 In 1979 President Jimmy Carter pardoned Lolita Lebrón, Irving Flores, and Rafael Cancel Miranda after they had served 25 years in prison. Andrés Figueroa Cordero was released from prison earlier because of a terminal illness. Governor of Puerto Rico Carlos Romero Barceló publicly opposed the pardons granted by Carter, stating that it would encourage terrorism and undermine public safety. Lebrón received a heroine's welcome by her supporters upon her return to her motherland. Lebrón married Sergio Irizarry Rivera and continued to participate in pro-independence activities. The couple had met while she was in prison, when the Nationalist Party ordered him to monitor her health. Their marriage took place eight years after they had met. They moved into a small house in Loiza. The house possessed few distinctive traits, mostly composed of religious iconography and a large flag of Puerto Rico in the living room. On September 4, 2005, the couple was transported to a hospital, after a fire affected part of their house, causing $ 14,000 in material losses. On May 22, 2000, she erroneously filed charges of verbal assault against Nívea Hernández, the mother of then-Puerto Rico Senator Kenneth McClintock who subsequently served as Minority Leader, and later President, of the Senate of Puerto Rico and now serves as Secretary of State, after a discussion ensued between her and an unidentified woman at a pharmacy in San Juan. The case was reported after an employee of the establishment identified the instigator as Hernández, who was recuperating from surgery at the moment and died two months later.
