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A vigil will be held this Friday in Philadelphia, and in many other corners of the world this week, to remember 19-year-old Jorge Lopez Mercado. Lopez, a Puerto Rican native, was found partially burned, decapitated and with arms and legs dismembered, on the side of the road near his home town Caguas, Puerto Rico on Saturday, November 14th.
The murder is being described as a hate crime by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. On Monday, Juan A. Martinez Matos was charged with first degree murder, three counts of weapons violations and one count of hiding evidence.
If Martinez Matos is charged under the new Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama just last month, it would be the first such case to be tried under this latest addition to the law.
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