In a case that has garnered attention from the Pope and Spain's King Juan Carlos, Joaquin Jose Martinez still faces a first-degree murder charge and life in prison if convicted in the deaths of Doug Lawson and Sherrie McCoy Ward.

Jurors heard opening statements Wednesday in a case that not only sparked an international outcry on the death penalty, but has all the drama of a mystery novel.

Defense attorneys contend Martinez, 29, was blamed for the slayings by a vindictive ex-wife who was infuriated when he shunned her for another woman.

There is no physical evidence linking Martinez to the slayings at Lawson's rural Hillsborough County home.

Prosecutors say Martinez killed the couple when financial troubles led him to collect a debt from Lawson, a former co-worker. Jurors were told that Martinez implicated himself in statements made to his ex-wife and a girlfriend.

Martinez spent nearly three years on death row until the Florida Supreme Court overturned his 1997 conviction and death penalty, citing errors in the original trial.

"Without interfering with the process of law in America, we want to show we are against the death penalty," said Spain's Ambassador Javier Ruperez.

Ruperez and King Juan Carlos conveyed their concerns about Martinez's case to Gov. Jeb Bush during the king's visit to Florida earlier this year, he said.

The ambassador said the Spanish officials did not learn of State Attorney Mark Ober's decision not to seek the death penalty until Tuesday but were pleased with the move.

Ruperez was joined by five of Spain's senators who serve on a committee that monitors Spanish citizens on facing death sentences worldwide.

Two other Spanish citizens - Julio Mora, who has two death sentences, and Pablo Ibar, who has three - are on Florida's death row. A third Spaniard is facing execution in Yemen.

Pedro Agramunt, the senator for Valencia and the head of commission that monitors death penalty issues, said Spanish officials are not weighing in on Martinez's guilt or innocence, only on the death penalty.

"Our mission is finished," Agramunt said. "We don't have any intention to question the American system of justice."

Relatives of the victims, also on hand in the courtroom, declined to comment.

Assistant State Attorney Chris Watson told jurors Lawson and Ward's bodies were found by her sister after Ward didn't show up for work and there was no answer to calls to the secluded home for several days.

Lawson, the son of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office evidence room manager, was a marijuana dealer, prosecutors said. Ward was a university student paying her tuition by working as a stripper.

Detectives are not sure what day the pair died, a key element in whether Martinez could have committed the crime.

Three months after the slaying, detectives began investigating Martinez when his ex-wife, Sloane, told them that she believed he was the killer.

The next day, Martinez was arrested after detectives and an assistant state attorney intercepted a conversation between he and his ex-wife. A tape of that conversation is of such poor quality that Judge J. Rogers Padgett won't allow the jury to hear it.

Another key witness in the case is the woman Martinez dated at the time of the slayings. Initially, she provided an alibi for him but a year later changed her story and told detectives Martinez was at Lawson's home.

Defense attorney Peter Raben told jurors that prosecutors and police have simply accused the wrong man because they were under pressure to solve the crime.

"This is not a self-defense case," he told the panel of 10 men and two women. "This is what they call on TV a 'whodunit?'"

Raben said that Sloane Martinez accused her husband because she was angry her attempts to reconcile their relationship had failed. The idea was allegedly planted in her head by a friend who was once fired from a job for gossiping.

To make the circumstances even stranger, the deputy who initially took Sloane Martinez's statement became her friend and later asked Sloane to be the maid of honor at her wedding.

"It's not going to be easy for you in this case because you are not going to get a lot of reliable, credible information," Raben told the jury.

AP-ES-05-30-01 1637EDT