Feb. 27


For 17 years, 8 months and 1 day, Juan Roberto Melendez was in prison as a
convicted felon on death row, but he was innocent. Melendez, a 53-year-old
former farm worker, of Puerto Rico, spoke Monday at 3 p.m. at the UF Levin
College of Law to share his experience in hopes of persuading the more
than 50 students and faculty who attended to oppose the death penalty.

Before introducing Melendez, Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for
Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said, "The death penalty is a bad
public policy. It isnt fair, or accurate."

Melendez was 33 when he was convicted of 1st-degree murder and armed
robbery in 1984.

Melendez said he has walked many uncertain roads in his lifetime but never
imagined he would end up on death row.

Melendez was arrested and sentenced to the death penalty without any
physical evidence linking him to the crime, the murder of Aburndale
cosmetology school owner Delbert Baker, and testimony from questionable
witnesses.

Prosecutor Hardy Pickard hid evidence and lied to the court in order to
protect the real killer, a police informant.

Melendezs trial took four days and consisted of almost an all-white jury.
There was only one black juror, he said.

He could hardly understand the verdict because he was unable to speak any
English, "except curse words," he said. "All I knew was that my heart got
full of hate. I was very scared to die for a crime I did not commit."

Though Melendez said he promised the jury hed be back for a retrial
because he swore he was innocent, he said it seemed unlikely.

Melendez said in prison he considered suicide. But by the mercy of God and
prayer from his "mama" for a miracle, Melendez said God would get him out
of there.

"You're dead, but you're free," he said. "I was planning on doing it too.
I made the rope, hung it from the bunk, but before I was ready to do it, I
said, 'I better think this though again' and went to sleep."

He dreamed of going to the beaches and looking at the mountain from his
home in Puerto Rico. When he woke up, the bunk smelled like the beach, he
said.

"It was a sign of hope that one day I'd be out of there," he said.

After years of losing appeals, Melendez's conviction was thrown out after
a transcript of another mans confession to the crime was discovered in
1999.

Law student Robert Mayes, 24, said he thought Melendez was a dynamic
speaker.

"It is shocking how any attorney has the capacity to do such a thing," he
said, speaking of Pickard. "There should be some repercussion like being
disbarred. You cant give him his life back."

Melendez will speak March 1 from 7 p.m to 9 p.m. in the lounge at the St.
Augustine Catholic Student Center, 1738 W University Ave.

(source: The Independent Florida Alligator)