We love him so much and we are planning his burial - Angel Diaz

"We are just overwhelmed. We love him so much and we are planning his burial," Otero-Barahona said.

Another cousin, Maria Magdalena Ortero, said Nieves had asked his relatives to accept his fate.

"He asked us to remain calm, that we understand that he is tired of being jailed alive for 21 years. He said man can take away his life, but his spirit will belong to God," said Maria Magdalena Otero. "Yes, that we should cry, but that it should not destroy us."

Officials in Puerto Rico, including Gov. Acevedo Vila and Senate President Kenneth D. McClintock, have written letters to Gov. Jeb Bush asking him to stop the execution. Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, abolished capital punishment in 1929.

There are so many problems with Nieves' trial and appeals that the execution should be stopped, Solsirette Otero said.

No one actually witnessed the shooting death of manager Joseph Nagy. Most of the patrons and employees had been confined to a restroom and a dancer hiding under the bar did not see who fired the shoots which killed Nagy, she said.

"Everyone has recanted. Fingerprints were not clear. There were no eyewitnesses and even the shooter says my uncle is an innocent man," Otero said.

The case remained unsolved