the crime, the prosecution of a death-penalty case was notorious on an island where capital punishment is expressly banned in its constitution. This was the first death-penalty case to go before a jury in Puerto Rico since the U.S. Congress reinstated capital punishment for federal crimes two decades ago.

"The death penalty doesn't belong in Puerto Rico," Martínez's lawyer, William Matthewman, said shortly after the verdict was read. "It's like pouring oil on one of your beaches."

This was seen as a test case, so now the test will have to wait.

The verdict does not mark the end of the men's personal saga, although it has delayed the legal face-off over the federal government's push to put islanders on death row.

Instead of being released, the men were transferred to another prison until othercharges against them are sorted out.

U.S. Attorney Humberto Acosta referred the matter to Puerto Rico Justice Secretary Anabelle Rodríguez, who was quick to snap it up, saying, "There has been a murder that cannot go unpunished."

"We plan to act in this case to the full extent of the law so that those responsible for the death of businessman Jorge Díaz Hernández answer for their actions," Rodríguez said in a written statement.

To defense lawyers who bashed prosecutors for making this a federal case in order to seek the death penalty, the move to have local authorities seek punishment was ironic. Since the victim was a businessman, federal prosecutors charged the men under the 1974 Hobbs Act, which makes it unlawful to interfere with interstate commerce by extortion or violence.

Because the victim was a convenience-store owner who made most of his money through illegal numbers running, defense lawyers said prosecutors were grasping at straws. Their repeated questions to the judge indicated the jury also seemed to have trouble with the concept.

Observers say the government's unreliable star witness, a former drug addict who changed his story several times, and the lack of forensic evidence tying the pair to the killings made for a weak case. And four men have already pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and murder and are awaiting sentencing, so justice is being done.

"This does not happen very often," Matthewman told El Nuevo Día newspaper. "Usually a federal prosecutor accepts the verdict of a jury because that's how the system works. They're just mad because they lost. They need to learn to get over it."

The constitutional battle is on hold.

The defendants' lawyers had argued that the federal push to seek the death penalty in Puerto Rico not only violates its constitutional ban on capital punishment, but also infringes on the island's autonomy in its commonwealth relationship with the United States.

A federal judge in Puerto Rico agreed, but an appeals court revoked his decision last March, ruling that Puerto Rico was subject to federal law. The U.S. Supreme Court wouldn't rule on the controversy, saying no one had been convicted and sentenced to death yet.

So all sides wait for the next round. Two more death-penalty cases are making their way through the courts. Activists opposed to capital punishment on moral, religious or political grounds are getting their campaigns ready.

But some question whether the legal test will ever come. The verdict fueled some talk that the moral and political implications of handing down the death penalty weighed heavily in thejurors' minds. García refused to read anything into the verdict. "We will never know why the jury returned this decision," he said.

It fueled speculation that the juries on the island may never unanimously send a fellow Puerto Rican to their death.

"They can't just impose things like this on a people, force it down our throats," said an irate listener on a radio talk show that analyzes the news. "We have a constitution that prohibits the death penalty, and you have to respect the wishes of the people."

Iván Román can be reached at 787-729-9071 or iroman@orlandosentinel.com.