Juan Roberto Melendez, who spent 17 years, 8 months and one day on Florida’s death row for a crime he did not commit, shared his powerful story with students at NCCU Law School November 3d.  In 1984 Melendez, then an 18 year old migrant worker with limited knowledge of English, was arrested, tried and convicted of armed robbery and murder. His conviction and death sentence were upheld three times on appeal.  Years later, after the taped confession of real perpetrator was found in the files of Melendez’s former defense attorney, Melendez’s conviction was thrown out and on January 3, 2002 he was released from prison, becoming the 99^th death row inmate in the country to be exonerated and released because of innocence since 1973.

The rising tide of exonerations of death-row inmates shines a spotlight on problems with the criminal justice system that lead to wrongful conviction of the innocent. Following the lead of the Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School in New York and Northwestern University Law School in Illinois, students at other law schools including NCCU have joined the fight to bring miscarriages of justice to light and to help the wrongfully convicted win their freedom. 

In Juan Melendez’s case, no physical evidence connected him with the crime. The sole witness against him was a police informant who had cut a deal with the prosecution. Testimony offered on behalf of Melendez served as an alibi and proved that the informant had a grudge against him.  Nevertheless Melendez was convicted.  The opinion of the judge who set aside Melendez’s conviction chastised the prosecutor for withholding crucial evidence which would have called into question the credibility of the witnesses against Melendez. Ultimately, it came to light that the real killer had made statements to no less than sixteen individuals, including friends, police, investigators and attorneys, either directly confessing to the murder or stating that Melendez was not involved. 

 
Since his release from prison, Melendez travels the country speaking to audiences at schools and universities, as well as at conferences and symposiums, about his experience of supreme injustice and advocating for abolition of the death penalty.  He points out that the “death penalty is made and carried out by humans and sometimes humans make mistakes” and that he was not saved by the system but by the grace of God. 

******************

The Innocence Project website: http://www.innocenceproject.org/

Mr. Melendez’s organization, Voice United for Justice: http://www.voicesunited4justice.com/