By Eric Connolly

In 1983, when Juan Melendez was convicted of murdering a Florida man, he had no idea what to expect as a death row inmate.

He did not know what it would be like to live with the knowledge that he could die in an electric chair. He did not know how to keep his food away from the roaches, or how to keep the rats from climbing on him at night.

He did not know that in exchange for four postage stamps, an inmate would give him a plastic bag that could be made into a noose, and that using it would seem like a desirable way out.

But 17 years, eight months and one day after he arrived on death row in Florida, Melendez walked out of prison in 2002 and he knew the most important thing: He was innocent.

Melendez told his story to a packed house at the Carroll College Campus Center on Monday, Jan. 16, in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Since his exoneration in 2002 he has traveled the country, telling his story and pressing for an end to capital punishment.

“The death penalty is a law made by human beings, and carried out by human beings,” Melendez said at Carroll. “And we all know, we humans, we make mistakes.”

Since 1973, at least 130 people in U.S. prisons have left the confines of death row after evidence revealed they were not guilty of the crimes for which they were convicted, according to the Montana Abolition Coalition, which strives to end the death penalty in the state and consists of faith groups, civil and human rights organizations and individuals. The 130 represent more than one innocent person exonerated for every 10 executed, the coalition said.

“Let me tell you how I got out of there, and I will tell you right from the jump, I was not saved by the system,” Melendez said. “I was saved in spite of the system. I was saved by the grace of God.”

Before what likely would have been his last appeal, an investigator looking through the case records found a tape with a confession by the actual killer.

“My trial defense lawyer, the one who used to pat me on the back, had it one month before trial,” said Melendez, who did not speak English at the time of his trial.

The investigator’s discovery of the withheld tape led to a court-ordered review of evidence. Melendez said the review revealed a transcript of the taped confession, a transcript the prosecution had one month before the trial.

“But he (the prosecutor) had something else, too,” Melendez said. “He had 16 documents that corroborated the taped confession of the real killer. Sixteen documents that he never turned in to the trial defense lawyer at the time of the trial.”

It wasn’t long before Melendez walked out of prison, a free man. The news reporters waiting for him asked what he wanted to do.

“I told them, ‘I want to see the moon, I want to see the stars. I want to walk on grass, on dirt. I want to hold a little baby in my arms and play with it,’” he said. He also remembers telling a female reporter, “‘I want to talk to a beautiful woman!’”

He told the Carroll audience that “these are the things that we take for granted, the simple things in life. So many good things, so many good choices we can make in life.”

“Like the late Martin Luther King, I am still a dreamer,” Melendez said. “I dream that in my lifetime, I can see the death penalty abolished, and this dream cannot come true unless all of you get involved in it.”

He said people need to know the death penalty reflects racism, does not deter crime, is more expensive than sentences of life without parole and is cruel and unnecessary.

According to the Montana Abolition Coalition, black people comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population but 42 percent of the inmates on death row; many of the states with the highest murder rates are among the 34 with execution on the books; and the death penalty can be up to 10 times more expensive than sentences of life in prison without parole.

“But the most important thing people need to know is this,” Melendez said. “As long as this great state of Montana has it, it always will be a risk to execute an innocent one.”

“And we can always release an innocent man from prison. What we can never do is release an innocent man from the grave.”


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 28, No. 1, January 20, 2012.